Masterchef Australia Season 3

BIG FAT SPOILER ALERT: Masterchef Australia Season 3 is about to culminate soon (sob sob). It's finals week already! But they start airing it in India tomorrow, so those of you who are really into MC Aus, like me, and don't want to ruin the suspense please stop reading right now.

I love Masterchef Australia. I guess I can't say it enough. I've done quite a few posts on it already, and I try my best not to miss an episode.

I don't like to cook but there are a number of reasons I love the show. One, I've realized that looking at food on television comforts and de-stresses me. I love the vibrant colours of the dishes being cooked, I can imagine the flavours and the aroma, and that has a very calming effect on me.

Second, MC Aus is probably the best reality show I've watched in terms of its spirit. It's all about constructive feedback, not about criticizing and demotivating people or sensationalism. Of course it has a fair bit of drama but none of it irritates. The judges genuinely try to mentor the contestants - they aren't just sitting on high horses and passing judgement on the efforts of amateur home cooks who are aspiring to become chefs. They want the contestants to learn and realize what they're capable of.

On an aside, my favorite is Gary. Who's yours?

Third, the format is really engaging. It keeps you hooked. The challenges this season are much more difficult than the previous two seasons and that made me realize just how good the contestants this year are. My all-time favourite was Marion from Season 2 - she was so amazingly talented. She was supposed to work on a series of Asian sauces and marinades after Masterchef, and I kept hoping that her line of products would make their way to grocery stores in India that stock imported products. And now that I'm here I see her on TV, I see her sauces and meals on supermarket shelves. The other day I saw Jimmy's products at Coles, with his smiling face - which I know quite a few of my friends are a fan of - on the packaging! It made me so happy to see real-life people who were on a TV show and who I adored doing well for themselves.

Coming back to this year's Masterchef, there has been such a variety in the challenges. There are a few challenges that I really enjoyed and remember off the top of my head.

There was a team relay challenge where the first member of each team had 25 minutes in the kitchen with the recipes for 6 dishes. The recipes were then taken away, and the person had only 60 seconds to bring the next team member up to speed on what had to be cooked, what was already done and still needed to be done, and the next member then had 20 minutes cooking time before he/she had to brief the next member on the processes and hand the kitchen over to them. No prompting allowed, so if you didn't brief the person well enough the first time around, you would have to silently watch them making disastrous mistakes and send the entire team into elimination. Once the challenge was over, the contestants were surprised to learn that the recipes belonged to Nigella, who would be judging them!

There was another episode where the contestants had to make burger, fries and a milkshake. Except the challenge was set by the mind blowing Heston Blumenthal, which meant that the contestants had to prepare their own bun, cheese, tomato ketchup, fries and an incredibly complex burger patty. The other two episodes I really enjoyed took place in NYC. In one of them, each contestant was sent to a different part of NYC - such as Harlem which is predominantly African-American and Bronx which is a tough Italian neighbourhood - to spend a day there and create a dish that was inspired by that neighbourhood. The person who created the worst dish would spend the rest of the week in lock down (inside their NYC hotel) and would emerge only at the end of the week for an elimination challenge. This episode gave me my first favourite of the season - Billy. He was sent to the Bronx, which is supposed to be a hot bed of Italian mafia in the US, and he represented that in the way he plated up his dish - he spattered red sauce very artistically all over his plate to represent blood!

The other NYC episode I really enjoyed was when the judges appeared to the contestants on the electronic displays at Times Square and told them that they would be cooking for a dinner party for chefs. The contestants were broken off into pairs. Each team had to find a clue directing them to a restaurant where the head chef would show them how to cook the recipe, and then cook it themselves. This challenge involved running across NYC and had to be completed in a very short time frame.

This season of MC has had its share of controversies as well. One of the contestants was thrown out of the competition b/c he sneaked in a smartphone into the house while the others had no means of communicating with the outside world and/or looking up recipes. Then there were allegations that the contestants are allowed to plate up their dishes even after their time is up, so the dishes can look good on camera. And then there's this online hate wave going on against one of the contestants, Dani, who has made it to the top 4 but I would have to agree with people who say she doesn't belong there.

Most people don't like her b/c they find her very annoying - she's loud and in-your-face and doesn't have the talent to make up for it. She makes the stupidest of mistakes, is the most inconsistent of all contestants - she is brilliant on some days but such days are few and far between, and mostly she has bad days when she cries to gain sympathy from the judges. Unfortunately, she's the only contestant in MC Aus to have won 2 immunity pins. One of them was won genuinely cooking off against a professional chef while the other was a joke - she beat the winner of 'Celebrity Masterchef'. She used that immunity pin to get to the top 4, and that turned people off her even more b/c other more talented people had to go home.

I can't wait to get my friends' reactions once MC Aus starts in India. It's a good season...you'll enjoy it. And don't forget to tell me who your favourite contestant is. Only, I'll know their fate before you do! :D

Masterchef USA

So did you watch Masterchef US Season 1?

After endless episodes of 'The Bachelor/Bachelorette' (ugh!), better sence prevailed over Star World and they decided to go back to the Masterchef series.

Now, MC America was completely different from MC Australia. It was hosted by chefs and restaurant owners Gordon Ramsay, Graham Elliott and Joe Bastianich (a tough tough cookie to impress). These people know food but they're Gary or George (of MC Australia)!

Gary & George were adorable! They were so friendly, always encouraging the contestants, giving constructive feedback...

The thing about Gordon Ramsay is that he's so jumpy and hyperactive that just watching him on TV can send your blood pressure soaring. And he can get really nasty if he wants to. But I find him hot in a strange, convoluted way. He took his shirt off in one of the episodes to switch into a chef's jacket, and that man has rock solid abs even at 43!!! I also found him to be the most compassionate of all judges - he was really patient and considerate towards Sheetal, a contestant of Indian origin who had grown up in a vegetarian home and used to find it tough to kill animals such as crabs (that she had to cook with) on the show!

Unfortunately, MC America was not a patch on MC Australia. First of all, it ended too soon (two & a half weeks I think). It got over before you could even get into the flow of it. There were no Masterclasses or celebrity chef cook-offs for immunity.

Secondly, the format was such that it didn't give you time or reason to root for a contestant. In MC Australia, everyone I know who watched the series had a favorite whether it was Marion or Adam or Jason. You felt like you knew a little bit of them, you would want them to win the challenges, and you wanted to see their dreams come true. No such feelings for contestants in MC US. No one I know had a favorite.

Third, the quality of contestants too was no patch on the Australian contestants. Those guys (Australians) were way more capable than the MC America contestants. They could whip up cuisines of any country - Mexican, Indian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, French...they knew it all! They could tell one Indian spice from another. The MC US contestants on the other hand could make only American dishes. They could not even make Chinese! There were no spectacular dishes, nothing you would remember at the end of an episode.

