It’s time we all made peace with the fact that comedians will have podcasts. They come with the territory and the comedy landscape has benefited heavily from the COVID-era podcast upheaval. The real complaint should be that EVERYONE has a podcast. And not everyone with Zoom and a screen-recording app should have one. That is our favourite part about Amit Tandon’s Chaar Yaar. Everyone sits in a single room. They’re there to discuss a specific topic. And they’re also funny; the best of the best, even. It’s like being a fly on the wall in a green room. No seriously, episode one and two reminded us why podcasts used to be exciting in the first place; some of the biggest comedians—Rohan Joshi, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Vipul Goyal, Gursimram Khamba, Prashasti Singh and Abijit Ganguly—combine to speak about topics I’d have never heard them speak to each other about otherwise; Bollywood movies and college life! Here are some of our favourite moments from the first two episodes!

VIPUL GOYAL AND ROHAN JOSHI HAVE A CRUSH ON SIDDHARTH MALHOTRA

While discussing how actor Amitabh Bachchan’s massive fan following comes from the fact that he represented middle-class aspiration Vipul Goyal and Rohan Joshi went on a tangent speaking about how the same cannot be said of actors today, who are so very obviously superstars. Goyal brought up Siddharth Malhotra, and the two wax lyrical about how outlandishly good-looking he is to the point where they both question their sexual orientation.

THESE CHAAR YAARS LOVE RAM GOPAL VERMA AND DAVID DHAWAN

That’s right, some way into the episode the four comedians started speaking about who their favourite directors were and two picked Ram Gopal Verma with Tandon citing his versatility and Joshi saying that Verma “cracked the economics of what a good Bollywood movie should be.” The other two picked David Dhawan for his sheer commitment to the comedy genre.

ROHAN JOSHI WOULD FIT IN SEAMLESSLY INTO THE ‘PRETENTIOUS MOVIE REVIEWS’ PANEL

“In the 90’s, I feel like the worst part to be offered was the hero’s sister or the hero’s friend because you existed only to die so that the hero would have something to do in the second half [of the movie].” Sounds like a line from Pretentious Movie Reviews, right? It’s not. It is Rohan Joshi setting up a hilarious retelling of Toofan that will leave you rolling on the floor and missing the days when Biswa and Kanan would rip into cringe moments from old Bollywood movies. Funny thing is, Biswa is right there to witness it and so we wonder if it will have him reminiscing too.

THE WORD “VILLAIN” COMES FROM THE WORD “VILLA”

While in the middle of a discussion about the evolution of villains in Bollywood—Vipul Goyal very poignantly observed that villains were never allowed to have a normal moment, i.e., be seen enjoying a cup of chai—Biswa dropped this fun fact out of the blue. No one else knew, and so the discussion was promptly paused while the fact was verified, and yes, it turns out that the word “villain” comes from the Medieval Latin word “villanus”, which means “inhabitant of a villa”. The comedian continues to explain that at the time rich people were considered evil. Thanks Biswa!

GURSIMRAN KHAMBA WILL LEAVE THE COMEDY SCENE IN TWO YEARS

Within the first five minutes of the second episode, Gursimran Khamba hits us with his comedy retirement plan. “100%, confirmed!” The reason? Khamba plans on pursuing a PhD in cultural studies. It is something he’s always wanted to do. His Masters thesis—written when he was studying in TISS—was on comedy in India pre and post-globalisation. The comedian looks back at those times, lamenting the fact that he dedicated his thesis to Old Monk rum.

AMIT TANDON WAS BOTH A STUDENT AND A PROFESSOR AT THE SAME TIME

In the late 90’s, Amit Tandon had taken a keen interest in e-commerce. This is back when e-commerce was a new concept yet to take over the market the way it has today. Tandon was offered a job by a private university who never checked his cridentials, and decided to take his chance. The comedian would divide his time between studying in his second year at IIT Delhi and being a professor of e-commerce at a reputed private university, the name of which he never disclosed. It’s the first time he’s ever told this story and what a story it is!

PRASHASTI SINGH HAS BEEN TO A POLICE STATION TWICE IN ONE NIGHT

The second episode of Chaar Yaar is all about college life and Prashasti Singh lived it up during her time studying away from home. We won’t get into the specifics of it all, the comedian and her friends were rounded up and taken to the police station during a night of drinking, and once released, she was caught again. This time the policeman asked for her mother’s number. Singh quckly changed a contact—a friend who was also previously caught, but not with her on the second occasion—to “Mummy” and confidently handed the phone over to the policeman. The policeman saw through the trick and promptly ushered Singh to the police station again. Needless to say, it was a long night!