-Brian Mendonca
As a young Muslim woman in India, she brings her lived experience to the show. Her humour is laced with social satire. Her topics are edgy. I feel they are aimed to make you feel so uncomfortable that you laugh with relief.
Racing from Kothrud, Pune after meeting Professor Sinha from my Poona University days, I had just enough time to take in a stand-up comedy show by Urooj Ashfaq in Camp. It was on my way home to Kondwa so it was ok.
The show was to begin at 7 p.m. on a Sunday at Nehru Memorial Hall. It was quite packed with fans who seemed to be college students and young working professionals.
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| Poster for the show. |
After a few warm-up acts by other comedians like Shad, Urooj entered to applause from the audience. She had an instant vibe with them.
Her presence and performance belie her age. (She is 31) Skipping onto the stage in her tennis shoes, she waves to the crowd and accepts the adulation. You wonder what she is going to say. How is this 'girl' going to hold the attention of the audience for 75 minutes?
But she grows on you. Using the audience as her confidante she echoes their unvoiced fears and desires. She is very candid about what Gen Z go through, and what is on their minds. She articulates what their parents prefer to sweep under the carpet.
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| Waiting for the show to start. |
She picks people in the audience and asks them questions to build on the theme she is talking on. She involves the audience in her act. You feel you have known her before. Such is the intimate feel of theatre. You would not believe you have just 'met.'
There is so much content of hers on social media; instagram, facebook, and YouTube. So you get to see a lot of her work. She is sassy and subversive, touching the raw nerve occasionally. You are like, 'Did I just hear that?'
She is so confident on stage. You can see she is enjoying every minute of it. That feel-good feeling is infectious.
She switches effortlessly from English to Hindi for effect. She is not afraid to talk about topics considered taboo, because life is about all these and more. Much of it is drawn from her own life and becoming a woman. Her content makes you pause and rewire your certainties.
I was pleasantly surprised to know that Urooj lives in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, where we are now. She has many videos about her trysts with Uber drivers who she has to return alone with after her shows.
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Poster courtesy Times of India. Video titled, 'Absence Makes the Heart Go Wander' (2026) courtesy Urooj Ashfaq on Instagram and YouTube. Photo courtesy Brian Mendonca. Updated in Khargar, 23/5/26.
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