Then there was the incessant crying (Tracey who cooked only out of her mom's recipe book and would cry everytime her dish got panned by the judges), Farooq (who would continuously make a victim of himself), and cocky, arrogant Jake and Sharone who thought they were better than everyone else.

The other thing I didn't appreciate was the constant bitching and trying to put others down, among the contestants. This was just not there in MC Australia! The contestants were so friendly towards each other, respected each other, and never bitched about or spoke disparagingly about a fellow contestant even when they were speaking just to the camera.

The only nice thing about MC America was Gordon Ramsay and the fact that it put an end to the horrible 'Bachelor/Bachelorette' series!!

What did you think of MC America?

Maa Exchange

A shitty weekend followed by a super Manic Monday. There are a million things crying out for my attention at work, a zillion proofs of investment I need to gather so I can claim a good part of the money that I have slogged to earn through the year from the taxman's claws (and that would otherwise go into some fatass politician's pocket, not into improving my country's infrastructure) and a gazillion people who're pissing me off with their sheer idiocy. So while I fret and fume, and figure out how to survive the madness, read this post on a new reality show that I wrote last week.

What...don't you know we love talking crap here?

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Reality shows on singing and dancing. Shows where people answer questions to become millionnaires. Shows where a bunch of 'has-beens' and starlets who are complete strangers to each other are thrown into a house together for 90 days. Shows where celebrities are left to camp in scary jungles. Shows where celebrities participate in death-defying stunts to ostensibly conquer their fears. Shows on cooking skills of wannabe "masterchefs". Shows where a bunch of women squabble, bitch, plot, plan and disgrace themselves in public to win the affection of the sole guy. Shows where a celebrity couple without kids is made to care for someone else's child for a month. Shows where people are willing to reveal their deepest, darkest secrets on television even though it may ruin their lives forever. Shows where people are more than willing to lie down on the couch and let the shrink regress them to their past lives. Just when you thought Indian television had exhausted all possible reality show formats comes another reality show. Of course, most of these formats are borrowed from the West but there has to be some saturation point, innit?

The new reality show on the block is 'Maa Exchange' - the Indian version of 'Wipe Swap'. The original format would apparently have been too risque for the Indian audience given our concept of "family bonding" through television.

In this new reality show they take women from two disparate backgrounds and put them in each other's homes. These women have to run each other's houses for a week. The focus is on motherly and home-maker duties. For instance, a cleanliness freak woman will be put in the home of someone who thinks hygiene kills.

Week 1 saw Pooja Bedi "who runs her house very efficiently with the help of 3 maids" (their words, not mine) swap places with a woman who feeds her husband chapatis straight off the griddle, serves him hot tea whenever he wants and generally waits on him 24x7. I don't know if the show is stage managed but this woman was really bizarre - she believes dining tables belong at hotels, not at homes. That a house that's clean looks like a hotel. That it's OK to have breakfast at 3pm, lunch at 7pm and dinner at 3am. That kids who express their opinions infront of their parents/elders have had a bad upbringing. That people who thanks their drivers or house helps are being fake.

Next week will see a woman who's a cleanliness freak go into a home where the toilets have never seen a toilet cleaner.

It's a scary show, this one. And something I wouldn't do for even a lot of money (I don't know what my breaking point would be though. I'd like to say there won't be one but...it's money, honey). Rationally though I can't imagine being part of such a thing. It's not about stepping out of my comfort zone - just the thought of going to live in some stranger's house for a week and letting her live in mine and manage my house is kind of revolting to me. Kind of.

What about you? Can you see yourself participating in such a show?

All About Bollywood

Disclaimer: If you're not into Bollywood you're advised to skip this post. This one's a complete timepass post. Don't say I didn't warn you!

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Bollywood gives us so many reasons to laugh. First there was Rishi Kapoor taking up the cudgels on behalf of his son because some girls that Kapoor Jr. messed around with hung him to dry. In public. On national TV. The son has maintained his silence so far, but daddy dearest fighting with all & sundry on behalf of him makes it look like the grown up son can't fight his own battles.

Then I came across this quote from Kajol: "AIDS is just a little more worrisome than a common cold and it's curable, so just go out there and get it done."

Don't believe she said that? Go here.

I've always found Kajol to be dumb. By her own admission, she's a romance novel junkie. Anyone who thrives on such trash well into their 40s has got to be surviving on a limited number of brain cells. She may be a good actress - I think she's over-hyped - but intelligence isn't one of her assets.

On the other hand Shilpa Shetty's PR Manager (don't ask me how she came into the picture) said this when reacting to Kajol's statement: "Everything is curable with love and 'real' happiness. Cancer, AIDS or common cold does not stand a chance to affect anyone if the person refuses to be affected. Rather than getting immune to deficiency syndromes, the human race needs to attempt to get immune to Dis-Ease. After all, what we dread as "Disease" is actually 'Dis-Ease'. Ease yourself with magnanimous doses of happiness, cheerfulness, abundance, love, and all 'dis-ease' will cease to exist. Even common cold!Our bodies have a natural ability to heal themselves. I guess, abounding love and happiness is Shilpa's mantra too. It's always worked for her; and worked wonders. This year, it's attracted the affection of nations all over the world and come back to her manifold."

We'll move on when you stop laughing. But not without saying this - what's worked wonders on Shilpa Shetty isn't the "abounding love and happiness" in her life. It's her husband's bank balance. Such a whole load of $$$$$ in the bank that can buy us a massive rock, honeymoon in the Caribbean, a mansion in London, a cricket team, and a flat in the tallest building in the world - all within a year of marriage - will work wonders on us too.

Then there's Priyanka Chopra. I thought that woman had something up there but seems like there's no exception to the in-Bollywood-must-be-dumb rule. After returning to Delhi from Srinagar where she was shooting for Vishal Bhardwaj’s 'Saat Khoon Maaf' she said that she was very happy to be back to ‘civilization’. She's still trying to explain that one.

While we're still on 'Saat Khoon Maaf', have you seen the promos? They're scary! Priyanka Chopra almost freaked me out. I'm really really looking forward to the movie.

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One celebrity who's pouting incessantly at the cameras, irrespective of how idiotic it makes her look, is Kareena Kapoor. Don't believe me? Check this out...

Truth be told, it's very tough to get the pout right. One needs to suck in one's cheeks just the right amount to highlight the cheekbones and accentuate the mouth, but when done excessively it can make you look like a moron. A la Miss Kapoor.

Her obsession with pouting aside, have you seen how obsessed the woman is with herself? She thinks no end of herself, is always running down her contemporaries, and can't stop singing peans of her acting abilities. This is one narcissistic woman. I don't understand how anyone can date someone who's so full of themselves. But let's not get nasty :)

According to psychoanalysis, 'narcissism' is the erotic gratification derived from admiration of one's own physical or mental attributes, being a normal condition at the infantile level of personality development (http://www.dictionary.com/)

Looks like someone forgot to grow up.

