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Not everyone's cup of coffee

TELLY REVIEW
Last Updated 18 December 2010, 10:26 IST
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So, if you are not put off by the pastel shades, the fluttering curtains and excessive saccharine, his films could be your cup of tea. Or coffee, if you like. The same applies to his talk show, Koffee with Karan. When Season 1 began in 2004, his guests were the usual suspects: Shahrukh, Kajol, Farah, Preity, Abhishek and other A listers in Bollywood.

While the format was refreshingly different from other shows at the time, and there was a certain amount of wit and smart lines involved, there was also Karan Johar’s way of addressing these actors or stars, on a first-name basis. This worked both ways. While it told the viewer that he was comfortable with his guests, it was also telling us something else. It was telling us: ‘Oh, you wouldn’t get these things, you know...We are all part of the swish set and there are things we know that you wouldn’t dream of knowing.’

Now, if you relate to the latter more than the former, Koffee with Karan is not your cup of tea, sorry, coffee at all. Now, into its third season, the basic formula of the show remains intact. The rapid fire rounds, the “rate-in-order-of-sex-appeal: Hrithik, Shahrukh, John, Salman”, “the who’s more beautiful: Aishwarya or Madhuri?” “the welcome to my show, darling” all stay. And so do the inside jokes. And then of course, is the now famous hamper. And the clamour to win it, most often, ringing hollow.

Come on, we know it’s not about the hamper. Season 3 began with the star-couple Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan. Abhishek Bachchan, it must be said, added some pep to the show, with his sense of humour and smart lines, but, the episode featuring Bollywood’s other famous couple — Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan — set our teeth on edge. And of course, Karan Johar did not have to work too hard, for Kareena Kapoor busied herself with showing us how vain she is. And did we suspect the shows are scripted? Well, this one made us suspect a little more. The episode featuring Imran Khan and Ranbir Kapoor showed us how smart these twenty-something actors are, with their convent school-bred sophistication, but that they somehow lack the character and colour that the older generation of actors had.

Could the problem with the show lie somewhere here? At one level, one wonders if it’s a problem with the new generation of actors, all too rehearsed, all method, none of them bringing any individuality to the table? And if the first few seasons worked, was it because of the set of actors at that point in time? Could it be that a Shahrukh Khan or a Kajol, in spite of their failings, were somehow different from the others?

Or could it be the over-exposure? Every other reality show, be it Bigg Boss or Kaun Banega Crorepati, brings in these same stars and promotes their films that are up for launch. Could the lack of fizz in Koffee with Karan Season 3 have a lot to do with the fact that these actors are present just about everywhere?

Before they are on that couch, we already know the lines they are going to mouth. And then there is blogging and twitter. Which is why the episode that featured actors Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor and Kangana Ranaut was different. What was the one word that came to Sanjay Dutt’s mind when Karan Johar said ‘Mulayam Singh’? “Enemy”, said Dutt, without batting an eyelid. Anil Kapoor confessed that he liked the Bollywood commercial masala films and had no aspirations to be an ‘intellectual’ actor. (And no, it didn’t come across as reverse snobbery).

The fact that Sanjay Dutt said Madhuri Dixit should go back and take care of her children, says something about the man he is — patriarchal, conservative, and hardly politically correct. For a change, Karan Johar’s show got us angry, thanks to the remarks of this actor.

Otherwise, there have been too many giggles. Too much sugar, I say!

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(Published 18 December 2010, 10:19 IST)

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