REVIEW: Akshay Kumar's an excellent host

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Channel surfing brought to us an incredibly taut and suitably horrifying episode of Khatron Ke Khiladi on Colors. Must say Akshay Kumar looks as though he was born to play the role of a mentor to a bunch of near-hysterical and gutsy women. He brings about the right mix of professional indifference and personal touch to the entire proceedings, at times encouraging the girls and at times chiding them to achieve the near-impossible.

Must say, the girls, without too much make-up, in all their bald patches and bulges and their deepest fears stripped naked in front of the camera, are doing a remarkably good job. In this particular episode, Pooja Bedi (who is perhaps one of the oldest contestants in the show) overcame her mortal fear of snakes as she lay wriggling in a case with 70 of them. Bedi, apparently, had to be rescued from the 'embrace' of a snake coiled around her belly in her debut film decades ago. Her tears of panic were genuine.

On the other hand, Chak De... girl Vidya Malvade displayed an amazing lack of sportsmanship and she was ultimately ousted for refusing to do the task. Akshay's parting words to her: "What did you think you were coming to South Africa for? Shopping?" Ouch! Stunningly sporty and seeming to enjoy it all are Yana Gupta and Nethra Raghuraman.

Switch to Sony, where the earlier version of Fear Factor India is being telecast. If you think this is a coincidence, you know nothing. This rerun we think is a real bad idea. The host, a rather unfit looking Mukul Dev with tacky blond streaks in his hair and near-formal clothes, is not a patch on Akshay. Secondly, the setting and the tasks look incredibly tame and lame compared to the scale the new Fear Factor is mounted on.

But Sony will definitely not give in so easily. While the promos of Colors channel are talking about Om Shanti Om being telecast in their movie slot, Sony too is boasting of the same. It is not clear yet which channel will telecast it first.