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Those of you who think the promotions of 'No One Killed Jessica' with the fake lesbianism angle were highly idiotic, please raise your hand (yes, we're finding everyone & everything idiotic these days....must be a phase).

First there was the mock kiss between Rani Mukerji & Vidya Balan. So passé. Besides, if you don't have the balls to go all out and kiss for real, just leave it alone. Then there were the non-stop interviews on radio & TV talking about how they pacify each other with flowers, chocolates, lingerie etc. after a lover's tiff. And then came the thumb sucking on Karan Johar's chat show. Gross.

The reason I found this entire thing idiotic is that it was completely unrelated to the movie! There's no lesbianism angle in the movie whatsoever. So this promotional strategy came out looking like a cheap way of attracting audiences to the theater. Takes away from the credibility of the movie, don't you think?

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There's a new show about to be aired on Sony TV. It's called 'Maa Exchange'. Basically the Indian version of 'Wife Swap' which has been suitably toned down to make it fit for "family viewing" in India. In line with this tempering down the focus will be on motherly duties rather than wifely ones. I think it will be quite a bizarre and entertaining show, but I cannot imagine participating in it for even a million bucs.

Picture courtesy: www.mumbaimirror.com

Marion, You're Being Missed

Marion Grasby, my favorite person in Masterchef Australia Season 2, was eliminated from the competition earlier this week (well, the elimination really happened in July as that's when the series was being filmed but it's being telecast in India now).



Marion was tipped to win the competition by one & all. Even the contestants were convinced that she would win. She constantly kept winning team & individual challenges and invention tests. Everyone would want her on their team during the team challenges. She was also the only contestant to beat a professional chef in the Celebrity Chef challenge to win immunity, which she used to get herself out of another elimination challenge earlier in the show. That's how good she was!

Marion reacts after beating Chef Frank Camorra of 'Movida' restaurant

And then the unthinkable happened. The most bizarre elimination. I say bizarre because she got eliminated on the back of a Satay sauce. Marion is half Thai & half Australian, has a trained Thai chef for a mother, and has grown up cooking Thai food. So everyone expected her to come up with a brilliant Satay sauce. I guess she was having a bad day.

If what one reads on the net is to be believed, she's on her way to becoming a millionnaire! She's working on her range of Asian products & sauces and is apparently being chased by culinary houses to release her line with them, has landed a series of cookbook publishing deals, is being invited to various food events & product launches, and she's also rumored to be the face of Coles, an Australian supermarket chain!!

That's a lot of money for a girl who gave up a career in journalism to follow her dreams (how I wish more of us had the courage to do that!), and who admits she always wanted to start a food & wine bar along with her partner Tim, but didn't have the means to do so. And you know what, she deserves every cent of that money.

I hope her product range does really well and becomes available in India as well (I'm so buying!), and I also hope she gets to open her restaurant real soon.

Marion was a flavor cook. The dishes she produced had bursts of flavor, to the extent that the judges would complement her by saying "when you eat a dish made by Marion, you know it's by her". That I think is a huge compliment for a chef!

The sad part is that while such an exceptional cook as Marion is out of the competition, ordinary cooks such as Jimmy and Aaron remain. Jimmy can't cook anything except Indian and Aaron's good only with pasta. So it's very surprising that the judges would prefer to retain such average cooks and let go of a brilliant cook as Marion. Masterchef is just not the same without her. I miss watching her at work, I miss her dishes, her enthusiasm, her excitement, and her smile that goes right upto her eyes.

Masterchef India : The Verdict

Masterchef is a one of its kind cookery-based reality show where amateur cooks who have no food industry experience but a passion for cooking, fight for the title of ‘the best cook of the country’, a.k.a. Masterchef. The show has been running super successfully in the U.K. and Australia and has now started airing in India.

The format has been adapted to the Indian market which means that the show is going to have liberal doses of emotions and melodrama. Because, you know, India is a land of excessively emotional people who need melodrama in everything. Drama constitutes a large part of our daily diet. Or so the channel airing the show and the show's producers would like us to believe. So, if you're expecting Masterchef India to be anything like Masterchef Australia, which is currently being aired on Star World, you're in for a major disappointment. As I was :(

For one, India is the only country in the world where Masterchef is hosted by a Bollywood actor. Now, by no means is AK a food connoissuer. He may have worked briefly as a chef in Thailand (that too was decades ago, mind you) but he would not have the kind of culinary expertise that continuing professional chefs would have. The two chefs on the show - Ajay Chopra of Goa Marriott & Kunal Kapoor of Leela Gurgaon - are merely there to save face, so the show can "legally" claim to have stuck to the Masterchef format if ever taken to court by the owners of the format. The chefs are completely sidelined - most of the challenges are thrown and judged by AK. In fact, in one of the episodes AK was even described as "the most talented chef in India". What a joke!

There is a lot of emotion, drama and religion on the show because, you know, this is India. Participants on MC Australia rarely shed tears except when they've been eliminated. The judges don't kiss or hug them either when they make something delicious. Neither do they run to the pantry with contestants.

While the judges of MC Australia criticize each dish specifically mentioning it's flaws/strengths, all AK does is mouth cheesy lines such as 'meri kamiyabi ki buniyad cooking hai' (really now?), 'khana nahi, jeena aur marna ban jayega', 'jung maidan mein ho ya kitchen mein, chahiye himmat', 'aapke husband show dekh rahe honge, aap unse kuch kehna chahengi?' Puke.

Then there is the compulsory dose of religion that must feature in every Indian reality show. A lot of “wahe guru” happened on the first weekend, and one aspirant put a napkin over her head and prayed when she arrived before the jury. Tons of punjabi bonding happens as well. Aunties say things like 'yeh apron meri izzat hai'. More gag.

The participants on MC India 'ooh' and 'aah' every time AK appears, as if he and not cooking is the reason they are there. Thank God AK sticks to the script, rather than obliging fawning star-struck fans.

Finally, given the quality and background of contestants on the show, I seriously doubt we'll be seeing any world/international cuisine being cooked. Unlike in MC Australia where invention tests often revolve around Japanese, Indian, Spanish, American, British, Mexican, Asian or French cuisine, I have a feeling MC India will revolve around Indian cuisine only.

Clearly, the makers of Masterchef India are confused as to which direction they want to steer the show in. Or are they? Read this quote by Anupam Vasudev, executive vice-president, STAR Plus, "MasterChef India is not a cookery show. It is a competitive game show with cookery happening in the background." (Source: http://www.afaqs.com/)

That says it all about MC India. It kind of seals the fate of the show, at least as far as I am concerned.

