Nach Baliye is into its eighth week and it makes great watching, especially on Thursdays. Last week, the take-off on the judges by some of the participants was hilarious. Especially Parmeet Sethi's take-off on Farhan Akhtar. That was cool.
Malaika Arora looked stunning in the dance she did, like she always does (sic). But I wondered why she had to wear a body suit.
Which kept crinkling every now and then and was distracting us. Well, if I had a body like her, my husband would have probably saved a lot on wardrobe money because all I'd been seen around would be in itsy-bitsy nothings.
Saroj Khan, Farhan Akhtar and Malaika Arora Khan in Nach Baliye
Why not flaunt it if you have it, because if I had it, I certainly would have.
Well, if Malaika really did not want to expose, she should have ditched the sexy ghagra-choli and crinkling body suit and opted for a dress, which the likes of Delnaz Paul wear. Or even a burkha.
That way we would have concentrated on her dance instead of the crinkles on her washboard abs.
Besides Malaika Arora and the other judges, the nice thing about the show has been the transformation of some of the participants from clumsy movers to pretty competent and confident dancers.
From day one the clear favourites (in terms of dancing) were Sachin-Supriya, Rajeshwai-Varun and Archana-Parmeet. Not only do they dance, they express, innovate and perform with panache. After all, dancing is not getting the steps right, but performance as a whole.
But other couples have also progressed over the weeks. Like last week's performance by Apurva and Shilpa showed their progress. But then there are also exceptions like Delnaz and Rajiv Paul. Not only are they poor performers, they have not even bothered to make an attempt to improve and innovate from day one. As a viewer, it bothers me.
Yet they seem to be sitting on a mountain of confidence in spite of the judges' verdict against their poor performance. And their confidence seems to come from public votes.
The stupidest thing about Nach Baliye is when you have an experienced panel with the likes of Saroj Khan and you let dumb SMSes overtake sound judgment. It makes the ordinary viewer like me feel cheated, because it looks obviously staged.
The stakes are high and public voting can be bought easily by a fraction of the prize money by the participants who know they don't have it in them to win.
Therefore last week's ouster of Shilpa and Apurva in spite of Rajiv and Delnaz's poor show was a shocker. But wait, the big shock is yet to come. This Thursday will see the ouster of two very good performers — Archana and Parmeet — in spite of their performance being praised by the judges.
A number of participants are upset at this. "It was so blatant," said an insider who wishes to remain unnamed.
As usual, Delnaz-Rajiv managed to remain in the competition, in spite of their below average performance and low ranking by the panel, all due to the audience vote. At this rate, why have a panel at all. Just ask for audience votes.
An offshoot of all these various television contests could be the emergence of a new breed of professionals: The professional SMSer. Ideal for housewives and unemployed persons. For a fee, they would keep SMSing for the losing contestants. I just might consider it a career option.
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