TELEPROMPT
Reality bites
Mannika Chopra

There is no doubt about it. Reality TV is primetime’s hottest genre and has been for some time. It first kicked off in 2002 when Channel [V] aired a talent-hunt competition Popstars resulting in an all-woman band, Viva. The trajectory of these kinds of programmes has taken off with shows like Kaun Banega Crorepati, setting new standards. The shows that have crowded our screens are a mixture of game shows, makeover shows, celebrity chat shows, talent hunts, social engineering attempts and even dating shows, but they all come under the category of reality TV. Of course, every one knows that there is very little of ‘reality’, if any, in these programmes. Every intimate scene is scripted, every tantrum is part of the plot, but reality TV is the accepted nomenclature and I am going with that.

Since the genre has continued to swamp the medium this year, too, perhaps it’s time for a little stock taking, shifting the dross from the gold, at the same time acknowledging that reality TV has also succeeded in giving many boring networks some buzz, removing them firmly away from the saas-bahu format into a completely different orbit. So while there are some good ones that needed to be commended, Indian Idol, Sach Ka Saamna, the KBCs, Khatron Ke Khiladi and India’s Got Talent among them, there’s a lot of tripe that needs to be exposed. So here is my, admittedly arbitrary, list (in no particular order) of five watch-at-your-own-risk reality TV shows that aired this year.

Pati Patni aur Woh saw a bunch of childless couples have children, in various age groups, foisted on them to rear in the name of entertainment

Raaz Pichle Janam Ka (NDTV Imagine) is the kind of show, which makes you really wonder at the calibre of the creative heads in programming. It looks and sounds fake and as the newly launched programme unspools, it looks even faker. In the show, a person hypnotised by Dr Trupti Jayan goes into his past life to discover, who they were circa 1847, 1966 or whatever. The results are bizarre. The doctor sounds like a strict martinet as she cross-questions her client, who in the end, sounds too tutored for us to believe this whole improbable act. But worst of all, is anchor Ravi Kissen, who has been able to show that yes the quality of my mercy is very definitely strained.

Bigg Boss (Colors) may have created a ripple in the TRPs in its first season but in its third run even though it has been embellished with a weekly dose of Amitabh Bachchan, the novelty has kind of worn off. With Claudia, the mandatory firangi factor, Dara Singh’s son and Poonam Dhillon, who used to be a soni kudi years ago, competing for the jackpot, the backbiting and snarling is getting pass and its turning into a big yawn fest.

The basic thinking behind the UTV Bindass channel is to be different. And in a way it has succeeded when it aired Big Switch or Life Palat Jayeegi. The premise of this reality show is 10 super-rich kids literally slumming it out by partnering 10 kids from Mumbai’s Dharavi slum, some of whom distribute flyers at street lights and fantasise about appearing for the civil service examinations. The result of this bit social engineering is offensive, not only to the less socially and economically deprived, but also to the average viewer’s intelligence as he watches designer teens dressed in strappy, slinky numbers trying to wash clothes at the dhobhi ghat or squealing as they try and clean the local garbage dump. Verdict: Not fit for humans.

Pati Patni aur Woh (NDTV Imagine) (PPW) could have been renamed Pati, Patni or Woe. Having a bunch of childless couples have children, in various age groups, foisted on them to rear, burp and smack, in the name of entertainment is just not funny. It’s outrageous. And when one of those couples is Rakhi Sawant and her alleged finance Elesh Parujanwala, it’s completely nonsensical. The good news is that the series had a limited run; the bad news is that the show can be revived again.

PPW followed another Sawant-starrer, Rakhi Ka Swayamvar. It’s one thing to go through I-will-never-get-married crisis, it’s quite another to arrange your eventual marriage through a competition between suitors on a reality show. But Rakhi managed to do just that while giving 15, or was it 12 suitors, their 15 minutes of fame. The end result was garbage and also a lesson in how reality TV shows, despite all the hype, do not keep their word. Elesh was Rakhi’s chosen one, but the spoils do not belong to the victor. The faux engagement, such as it was, is of, the stuff of bad scripting.

Of course, critics and TV audience may have pilloried the show but that has not stopped the channel from shortly airing a new variation to the old theme: Rahul Dulahaniya Le Jayega. Apparently, having a drug habit, going though a messy divorce and having no bona fide job entitles Rahul Mahajan, son of the late politician Pramod Mahajan, a star role in a reality show. I rest my case.