As far as I know, Masterchef Australia never claims to be anything but a cookery show, and it definitely doesn't attempt to put cooking in the background. Cooking and chefs are the mainstay as well as the backbone of the show. Kind of goes to prove how Indian channel heads misuse the right to "adapt" a show to the Indian context.

Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy...Na Ja Na Ja Na Ja

I just had to have some fun with the title. But more on that in a little bit :)

I'm back to base after an almost two week vacation in which I went to the hills, saw wild elephants, stayed in British era cottages with a functioning fireplace (please be jealous :), met a dear friend after two & a half years, lusted over the wooden flooring in her house, visited my parents, had yummy food and did the only thing I wish I wouldn't have had to do - participate in the Durga Puja at home. But then it's all about respecting your parents' sentiments, isn't it?

The highlight of the trip was that I got the opportunity to do what I thought could only have been done in the world of Jane Austen and Emily Bronte - sitting in front of a burning fireplace with a book and a mug of hot chocolate. BLISSSSS! :)

Talking of Durga Puja, no one celebrates the festival quite the way Calcutta does. I've come to realize that I share a love-hate relationship with Calcutta. The city is dirty and mindblowingly polluted, yet it exudes an old-world charm. At times I love the fact that Calcuttans have held on tightly to their culture be it music, literature, language, cinema or food. At other times, I detest the same thing - they can get so possessive about their culture/language that they look down upon other cultures and languages. They're also not very open to new cuisines and experiences.

I love that life in Calcutta is not as hectic as in Bombay (though I do like the pace and vibe of Bombay), but it's also extremely laidback. There's no initiative to get things done. Two & a half years later, it still bothers me.

Then there are some things I'm grateful for - life is very convenient in this city and more importantly, Calcutta is safe for women.

Anyway, coming back to the title of the post and to Jimmy. Jimmy was a Parsi contestant on Masterchef Australia, my current favorite show on TV. But before I talk about Jimmy, I want to say that I absolutely love the hosts of the show - George Canalis, Gary Mehigan & Matt Preston. George is a cutie pie, Gary is suave and fatherly at the same time, and Matt is hilarious in his sometimes-yellow-sometimes-red pants. And though they are not experts in Indian cuisine, they can jolly well tell the difference between Mangalorean and Chettinad style of cooking! R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

So, yesterday Jimmy got eliminated after a very tough challenge where they had to replicate a celebrity chef's seafood platter within 2 hours. A number of sea animals (is that what they're called?) had to be cooked simultaneously, including something called 'sea urchins' that I saw for the first time and whose roe is ironically a delicacy is Japanese cuisine. None of the fish could be under/over cooked.

To be honest, Jimmy wasn't Masterchef material though he did come quite far in the competition. He was good with Indian food but often stumbled in invention tests that revolved around cuisines of other countries. In fact, though he was the only Indian-born of the lot, he was beaten by an Australian (Jonathan) in the Indian invention test!

Yet, there was something endearing about Jimmy. He was always smiling and though he'd get stressed easily, I never saw him break down, unlike a lot of other contestants.

My assessment of him aside, the fact that he got so far on the show (he was among the last 13 or so) and got in to an elimination challenge only twice must mean that he is a good cook. But then, elimination challenges in MC Australia are totally unpredictable - it's about that one invention test/team challenge day. It's about whether you're having a good day. Some of the best cooks in there have found themselves staring at an elimination challenge multiple times.

It was sad to see Jimmy leave but I thought he got the best advice he could get from the judges of the show. They asked him to focus on this strength - spices. I guess he took the advice to heart as he's now developing his own range of simmering sauces and marinades. I bet they're going to be Indian influenced. Good on you, Jimmy.

Dabangg...and Other Things

The 'Dabangg' frenzy has reached hysterical levels. Some guys at work have already watched the movie twice and they're planning to watch it again this weekend! I’m missing my beloved Gaiety-Galaxy :(

Seriously, the movie is insane. It's too crazy to be reviewed, so I'll just say go watch it if you like or can at least tolerate Salman Khan.

'Dabangg' plays straight to the gallery and makes no bones about it. The movie is ludicrous - Rajnikant style action, dialogues riddled with sexual innuendos & toilet humor, a script straight from the 70s (step-brothers who grow up hating each other but reconcile in the end, sons avenging their mother's death etc.), a rebel hero and a demure heroine, straight lifts from Sherlock Holmes & The Matrix, raunchy item song - it's got it all. And yet, you'll clap and whistle your way throughout. I think the last movie to have generated such hysteria was Rajnikant’s ‘Sivaji’!!

‘Dabangg’ works because of one man alone - Salman Khan. He's THE dude. No one can play a character as quirky as Chulbul 'Robinhood' Pandey like Salman Khan can. He doesn’t try to “act” in this movie - just does the usual shit we’ve come to associate with him, and you have a blast watching him at it. Frankly, I can't see ANY other actor being able to do this role.

I'll say a word for Sonakshi Sinha too - I liked her. She doesn't have much of a role in the movie, and can't say she's a great actress based on what little I saw of her, but she's pretty, has screen presence and holds her own next to Salman Khan. And more importantly, she's a refreshing change from the waif-thin anorexic women we see all around these days. She looks healthy. And I have a feeling that she'll be a better actress as compared to Sonam Kapoor or Deepika Padukone.

I liked the music too - the title song 'Hur Hur Dabangg', 'Tere Mast Mast Do Nain' and 'Munni' are quite catchy. I don't generally like Malaika Arora but she's so raunchy in 'Munni badnaam hui', she's done full justice to the song.

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I’m bored of Khatron Ke Khiladi 3 already. Is it the stunts or Priyanka Chopra as the host? I think it's a bit of both. The stunts this year aren’t as exciting as the previous years. Or it may be that the last two seasons appeared more exciting b/c there were women trying to perform stunts. The men this year are really thanda – they’re quiet, composed and show no emotions or fear.

I also find PC very boring as a host. She speaks in a monotone, shows no excitement or enthusiasm and squirms while watching people perform the stunts! What’s she doing hosting KKK then? And really, I’m more interested in watching an action-oriented show filled with adrenaline rather than Priyanka Chopra's perfectly toned butt & thighs in her micro minis.

Akshay Kumar was so much better.

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I loved what Alyque Padamsee said about Indian culture & sexuality in one of his recent interviews.

“Indian culture is the most open when it comes to sexuality. All the moral policing is a result of the Victorian hangover. It was a time when women would be made to wear long gowns and hemlines above the ankle were thought scandalous. Why just women? Piano legs that were thought to be too curvy were also covered! In our culture, on the other hand, women were at par with men, where demonstration of sexuality was concerned.”

