Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 7: When Madhuri danced. And disappointed.

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ScorpionGunner

@ScorpionGunner

Sparkler

Posted: 11 years ago

Madhuri Dixit decided to do a samba or some such which was a little heart-breaking. While it's great to try new things, maybe it's a better idea not to try them for the first time on national television. Gone was the grace and dignity. It was like watching Elton John gamely attempt rap.

http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/jhalak-dikhhla-jaa-7-when-madhuri-danced-and-disappointed-1562483.html

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Lola

@Lola13

Voyager

+ 4

Posted: 11 years ago

😊
Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 7: When Madhuri danced. And disappointed.

If you're a disgraced cricketer, accused of match-fixing and other dodgy activities and resigned to a life of ignominy, fret no more. Even if your cricketing career is over, there's always a second chance to make it as a reality show star thanks to Jhalak Dikkhla Jaa, which seems to believe that everybody deserves a second chance. The first season had Ajay Jadeja in it. And this season has the towel-friendly lachrymally-verbose Sreesanth.

The new season of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa - no I didn't get an aneurysm while keying in, the name really does have that many Hs and As - has begun. The premiere episode spanned two nights of over an hour each. So what's in Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa this time around that we haven't seen earlier?

The judges, for one, are the same. There's the choreographer Remo, Madhuri Dixit and Karan Johar. All of whom shook a leg in the first episode. The less said about that the better. Everything's a little too glitzy and gaudy this time, or maybe I'm just getting old. There are two new hosts - Ranvir Sheorey, who seems to have also been given a second lease of life on reality TV (he was in Khatron Ke Khiladi just a month back) and Drashti - who won the last season and is very easy on the eye, but seems to have difficulty reading the teleprompter.

The thing with celebrity reality shows is that they always start off really well in the first season. Because that's when they get the pick of the celebrity litter. By the seventh season they're left with celebrities who aren't even the Snookis of Indian reality TV.

This time's contestants - in order of fame are - Palak (Kiku Sharda from Comedy Nights is taking part in the show in character and not as himself), Sukhvinder Singh (the singer of Chhaiya Chhaiya fame who also sang the BJP's anthem this election), Sreesanth (more infamy than fame), the actor - Asish Sharma - from Rangrasiya who abducts a girl and ties her up in his jeep and then proceeds to marry her and have her fall in love with him (that's what I get from the promo), another TV actor with an unfortunate surname - Karan Tacker, ex-VJ and sometime actor Purab Kohli, sometime singer Sophie Chowdhury, ex-VJ and current career reality star Andy (he's taken part in 4 reality shows at last count), Akshat Singh (the cute rotund 10-year-old boy who was called on Ellen to dance), and three TV stars I've never seen or heard of but who might be more popular than all the others - Mouni, Kritika and Shakti.

The first episode was to feature dances which were "never seen before". So you had trapeze acts, people on harnesses, dancing in the middle of a lake, even with a hologram though not the 3D Modi one which could have been entertaining. The dances didn't really rock my world, but then again just like the contestants who are career reality stars, I've become a career reality TV watcher. So I'm more jaded than others.

What I do like about Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa is that the choreographers are centre-stage here. They are considered to be as much of a celebrity as the celebrity they're dancing with. Which is what makes it a show worth watching.

The choreographers are the ones with all the talent, but always relegated to the background - so it's nice to see them get their much-deserved moment of fame and recognition. It's thanks to shows like Jhalak that choreographers like Salman have become celebrities in their own right.

So what were the sideshows of the premiere episode? Madhuri Dixit decided to do a samba or some such which was a little heart-breaking. While it's great to try new things, maybe it's a better idea not to try them for the first time on national television. Gone was the grace and dignity. It was like watching Elton John gamely attempt rap. They also had two films which were promoted on the show - Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania with Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt, and Holiday with Akshay Kumar (who had one pant leg rolled up to his knee for some reason) and Sonakshi. There's also a challenger couple in the form of Lauren Gottlieb and Salman who will dance each weekend and decide the next week's challenge for the contestants.

