It is not so often that you go to a stand-up event and come out feeling like you just finished a group therapy session. When you see the name Piravina Ragunathan on a poster, know to brace yourself for an experience nothing short of relatable, relieving, and real. You’re always in for a ride like no other with this multifaceted performer who never fails to deliver irrespective of the form she takes in front of you. Be it as an actor, a comedian or a playwright, her style remains unique and personal to the average Malaysian Tamil woman.
Who dis?
Popularly known as ‘Kaamidi Peace’, Piravina Ragunathan is a pioneering comedian, actor, and writer. Headlining as the protagonist of director Krityishaa Karunagaran’s short film ‘Tomorrow is Spring’ for BMW Shorties, Piravina also won the best actress award in 2024. Some of her other renowned works in theatre include Ostrich Muttai, in which she served as writer and actor, and Wisterias of Tomorrow, an anthology series of plays in which she directed one. Having commenced her standup journey 7 years ago, Piravina has since staged two specials: ‘Am I the Drama’ in 2023 and ‘Kanni Raasi’, her most recent laugh riot, this year.
What dis?
To decode the overall experience, I have to first start with the opening by the comedian and radio personality, Riezman Radzlan, in his own words, the ‘naatan’ (colloquial slang to describe the Malay population among the Indians) who had apparently listened to Minnal FM all week in preparation to open Piravina’s Kanni Raasi. Riezman’s act landed successfully among the audience, but the cherry on top was his groovy moves beside the headliner to Vaisagh’s hit track ‘En Rant Ah Konjam Kelu’ as he passed the floor to Piravina.
From the get-go, with Paal Dabba’s tracks playing as guests were being ushered in, to Piravina closing her act, encouraging the audience never to lose contact with what they love and what keeps them going as a coping mechanism, the show exuded a vibe which I would liken to a regular venting session with a group of friends on an average weekend night indoors with drinks and snacks flowing– and last Saturday evening, Piravina was the focus, the venter and the emotional centre.
Meandering through the discourses surrounding topics like arranged marriages, complex parents, health complications and ‘kaarat’ friends in school, Piravina was able to humour the audience that consisted of a majority of women of varying ages as also present was a paati, rather a ‘progressive paati,’ as Piravina would put it. As a Malaysian Indian woman, experiencing Kanni Raasi was simply more than watching a regular stand-up. In recounting every story and every character within a story with so much precision to detail, Piravina was able to capture the nuances in our everyday lives living in contemporary society–and that is precisely why, at some point during her set, the experience of Kanni Raasi seamlessly transcended from being just another stand-up to something more special and personal as it is not everyday that you get to watch a Malaysian Tamil woman command a comedy stage ranting about none other than ‘all the kashtams and the konjam konjam santhoshams with surviving vaazhkai and wondering if your raasi is just cursed or…custom-built for chaos’.
In an interview with Varnam, when asked about how she carries the weight of representing Malaysian Indian women as a category and the ways one should navigate making mistakes and learning from them, Piravina said that although it was a present block in the early years when she was starting, now, however, she views it differently, “I think it takes immense courage from the get-go just to come on stage and tell their story and whether you bomb or kill, it’s secondary because what matters is your passion towards the craft. People are funny in different ways, and they should pursue what drives them. I want more women to try this avenue and get more stories out there. Keep trying as many times and as far as your passion gets you, and I’m sure one day, you’re gonna kill it.” In drawing a comparison between what the environment was like back when she endeavoured in performing arts and what it is like currently, she noted that although the scale of the scene was much smaller back then for someone coming from Padang Serai, Kedah, over the years, Piravina has witnessed the discourses surrounding this field to have become progressively more receptive and supportive.
Summing up the set, leaving the audience on an optimistic note in claiming that she has survived all that the ‘Kanda Bhagavan Headquarters’ had pulled her through, now she is ready for anything and everything that life throws her way cause it simply cannot get any worse. Quoting from Vaisagh’s ‘En Rant Ah Konjam Kelu’, Piravina reiterated her favourite line, “Self Harm Seivadhellam Sitrinbama Nanba, Survive Senju Katu Subtle Ah Nee Nanba”, she urged the audience to find and get in touch with what gives them joy in life as something to always fall back on when it knocks you a little hard; just as she did when writing Kanni Raasi on the hospital bed upon surviving one of the craziest series of events in her life.