This is SO true! The English have always been infamous for being conservative. Even today, English society is way more conservative as compared to, say, the Americans. Indians on the other hand, were very sexually liberated. I’ve read a couple of books on Indian mythology and ancient Indian civilizations, and they frequently mention women dressing in a way that celebrated their sexuality & enhanced their sex appeal. Prostitution was common and not a big deal. And then there are the famous sculptures of Khajuraho & other similar temples. For a society that was so liberal and tolerant, how did we become so conservative?

Blame the Limeys!

Is Milind Soman Losing his Mo-Jo?

Khatron Ke Khiladi - the Indian version of Fear Factor - is back for its third season with Priyanka Chopra as the host. I like the show - it's adventurous, racy and engaging. The last two seasons were hosted by Akshay Kumar and had women as contestants. This time around, the contestants are men - a mix of television & Bollywood actors, models & sportsmen. And Cyrus Broacha.

Sportsmen would be at an advantage in this show - their endurace levels are high and they're mentally tough. Both qualities are integral to succeed in this show. Still, it came as a big surprise to me when Milind Soman got eliminated in the first week itself! He's a national level swimmer and regularly runs the Mumbai Marathon. I did not expect him to go so soon. The challenge he got eliminated in was water based. He had a disadvantage - he was made to go first - but hey, someone's got to go first! He got eliminated b/c he didn't try hard enough. He gave up too easily. I hope he makes it back on a wild card. I've met the man - during his I-love-facial-hair phase, no less - and he is HOT. Even with all that facial hair. They just don't make them like him anymore. Sigh!

Coming to PC, she looks uncomfortable hosting the show. She's fidgety and her voice lacks modulation. I hope she improves, and I also hope she stops wearing frocks and gets rid of her horrible hair extensions!!

On a different note, I have revived one of my discarded blogs! It's got a new name and a new theme - movies! All my movie reviews go there now onwards. For the time being, I've copied reviews that were originally on this blog. I hope to keep adding to it, and hope I sustain it this time! Fingers crossed.

Food Fiesta

I'm addicted to cookery shows, which is ironic because I dislike cooking. I'm more accepting of the idea now than I was a couple of years ago - at times I even feel like cooking. But that's generally on weekends and I'm usually tired after making one dish. I could never whip up a meal!

So this fascination with cookery shows is strange. Why then do I like to watch them?

Well, I think there's something about food that comforts you and makes you happy. It's a combination of the various colors and textures coming together. The pink of the meat...the red, green, yellow of the peppers...the white of the garlic...the green of the chillies...the red of tomatoes...the translucence of onions. And then all these colors and textures come together in what you can imagine to be a heady concoction of subtle tastes and heavenly aromas. That is when professionals chefs or domestic goddesses are cooking. I am neither. So I just sit & watch.

Here's a list of my favorite cookery shows on TV:

1. Nigella Bites / Nigella Express / Forever Summer With Nigella - The first to be mentioned has got to be Nigella. Like there were two ways about it!

Nigella has three shows on Travel & Living - Nigella Bites where she cooks lunch, dinner, desserts...the whole hog, Nigella Express where she generally makes quick-bites that are even quicker to prepare, and Forever Summer With Nigella where she prepares light dishes that would be ideal for the summer.

Nigella's shows are visually very appealing, and no, I'm not referring to her assets. Enough and more men drool over her assets. As Rahul Khanna's famous tweet goes, "Nigella Lawson's cooking show is mouthwatering. And the food looks delicious too."

I'm referring to her pretty kitchen, the soft lighting, the crockery/utensils she uses, the colorful vegetables splayed on her cooking table, including the gorgeous huge bright yellow lemons, her impeccable make-up....everything. All very aesthetic and very easy on the eye.

The other reason I like her show so much is that she doesn't skimp on the fat or carbs while cooking! She'll use a generous amount of oil, won't separate the fat from the meat, won't skimp on the butter or the bread. And she eats what she prepares. It's very comforting to watch her dig into a huge slice of cheesecake or chocolate pavlova slathered with whipped cream or a bowl of chocolate pudding, in the middle of the night, without feeling guilty about it.

2. Top Chef - Top Chef is an American reality show in which chefs compete against each other in culinary challenges. They are judged by a panel of professional chefs and other accomplished people from the food industry and one contestant gets eliminated every week.

Top Chef is all about gourmet dining. The dishes - even the soups - are almost always exotic because there are professional chefs competing against each other and each chef would like to outdo the other. I envy the judges who get to sample all the dishes, but yes, one needs to be a seafood lover to be a judge on this show because some of the most exotic dishes are seafood based.

3. Masterchef Australia - I'm absolutely completely hooked on to Masterchef Australia! It's an Australian reality show - obviously - but unlike Top Chef, this show has amateurs competing to become Australia's Masterchef.

Some of the challenges include a face-off against some of Australia's biggest celebrity chefs. Masterchef Australia is a cookery show but it's no less gripping than a thriller. These three men are scary, believe me!

You also tend to get more emotionally involved with this show as compared to say, Top Chef, because the contestants are regular people with day jobs but with a passion for food. Many of them even want to give up their present jobs for a career in the food industry, so the show is kind of a means for them to make their dream come true.

4. Rachel Allen : Bake! - I once tried to convince The Knife to start watching Rachel Allen : Bake! She's got the goods, you know...pretty face, soft blond curls, blue (or is it green?) eyes. But he's a Nigella loyalist.

Anyway, Rachel Allen is an Irish baker. Dessert Goddess, rather. If you like baking this show is right up your alley. The focus is on desserts, but she also bakes breads, pizzas and other savouries. Her recipes are usually simple and not very labour-intensive. She even holds classes for people interested in baking, on the show, so you can jot the recipes down as she instructs the class. She also meets other bakers across the UK and gets recipes from them.

5. Tony Bourdain - Enough said.

Which are your favorite cookery shows?

Loyalty Test

People are so warped. And stupid. Take Dimpy Ganguly-Mahajan for example.

Dimpy-Ganguly Who, you ask?

Well, this is the woman who risked getting humiliated to her bone on national prime-time television by appearing on a contest to marry the drug addict, alleged (ex) wife-beater Rahul Mahajan. If that wasn’t proof enough of her warped-ness, here’s more…she subjected her husband, who she married at the expense of earning various colorful epithets from co-contestants, to a loyalty test via ‘Emotional Atyachar’.

For those who don’t know, ‘Emotional Atyachar’ is a “reality” show that subjects one half of a couple to a loyalty test by planting a bait of the opposite sex. If you agree to ride the bait (pun intended, of course), you are finito. In Rahul Mahajan’s case the bait was Nikunj Malik, one of the women who he had short-listed to marry him on his retarded marriage show.

