Heartbeat - uneven rhythm!-Remix

Heartbeat tests my patience...my pulse refuses to race and my heart refuses to skip a beat...and all this while I am supposed to be watching a show that's meant to excite and exhilarate.

Heartbeat, the hugely popular Endemol show has been reduced to its poor cousin by Star and Synergy. But the blame perhaps has to be shared with our celebs who make it very difficult for a show like this to be successful with their stuck up attitude and their refusal to come out of their shells. This is an important aspect of television that needs a looksie. Any show that requires celebs to participate as themselves (and not as characters) fails miserably - look at what happened to Fear Factor, Batliwalla... and its predecessor! Even the most memorable episodes of KBC were those that had the common man opening up to the master actor - although celebs were being called on special ocassions, it was AB's interaction with his fans that made the difference for the show. The celebs seem to do fine when they are asked to sing or dance (as in Nach Baliye), but as soon as they are asked to talk and shine without makeup, they stuttered!

However, there are things that could have made the show better - like showing how the person on the other side of the phone reacted on a different window, this could have made audience participation more exciting.

The show has an excellent format, but again it's been watched by viewers who are used to watching a lot of action on screen - emotions are often expressed in terms of action on screen and the absence of this in Heartbeat has caused the show dear.

The set of the show looks great and that is an advantage! It gives the viewers an effect of being in isolation and that helps. Moreover, the show has an excellent off- screen anchor in Mohan Kapoor - he is sweet, charming and has a great sense of humour and timing that keeps the show going. But again, his voice starts to have a droning effect when he's the only person with some display of emotions! Maybe, if the man was physically present, his excitement would have rubbed off on the participants - remember his strong presence on Zee's Saap Seedi aeons ago?

The one celeb who was extremely watchable was Pooja Bedi - she promised to take her entire staff on a holiday if she won and expressed her emotions openly for the viewers to lap up...and that episode turned out to be the most watchable in terms of enjoyment value!

Thus, the choice of celebs is an important aspect of the show and that has an effect on the final product. Here's a list that I would like to see on Heartbeat - Navjyot Singh Sidhu, Maninee Mihir Misra, Cyrus Broacha, someone from the Remix gang, Rohit Roy, Tassnim Sheikh, maybe Barkha Dutt????