Aansplaining Movie Review : Karthik Kumar doesn’t hold back in his unapologetic and clear-sighted standup special

Aansplaining Synopsis:

Aansplaining Review: At the beginning of Aansplaining, Karthik Kumar asks a couple in the audience what they are looking forward to from his standup special. Their reply is, “Nothing other than laughter.” But, not even halfway into the show, it becomes pretty clear that Karthik’s intention is not just to generate laughs. The standup comedy special delves into the issues of deep-rooted patriarchy and toxic relationships in a clear-sighted manner.

Karthik Kumar conveys his thoughts in an indifferent and carefree manner. He doesn’t refrain from openly speaking his mind on topics ranging from government to fan wars to gender dynamics. A man talking about the mistreatment of women and how they have historically been wronged could have gone miserably awry, irrespective of how well-intentioned they might have been. Basically, it might have been termed 'mansplaining’.

But Karthik doesn’t shy away from addressing this point and even names his standup act as aansplaining—his spin on the term mansplaining. The reason for ‘aan’ being used instead of 'man’ also makes more sense once we watch the special. It is not just because the term sounds good to hear. Even though the act is mostly in English, Tamil punchlines and allusions are cleverly incorporated into the mix.

Even though Aansplaining is a standup comedy act, the portion that hits the most is when Karthik gets serious and self-referential, especially when he opens up about a toxic relationship that he had. Rather than leaving the audience at an arm’s length, he lets them get into his psyche and these moments work beautifully, even more than his jokes. Actually, it works way better than his jokes.

There’s also the constant mention of a girl named Babeena (there’s also a Babeena 2.0 mentioned later). She almost turns into the third-most important character in the special after Karthik and the crowd. These anecdotes from Karthik’s life work wonderfully. What also works wonderfully is Karthik and his crowd work. His quick-witted responses, even when the crowd disagrees with him, are one of the intriguing aspects of the special.

Aansplaining has also been promoted as the first standup comedy special in India to get a theatrical release. At the moment, music concert films are all the rage, and maybe, Aansplaining might prove to be a catalyst for more and more standup comedies turning into films. In a way, watching a standup comedy in a theatre felt like watching one of those films with a single visible character.

The crowd acts as the second character, whom we can only hear but not see. Since films have traditionally been about characters and their dynamics with one another, a standup special provides a better theatrical experience when the interactions between the comedian and the crowd are engaging. This is the case with Aansplaining.

All in all, Aansplaining unapologetically covers pop culture as he touches upon fan wars, Nayanthara’s Annapoorani (a film that also starred Karthik) and introduces the phrase 'Kamal Haasan confidence'. Through the standup special, Karthik also addresses deep-rooted societal issues and gets personal about himself and his experiences. But none of it feels hastened or negligent, even when the standalone jokes fail to induce a reaction.