Dimpy, who must be exceptionally intelligent thanks to all the feesh she must have eaten while growing up in Kolkata, came up with a very innovative reason for putting her husband through the test. According to her, she was sick of being asked about Rahul Mahajan’s loyalty towards her by the media. So she decided to put all questions…and rumors of his infidelity…to rest by nominating him for this show. “Unknown to him”, of course. And he was "surprised but very understanding" when he found out that the entire thing was a set-up. Of course.

And of course, we also understand that there was no planning, no collusion between Dimpy & Rahul Mahajan on this. That Rahul Mahajan was not aware that he was participating in a reality show. That this wasn't a way for the couple to make some quick money while Rahul Mahajan grovels at the feet of senior BJP leaders to let him contest the next elections.

The things people do on getting famous! I wonder what Dimpy would've done had Rahul Mahajan taken the bait? Would she have divorced him? Howled & wailed like a true Bhartiya nari who worships her husband? Or pounced on Nikunj Malik live on TV for a full fledged tear-each-other's-clothes-out cat fight?

Now that would've made millions of men happy. Beer, the TV remote and two women getting on with it in front of them...what more do men want?

PS: If what Dimpy claims is true, and Rahul Mahajan really didn't know he was being set up, I must hand it to the girl. She really is intelligent. She's gotten back at her husband for the potential humiliation he put her through on his marriage show, on the same platform. Moral of the story? Eat more fish!

!!!!!

Read this.

Speaks volumes about us as a people. The TRPs of this show - whatever show it is - are undoubtedly pushed up by aunties who're frustrated with cooking, cleaning, multiple child-rearing & and pot-bellied, fat ass, lazy husbands, and by mid-age crisis sticken uncles who don't get any "action" at home and therefore, like to see women getting beaten up, exploited and oppressed (it's their perverted, indirect revenge on womankind).

I'm thanking God for a mom who sticks to movies on television (honestly, I'd much rather she watch cheesy Hindi movies of the 70s/80s than such regressive shows), and a dad whose TV viewing habits revolve around Nat Geo, Discovery & Animal Planet.

A Post on Rahul Mahajan ka Swayamvar!!!!!!!

Oh Dear Lord, I never thought I'd do a post on fuckin' 'Rahul Mahajan ka Swayamwar', or that I'd watch the show in the first place (I never watched 'Rakhi ka Swayamvar') but a girl has her need to watch trash after dealing with crap all day long (you know what I'm talking about, dontcha? ;) So here it goes...

Would you marry a man whose only claim to fame is that he was found unconscious in a bath tub ODed on drug laced with alcohol, was divorced by his wife amidst allegations of physical abuse and who probably does nothing for a living except appear on reality shows?

Would you agree to marry him on a show that is televised across a nation of 1 billion plus people, where a woman will be eliminated everyday as she is not perceived to be "fit" to be his wife, and where three women will go through the entire ritual of marriage, right through to the D-Day, and only one will get selected by His Royal Highness to be his wife, where as the other two will be publicly humiliated and will go home with their self-esteem shredded into pieces?

Actually, I don’t even sympathize with the two women who are rejected on the day of the wedding - anyone who goes on such a show to marry a guy like Rahul Mahajan has to be seriously demented. But really, I want to understand the thought-process of these women, their minds. Why would anyone wish to humiliate themselves publicly, worse still marry someone who has a notorious reputation, who they have never met before, and who they can’t possibly fall in love with in the matter of a couple of weeks which is spent jostling for his attention amidst a bunch of girls? That too a loser like Rahul Mahajan!

Did these women think it would be a launch-pad for their careers? Were they aware that they would get married on the show, unlike Rakhi Sawant whose Swayamvar was a complete hoax, and would have to settle into domesticity? They would definitely not be allowed to model or act in movies. Or was it the prospect of power that lured them, given that Rahul Mahajan harbors political ambitions? Do they know that chances are very high no party will give him a ticket, given his past antics?

Is the fact that most women who came on that show to marry Rahul Mahajan were in the age group of 20-23 years an explanation for why they came on the show in the first place?

Funny we should talk of women’s emancipation on account of the passage of the Women’s Reservation bill, while on the other hand 20 year olds are dying to get married to a drug addict and a probable wife beater. I guess they are emancipated too (they took their own decision, didn’t they?), just in a very warped sort of way.

Because It's Sometimes Fun To Be Mindless

It's been one of those "What the hell am I doing with my life? When will I get to do what I really want to do in life?" kind of day. So to de-stress, I feel like writing about something totally stupid.

Do you watch 'Big Boss'? Don't snigger now...everyone needs a little bit of mindless entertainment in life, particularly after a long, tiring day at work. And especially on days when you've been questioning the very purpose of your existence!!

So basically 'Big Boss' is a show where a bunch of losers, basically TV & film industry have-beens who have no work on hand & who are therefore desperately in need of money, are locked inside a house for 3 months without any access to the outside world. No cell phones, no TV, no newspapers, no nothing. So what do they do to pass time? They bitch about each other (people don't even spare their spose inside that wretched house!) & hit each other. Sounds fun, doesn't it? But more than anything you get amazed at the kind of people in the movie industry. Such losers, man!

This year has a bunch of very funny & varied "characters" (can't use the word 'eclectic' for them, definitely not). There's Vindoo Dara Singh whose claim to fame is that he is Dara Singh's son (therefore no one should misbehave with him!) & who is positively psychotic because he talks to himself all the time. There's Sherlyn Chopra who has undergone at least 20 "body sculpting" surgeries in life, by her own admission, including multiple breast implants. Her boobs are so fake, it's funny! And then there is Kamal Rashid Khan, a.k.a. KRK.

Did I hear "Kamal who?"

Well, he is the actor of the movie 'Deshdrohi' which spewed some bullshit on the North Indian-South Indian divide while Raj Thackerey was ordering the beating up of North Indians in Mumbai. I know the movie was banned in Maharashtra at least but according to Mr KRK, the movie made him so much money that today he lives in a "20,000 sq ft palace, his milk is imported from Holland, water from France & tea from London"!!!

I wonder why then does he wear clothes that look like they've been picked up from Lokhandvala market? You know what I'm talking about, right? Jeans with silver snakes printed on them...fake leather jackets. And I won't be surprised if he really believes he is Johnny Depp because he's always walking around with a pirate-like bandana on his head. He's always going around telling people that he has a lot of money & is a multi-millionnaire. The man is unbelievable. For those who still don't know who I'm talking about, this is the man in question :

Isn't he just the irresistable hot strapping male stud of your dreams? ;-)

The Abyss

I thought reality television had hit the absolute bottom with shows like ‘Splitsvilla’ & ‘Perfect Bride’, both derogatory to women, but it seems to have slithered down further. There is a show on NDTV Imagine titled ‘Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh’, the ‘Woh’ in question being a toddler who does not belong to the pati or the patni..