What's interesting to see is how Indian television is now following in the footsteps of American television. Reality television is where it's at. And it seems celebrities (faux and otherwise) seem to be aspiring to be reality stars. Hell, that's the only "acting" some of them seem to be doing. Only problem is that our desi Snookis (read - Rakhi Sawant and Payal Rohatgi) and desi Situations (read - Rahul Mahajan and KRK) have already been put out to pasture. So we have to make do with the second rung of Snookis and Situations. Which doesn't make for very thrilling entertainment TV. Also, I know I sound like an old school ma'am, but shouldn't that little 10-year-old be in school, studying?

The next episode of Jhalak will be coming up against the premiere episode of another reality show. The ever-classy Splitsvilla, hosted by Sunny Leone. So next weekend is worth watching out for - the Clash of B-grade Reality TV. I simply cannot wait. My cup of jadedness will surely runneth over.

Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa airs on Colors at 9pm every Saturday and Sunday night.

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Angeala

@angeala95

Dazzler

Posted: 11 years ago

Kisi ko to chhod dete!! 😆
Sabki bezti ki hai iss article ne!! 🤣

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Oye_Chup_Kar

@Oye_Chup_Kar

Sparkler

+ 4

Posted: 11 years ago

I don't at all think she disappointed ...i loved her new avatar! She looked HOT and sizzling and totally nailed/owned the dance! 👍🏼

Madhuri again proved, she's the definition of dancing! 👏

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Lola

@Lola13

Voyager

+ 4

Posted: 11 years ago

good review and agree with it.. the choreographers part is soo true..JDJ is given them more attention this season

actually in general..they are giving more importance to dance than comedy..hope it continues like this 👍🏼

about Madhuri, in my opinion choreo wasn't good.. but respect to Madz for dancing like that !! 👏

Edited by Lola13 - 11 years ago

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akanksha

@sharif_lafungi

Inactive

+ 2

Posted: 11 years ago

madhuri is in late 40's...she is here to judge nd nt judged...whatever she did..was her 1st time nd she was pretty good...

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Eternal-Psycho

@Eternal-Psycho

Inactive

Posted: 11 years ago

Thank God I am not the only one disappointed by her dance. 😆

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Angeala

@angeala95

Dazzler

Posted: 11 years ago

Originally posted by: Eternal-Psycho
Thank God I am not the only one disappointed by her dance.😆

Dnt worry!! I m there too!! Me too was disappointed!!

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Jane Doe

@Jane_Doe

Voyager

+ 2

Posted: 11 years ago

Originally posted by: Lola13

This time's contestants - in order of fame are - Palak (Kiku Sharda from Comedy Nights is taking part in the show in character and not as himself), Sukhvinder Singh (the singer of Chhaiya Chhaiya fame who also sang the BJP's anthem this election), Sreesanth (more infamy than fame), the actor - Asish Sharma - from Rangrasiya who abducts a girl and ties her up in his jeep and then proceeds to marry her and have her fall in love with him (that's what I get from the promo), another TV actor with an unfortunate surname - Karan Tacker, ex-VJ and sometime actor Purab Kohli, sometime singer Sophie Chowdhury, ex-VJ and current career reality star Andy (he's taken part in 4 reality shows at last count), Akshat Singh (the cute rotund 10-year-old boy who was called on Ellen to dance), and three TV stars I've never seen or heard of but who might be more popular than all the others - Mouni, Kritika and Shakti.

😕 someone got that idea from promo? I'm sure you (whoever wrote this) must have noticed he wears a military uniform in those! you make it sound like he is some gunda!😕

This summary is just way off, but i'm sure you dont care, right? Well then why should I care either?!

Edited by swetha811 - 11 years ago

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Lola

@Lola13

Voyager

+ 4

Posted: 11 years ago

#10

another review will post here.. 😊

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Review: Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa is all show, no reality

Are you all set for Palak Dikhhla Jaa, asks Raja Sen.

