DesiDabba - Boss, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jaye

Sameer Nair’s highly ambitious and the most talked about Indian television channel, NDTV Imagine was launched yesterday with much (exaggerated) fanfare. Though I have to admit in spite of hiring almost all well-known faces of the (not-so-small-anymore) desi-television Industry, NDTV Imagine never really grabbed my attention. My logic is quite simple – all Hindi channels cater to similar target audience, therefore a new entrant in actuality cannot afford to be different. All they do is present us with old goods, only in new packaging. And quite frankly, I am very much content with investing my spare time in BBC Entertainment – which is in fact a refreshing break from all the American crap we have been subjected to off-late.

However one of the so-called sensational shows on Imagine that caught my eye (during the publicity phase) and happened to be home on time to catch it on the idiot box was, yet again, a reality show named Say Shaava Shaava.

From the looks of it, Say Shaava Shaava had everything going for it.

1. Two of the most famous prime-time television hosts as judges – My darling KJo uff Karan Johar and one time beauty, Simi Girebal Garewal. Now one may not be too fond of his big screen productions but you cannot deny the high-reputation of his (famous) Koffee couch. And even though I can’t understand Madam Simi’s obsession with color ‘White’ and would have rather preferred the likes of Hema Malini or Rekha but then my sister rightly pointed out – “They wouldn’t show such cleavage”.

2. And did Simiji show her bosoms or whot!

3. Already TRP hogging contestants in the form of popular tele-stars like Juhi Parmar, Narayani Shastri, Apurva Agnihotri and Aman Varma.

4. The regular Sing-n-Dance routine but presented in fun-some wedding theme.

But as they say, at times even the best intentions attract complete opposite reactions and this is exactly what I think happened with Say Shaava Shaava.

Simi Garewal despite her (very) tight WHITE outfit and extra bouncy cum low neck line was prancing around not like a diva but some stuffed-up doll instead. Apna television celebrities were really bad when it came to singing Bollywood numbers and by bad I mean, not only were they out-of-tune; they were as down-right “besuras”. And as for the Wedding theme, it appeared to be nothing more than just a marketing gimmick.

On the plus side, I can think only of Karan who was his usual smartass filmy self. Though at times even he was unsuccessful in hiding the utter disappointment unfolding in front of him. (On a related note – don’t you think KJo’s styling has improved a great deal since he has started endorsing heavy international brands.)

Anyway hats off to KJo and Madam Simi and the studio audience who had to sit thru it all.

Final words – This show is better off if slotted under the “comedy” category; if you thought the folks on Filmy Channel’s Bathroom Singer were sad, the contestants on Say Shaava Shaava are couple of notches higher on the same scale. Thankfully the show come with an expiry date of just 11 days.

Surprisingly though Karan Johar also happens to be NDTV Imagines’ creative consultant; one wonders how he let something so ugly pass thru him or maybe he is just interested in counting the cash to finance his, oh so many SRK dream projects.