The concept? A bunch of TV artists who are also real-life couples (newly married without kids/dating) are locked up inside houses – a house per couple – and are given the responsibility of taking care of a toddler who belongs to “common” people, for a month. I think I caught the re-run of the first episode over the weekend and I was so horrified, I couldn’t watch it for more than 15 minutes. It was just so painful to watch the babies wailing after their parents left them with strangers and went away! The babies just wouldn’t stop crying! How terribly cruel!!

What’s your take on this show, if you have watched it that is? Or on the concept if you haven’t? Does anyone else think it is wrong on the behalf of parents to leave their babies, who can’t even crawl let alone speak, with strangers for an entire month? I mean, what kind of parents are they? Are they even responsible enough to be parents in the first place? It's like renting your child out for a month in lieu of money.

Would you?

We make a hue & cry and ask for a ban on a show where adults discuss their personal lives on television, of their own accord. What about the dozens of reality shows being paraded under the disguise of “talent hunts” where parents make their kids compete for money? That is clear exploitation of kids, why doesn’t anyone take notice?

There is a reason why parents/guardians are made custodians of children under 18, by law. It is not so that they can abuse that privilege for monetary gain. Do you think we are reaching a point where there should be a blanket rule for all children under 18, rather than letting parents be the decision-makers for them?

EDITED TO ADD: One of the couples on the show is Rakhi Sawant & Elesh Whatshisface. There are already reports in the media that the two have broken up after shooting for the show got over. Very conveniently, Ms Sawant cited "compatibility issues" as the reason for the break-up. I knew all along that 'Rakhi ka Swayamwar' was a big farce. Rakhi Sawant is a smart cookie, she wouldn't kill her career at a time when it's soaring. The men on the show had nothing to lose...they got paid & a chance to get noticed by film producers. Well, they must have been hoping for it anyway! What's more I think Rakhi's appearance on 'Main, Meri Patni...' was decided even before the winner of Swayamvar was announced so she could use the show as an excuse to tell the world they've broken up. Games people play!! And you thought Rakhi Sawant was getting married.

Of Fearless Women & Coy Brides

I wrote this post & saved it as a draft (I thought) but couldn't trace it later! You know how irritating THAT can be! So I re-wrote the entire thing, only to realize later that I had mailed it to myself the first time around instead of saving it as a draft. Oh well, c'est la vie of a blogger :)

*******

I am completely addicted to 'Khatron Ke Khiladi' - Fear Factor Level2, and for good reason. The show is all about performance & having nerves of steel, and the stunts get cooler by the day. There is no bitching among contestants (at least nothing is shown on TV), and AK's wit & sense of humor - not to mention the funny English he speaks - are the cherry on the cake.

Oh yeah, the man speaks son-of-the-soil kind of English, which is quite funny, if you know what I mean ;)

Seriously though, if you're the stay-away-from-reality-shows types, I strongly recommend watching this show. It's a very cool show and Khiladi Kumar is THE DUDE.

I have an incredible amount of respect for the women who're competing on the show. Whether they're doing those death-defying stunts b/c they really want to push themselves and test their strength of mind &body, or b/c they're on national TV and their reputations are at stake, it takes tremendous amounts of bravery and courage to perform those stunts. Hats off to them!

My money is on Jesse Randhawa or Rosa (IF her wannabe model she's paired with stops being a show-off & gets his act together. Delhiites, I tell you ;)

Okay, don't lynch me now!! I love Delhi. Really, I do.

Both women (Jesse & Rosa) are extremely brave & cool-headed. I've never seen them freak out or cry over any stunt. Irrespective of how difficult the stunt is, they do it brilliantly!

On the other hand, there's another reality show called Perfect Bride on Star Plus. I watched the first episode out of sheer curiosity and trust me, it is BEYOND HILARIOUS.

The show capitalizes on the biggest Indian obsession & pre-occupation - marriages. The raison d'etre of all Indians. Smart cookies, those folks over at Star! I can see the show becoming a huge hit already.

The premise is something like this - a bunch of twenty-something girls (early twenties, mind you, the ripe marriageable age for Indian women. Once you cross 25, you're dangerously teetering on the "Is something wrong with you? If you don't get married now, no one will marry you ever!" territory, and if you're over 30, no one will touch you with a barge pole!!), mostly from small towns (I think Chandigarh must have separate institutes to train its young men & women to contest in reality shows), are locked in a house with their prospective mothers-in-law, while the prospective grooms stay in another house. The young women have to obviously patao (get in the good books of) the aunties, who are obsessed with their sons and want the most obedient, docile & servile wife for them (so what's new?)

Competition, manipulation & bitching at their brutal best?

They've got the moronic Amrita Rao as a judge. Apparently she qualifies b/c she did a super regressive movie called 'Vivah', which I clearly remember had a song which went 'Mujhe Haq Hai...' in which the guy is essentially saying (not even implying) that he has the right to have sex with the girl now b/c she's his wife! God, save me from such monstrosities!

Along with the extremely irritating Amrita Rao, there's Shekhar Suman, who should honestly just pack his bags & go back to Patna now!!

Jokes apart, I do not believe in the censorship of the media (except when they fabricate news and sensationalize things in order to boost TRPs ), and I'm pro the people-should-have-the-discretion-to-know-tell-right-from-wrong-and-not-blindly-follow-whatever-is-shown-in-the-media argument, but I also feel that in a country where the audience is not yet as mature as Western audiences, and is therefore still quite easily influenced, the media does have certain social responsibilities. Regressiveness is NOT the way to go in our country. Neither is feeding into our biggest collective insecurity - that relating to marriage.

You agree?

People!

Bloating – check
Crazy ass mood swings – check
Irritability – check
Snappiness – check
Murderous tendencies – check
Hormones hitting the wall of my head like electrons in a nuclear reactor during fission – check
Random desire to cry without provocation & for no reason at all – check
Wanting something & not wanting it at the same time – check

Any guesses what game we’re playing?
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Oh well, let it be.

Let’s talk about ‘Sach Ka Saamna’ (the Indian adaptation of ‘The Moment of Truth’). Not about whether the show should be aired at all on TV, how it’s ruining the moral fibre of the 'great moralistic nation called India’, how it’s turning us all into voyeurs & all that baloney. To read what I feel about such issues, please go here.

I want to talk about the psyche of the people who come on the show.

They participate willingly. They definitely don’t look destitute to me, even if I discount all that bling on their clothes and overdone make-up. They are regular middle class people who reveal their most sordid, intimate secrets to the television channel so the dirt can be splashed on their faces in front of their spouse & family (who are hit the worst), their extended family & friends who must be watching them on TV, and an entire nation full of conservative, judgmental people!! Going by the confessions the contestants make, I’m sure they pretty much wreck their lives.