It's not what I expected, that's for sure.

Madhuri Dixit, Akshay Kumar, Karan Johar, Alia Bhatt and various (mostly weak) dancers were all in attendance during the two-night marathon Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa opening ceremony, but none of those folks could be singled out as the star of the show.

In what I'm assuming is a switch for reality programming, the star wasn't a person at all, but a character.

Kiku Sharda, a hefty comedian who also plays Constable Mulayam Singh Gulgule on a sitcom called FIR, dresses up in drag as a girl called Palak for the variety entertainment show Comedy Nights With Kapil.

Essentially a rotund version of, as far as I can tell, Kajol from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Palak is a boisterous girl oblivious to her own obnoxiousness, with catchphrases like "talk to the hand."

Palak thinks she's stunning, Palak thinks she can "rock" everything, and Palak is man-crazy. Sharda is an amusing, quick-witted performer, but this is comedy at its broadest: as the nearly-naked Chinaman said in The Hangover, "It's funny because he's fat."

Alas, not just does the Colors channel flog an old joke to death, it puts lipstick on the casket and pretends its real. Thus, in an incredibly inane act of self-promotion, Palak is an official participant in Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 7, and going by the amount of airtime spent watching a heavyset man play a feisty girl, I wager she's likely to win the show.

The show is peculiar in itself.

Contestants perform dances which are so elaborate "in concept" that some of them aren't even performed on stage -- instead taking place on, say, a distant lake. None of it feels like a live event, though the most inadvertently hilarious thing about the show was watching a pair of chubby dancers squirm -- as they sat amid fellow performers -- still wearing their skintight glitter-covered bodysuits.

A fun performance came from television actor Ashish Sharma, who performed some weird but entertaining Mortal Kombat moves aided by holograms.

But the show's standout performer is a young dancer called Shakti Mohan who, trying her feet at ballet (set to sufi music, naturally), was quite impressive. None of the others come close.

The worst? It's hard to choose from VJ Andy wearing goblin ears, Sophie Chaudhry making bizarre faces, and Sukhwinder Singh bringing a microphone and forgetting that this is a show about dancing. Which, to be fair, seems like an honest mistake, given that a big chunk of the episode was devoted to cricketer Sreesanth tossing tennis balls for Akshay Kumar to hit.

Also, Alia Bhatt sang. Egad.

It doesn't even attempt to look like a live stage show. Performers who are supposed to take the stage are shown clapping in their seats (for themselves), costumes are changed in the blink of an edit, and none of the criticism comes close to being real. Simon Cowell would be ashamed.

Following each performance, the judges weigh in, pretty much in unison.

Choreographer Remo tries to appear technical and classify the dances into genres but says things like "yeh electric style dance hai" -- which, while daft, seems reasonable if you consider that 90 percent of the dances are touchyfeely samba/salsa variants climaxing in women flaunting the blingy lycra bloomers under their dresses.

The otherwise eloquent Karan Johar embarrasses himself by tossing out so many adjectives I bet he's bored out of his skull, in effusive autopilot and utterly unaware of what he's saying.

Madhuri Dixit, god bless her soul, says things like "you're killing it." But that grin takes some of the edge off the inanity.

Dixit, it must be said, is looking like a million bucks. She dazzled in a gold dress, and, when she finally took the stage, scorched things up significantly with a Dhoom Macha Le performance that was hotter than anyone anticipated, honestly.

But sexy as it was, it wasn't worth sitting through three hours of assorted tripe -- most of which was awarded a 9/10 by the judges. Nothing really is. Just watch the Dixit song on the Net and let the show be. Unless you're all set for Palak Dikhhla Jaa.

http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/review-jhalak-dikhhla-jaa-is-all-show-no-reality-tv/20140609.htm

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"Performers who are supposed to take the stage are shown clapping in their seats (for themselves)" 😆 😆 last year too