Varun Grover’s new plot is a thrill-packed dive into a doomsday scenario

For most people the impending end of the world would cause a state of panic helplessness chaos Their whole lives would flash before their eyes as city governments and national institutions triedmdashin vainmdashto control the situation perhaps even minimise peoplersquos legitimate fears In Varun Groverrsquos story Karejwa set in a doomsday scenario with exactly 30 minutes left on the clock the young protagonist Pintoo dreams of only one thing the titular sweet more tender than a gulab jamunKarejwa has travelled a long road since it was first published in Chakmak a childrenrsquos monthly in 2015 Five years later Grover joined hands with Bakarmax a comics and animation studio to turn it into a web comic edited by Sumit Kumar and illustrated by Ankit Kapoor Last week the studio and lyricist launched it as a graphic novelIn the last eight years Grover has not felt the need to revise the plot or the characters who inhabit the story Not because of a creative urge but especially not because of the social and political environment today ldquoUnfortunately our world is getting closer to the scenario depicted in Karejwa In fact itrsquos becoming more plausible with every passing year given peoplersquos prejudices and dogmas and the bits about how different institutions may react to this fatehellip The plot looks more real than it did eight years agordquo Grover tells middayIn many ways Karejwa is emblematic of the lyricistcomicwriterrsquos creative process Karejwarsquos visuals the choice of the dish at its core and its infatuation with certain foods are all seeped in Varanasi where it is set All India Rank Groverrsquos featurelength film about a young boy enrolled in one of Kotarsquos many IIT coaching centres is set in the 1990s So rooted are the plots of the graphic novel and film that they cannot simply be set anywhere else in IndialdquoThis is the main criteria in my mind because it makes the story original I think authenticity is its own aestheticmdashitrsquos an aesthetic I try to chase The other aspects like the emotional elements can be subjective based on the viewerrsquos own experiences but the time and place are easy to determine This is why Kumar and Kapoor visited Varanasi before they began their work to get a real taste and texture of the cityrdquo he explainsFrom his standup bit titled Padmaavat amp the Parrot to his debut short film KISS about the censorious forces in Indiarsquos film certification bodies Grover does not hold back from being wry and observationalmdashit may be the qualities he is best known for apart from his lyricismDid he sharpen this way of looking at the world during his years as a comic He says itrsquos the other way around ldquoI became a standup comedian because of this attitude in life of being detached while also finding a wry or satirical perspective on things I think that is the only way to survivehellip Perhaps the world has always been this way even a century ago But I can say with certainty that the world today is difficult to cope withrdquo he comments ldquoWithout some degree of attachment and humour I think Irsquod fall apart under the weight of anxiety that comes with living in this worldrdquo The school boy Pintoo with his innocent search for a sweet while the world ends is Groverrsquos way of looking for a sense of lightheartedness amid darknessAs he works across formats and mediums the lyricistwriter says that sometimes he knows what will work for a particular idea and sometimes he doesnrsquot Over the years he has developed the practice of journaling and documenting the ideas and leads he gathersmdashacross email chains he maintains with himself and on WhatsApp groups featuring only him ldquoSometimes Irsquoll mention that the idea is for standup or a phrase that can be used in a film song or an idea I like or am deeply fascinated byrdquo he explainsldquoThere was a time when I read about a bird called the bartailed godwit which takes a long nonstop migratory flight across continents When I came across this bird I didnrsquot know what to do with it but when Rajkumarimdashmy partnermdashand I were writing Biksu a Hindi graphic novel there was an instance where we wanted to talk about resilience and focus We revisited the bird in my list of ideasrdquo The page featuring the bartailed godwit would go on to become Grover and Rajkumarirsquos most cherished in the bookAs he looks forward to another tour of his comedy show Nothing Makes Sense in January Grover ends 2023 on a moving note At the recently concluded JashneRekhta festival in Delhi singerwriter Swanand Kirkire broke into the song Shauq from the film Qala only to be drowned out by an eager audience who knew its lyrics in entirety Grover who wrote the song two years ago was left feeling joyful and overwhelmed he knew the song was a popular one but watching the attendees sing in tune shifted something inside himldquoThis happened at Rekhta where attendees come out of a love for Urdu poetry and prose not Swanand and myself And they knew the words of the antara at a time when most songs are 30second Reels and we donrsquot know if the audience listens to songs beyond this mark That was what struck merdquo he concludes