Of course, they come for the money though they claim they come because they want to confess to their spouse/family, unburden themselves of guilt by facing the truth head-on etc. If you really wish to confess, you can do it within the confines of your bedroom just as well. You need not do so on national television. They come for the money alright but sadly, most of them don’t even go back with an awful lot of it. The lie detector trips them & they usually go back with a few lacs at most. I really don’t understand why anyone would wreck their lives for a few lacs of rupees.

Oh well…it takes all kinds, I guess. There is no dearth of amusement in this world, people being the biggest of it all. My brother-in-law’s reaction to the show hit home. He said, “I never realized ordinary people have such extraordinary lives!”

I didn’t either.

PS: I couldn't think of a better title for this post. We're all people, you know. 'You' are people, 'I' am people, so are the 'people' who go on that show...they are people too. Even animals are people. I mean, they are animals but they have feelings too...so I guess that makes them people too, no? And what about plants? Are they 'people' too? You know how they say that plants too feel happy & sad...they sway when they feel happy? Or was that something only my crazy grandparents said? That sounds like something Luna Lovegood would say! She's people too! See...people again! There are people everywhere. There are so many people in this world! You can't even get a house at a reasonable rent these days because of so many goddamn people, all of whom want to live in houses! And people do weird things. And they feel strange, especially when the hormones are jacked up. People are jumping around in my head right now! And I'll stop before my head explodes!!!!!

The Truth Is Out There

The title of this post is borrowed from one of my all-time favorite shows: The X-Files. It was a cult show where all (female) fans lusted after Fox Mulder, and desperately prayed that Mulder & Scully would hook up by the end of the show – which unfortunately didn't happen.

The subject of this post, however, is quite different – the reality show ‘Sach Ka Saamna’, the Indian adaptation of ‘Moment of Truth’.

The show has created quite a controversy in India, to the extent that it was discussed even in the Parliament! Television shows are apparently more important than issues of national importance. Imagine that!!

The show was criticized for being anti-Indian “culture”, whatever that is!

I’m not even going to get into the “culture” argument here. I just have one point to make in this regard – as long as the participant, who is an adult, has no problems spilling out intimate details of his private life on national television, I don’t think anyone else should.

If you find the show offensive, don’t watch it. If you think it’s unsuitable for your children to watch, don’t allow them to.

In short, a group of people cannot dictate what the entire country gets & doesn’t get to watch.

My issue – or rather wonderment – is with the people who choose to appear on the show.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that the show host knows the most private details of the contestants' lives - things relating to their marriage, sex life, familial relationships, reproductive history etc. Questions that if answered “truthfully” (as decided by the polygraph) can break their homes. Obviously the contestants must be sharing such personal details with the people behind the show, before appearing on the show itself. What makes them do that??

A friend of mine said that fame and the desire to be on national television make people come on the show. I think that applies more to shows such as Roadies, Splitsvilla etc., and isn't the driving force as far as this show is concerned.

I think it’s money that gets people on this show. Which brings me to my question - are 5 or 10 lakh rupees worth devastating your entire life for?

I wouldn’t think so, but apparently there are people in this country that do!

It Was Hell Down Under

MTV Roadies is the only show on television right now that I'm following. It's one of the gazillion reality shows on TV but I like it because of the challenging tasks it throws at it's participants. 'Survival of the fittest' - physically and mentally - is what Roadies is all about.

Today was the semi-final episode with 3 contestants remaining. Can't believe Palak & Nauman have gone ahead to the finals while Paulomi had to come back home. With the wrapping of the semi-final episode, the Hell Down Under (Australia) segment of the show also got over.

Palak has balls but she is probably the most crass girl I have ever come across in my life. There is absolutely zero class in that girl. Was quite disappointed by Nauman today. Couldn't believe the guy could be so flaky! Knowing Palak & her turncoat tendencies, he still chose to believe her over his own common sense! So easily brain-washed he was. And to top it all, he even admitted that he didn't believe in the decision he was taking but Palak convinced him about it!

Out of all three, I thought Paulomi was the most sensible. She belonged to another planet no doubt...dressed in the tighest of clothes that she would pop out of any moment, with outrageous extensions in her hair and always worrying about her horrendous make-up getting smudged (rather than the task at hand, which in one episode was to pin down a crocodile in a mud pool to get chips off its tail!!)

Yet her decisions were sensible & most rational. She made it to the semi-finals without bitching, back-biting, manipulating or playing any games. She never pleaded with anyone not to vote against her. She was my candidate for Roadies 5.0 out of the three.

In my view, Sufi should ideally have been a Roadie this year. Even Natasha was quite deserving - she might have been a big manipulator but she did do all the tasks & did them well.

Can't wait to see what the finale episode has in store. I refuse to believe it will be straight-forward. I'm sure Palak & No-Man (to borrow the nickname from the Roadies gang) have no idea what they are up against. 19th April (Sunday) evening, 7pm will be fun to watch! Here's some eye candy to tide you over till then...

Naach Basanti Naach!!

There’s a reality dance show called ‘Nach Baliye’ on Star Plus in which real-life television couples participate. I find their reaction to the judges’ comments after their performance most amusing. They take the judges comments so seriously…they yelp & jump when the judges give them good comments/scores, they even start crying when the judges give them negative comments!!

The reason I find their behavior utterly amusing is because of two reasons…..

a) these people, the participants i.e., are all television actors. They aren’t exactly the "common man" for whom the show is their one big shot at fame, money & a glittering career in television. So why do they take the comments so seriously??

b) Have you seen the credentials of the judges themselves??!!! I have no clue what gives them the experience or the right to judge these shows? Karishma Kapoor & Arjun Rampal are two of the judges on ‘Nach Baliye’. Errrr….why? Karishma might have danced in many movies but she is in no way qualified to judge a dance-based show. God knows Arjun Rampal can’t dance! Malaika Arora has made a career of judging dance shows? Why again?? The only song where she’s danced well is‘Chhaiyya Chhaiyya’. All her other “item numbers” are over-hyped. She’s hilarious…she even gets offended & walks out of shows if any of the contestants questions her judgement. Urmila Matondkar & Shilpa Shetty have also served as judges on another dance show with TV actors called ‘Jhalak Dikhla Ja’.

Basically the funda seems to be to take any flop/has-been actor or actress who is currently vella & to sign them up as a judge for a reality show! This works well for both parties...the judge is light on the pocket of the production house, and the actor/actress gets some visibility & income. Seldom do these shows actually help resuscitate the careers of these have-been's. Take Shilpa Shetty & Urmila Matondkar for instance. Both women were full-on doing jhatka-matkas on the reality show, obviously to show producers they weren't jaded yet. Urmila would even go on to the dance floor uninvited & start dancing. Still I don't think they gained anything from the reality show in terms of a boost to their sagging careers.

When the credentials of the judges themselves is dubious, should their judgment be taken so seriously??