Bigg Flop - 4

It’s been almost 3 weeks now, and one of Indian televisions most over hyped and much speculated shows – Bigg Boss 4 turned out to be quite a damp squib compared to the previous editions. Yes, one expected Salman Khan’s magic to work just like Dus ka Dum, well actually that’s the only thing which works for the show – considering the lacklustre line up of inmates who gave an even more lacklustre opening to the show.

Those expecting Shakti Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Shiney Ahuja, Chunkey Pandey, Sangeeta Bijlani, in return got a dacoit, a thief, a cross-dresser, a lawyer, two television actresses, two out of work actors, some Bhojpuri tadka and a supermodel. Talk about diversity.

So we had a terrorist’s lawyer, rather ex lawyer Abbas Kazmi, who thankfully like he was thrown out of the case was also thrown out of the house, and later on from a few circles in his personal life. Well seeing him roam around in sleeveless tshirts, complaining about less food wasn’t entertaining anyways. Then you have former bandit queen Seema Parihar, who not only looks scary but its difficult to understand what she says that when she does (and I think she too finds it difficult to understand what others say). Then you have a scandal-ridden star son Rahul Bhatt (apparently David Headleys gym buddy) who seems to be on a maun vrut of sorts most of the time. A former thief Devinder Singh or Superchor Bunty who couldn’t even last for a day thanks to his excess usage of expletives also made his presence felt. Suddenly, Bigg Boss’s house seemed more like jail in the literal sense.

Now coming to the list of entertainers - we have a traumatised divorcee and once upon a time soap queen Shweta Tiwari, who seems to be busy smothering everyone. Then there is Pakistani TV host Begum Nawazish Ali, who is sometimes referred to as Begum and sometimes Ali, I am pretty sure if she stays in that house a bit longer she will come out of there turning schizophrenic. Adding to Shiv Sena’s furore is another Pakistani actress Veena Malik who is better known as a world famous controversy queen especially after blowing the cover of Mohammed Asif. So basically one episode she spent crying about him, the weekends she spends trying to flirt with Salman Khan and the rest of the days either fighting or flirting with Hrishant Goswami. One minute, who is Hrishant Goswami??? I know a model but his claim to fame? Well talking about wannabe’s they even had Splitsvilla winner Sakshi Pradhan in the house for a while. Doesn’t speak much about the reputation of the show even when you have a Salman Khan hosting it.

With his endearing smile and pearls of wisdom is Bhojpuri actor Manoj Tiwari whose favourite song seems to be Munni badnam hui (Doesn’t he know it’s the audience he has to impress and not Salman Khan). Besides that there is Mr super calm Sameer Soni. Yes, his nomination last week was quite surprising, but he seems like one of the only sane people in the house besides Anchal Kumar. Supermodel Anchal Kumar, sweet and helpful and has a great wardrobe too, but why exactly did she cry so much once Abbas Kazmi was evicted, and why was he praising her so much on all radio channels once he was out of the house?

When it comes to speculation though the only thing which managed to grab if not many a few eyeballs was Sara Khan and her damsel in distress act which is highly irritating and her proximity to the jobless Ashmit Patel who loves talking or flaunting his six pack abs but still complains that he is fat. Well, their closeness has surely left her boyfriend actor Ali Merchant stressed out and left him with a lot of questions to answer on his personal life. He even went on record saying “Sara treats Ashmit like a father.” Really now? Yes, Ali we believe you. And last but not the least the latest entrant 7 feet 3 inches Khalli. Firstly, how is he fitting in that house, and secondly how is this otherwise down to earth, shy wrestler going to stay in that house? Well, at least we know his reason for entering – he hurt his foot and can’t wrestle so let’s make some money instead.

With a line up like this, you don’t need to be Einstein to figure out why the show hasn’t been able to generate enough fireworks to sustain viewership. Then if you didn’t have Shiv Sena causing a black out of the show for a week, you had Amitabh Bachchan coming back with KBC, and for the weekends Akshay Kumar with Master Chef, and if that’s not all soon Rakhi Sawant will be giving them competition with Rakhi ka insaaf (this has just got to be the heights of stupidity on Indian television). Even a unisex bedroom hasn’t been able to add any masala, which separate ones could in the last 3 seasons. Well, the only saving grace is the weekends with the aakhri salaam with Salman Khan. His antics and jokes, which sometimes border on being crass managed to raise the TRP’s and also keep the viewers interested. Till now three weeks have been quite boring and sitting through one entire episode is a drab, and there are still 70 more days to go. Sigh.