If there is one person who can lay claim to being the original talk show host of India it's Sajid Khan. Award ceremonies, events or product launches, a perpetually broke Sajid Khan took up everything that came his way and had his audience in splits. Sajid could pick up the most mundane issue and turn it around on its head, leaving his audience in splits. And they were only too happy too keep shouting encore.
So when the new channel Colors announced the launch of Sajid's Superstars expectation levels from this maverick actor-host were really high. And when he invited his Heyy Babyy heroine Vidya Balan on the latest episode, one certainly expected more than the usual banter. But did Sajid Khan live upto his expectations?
The answer would be emphatic - "No, no, and no!" While one would not go so far as to say that the show was a complete write-off, coming from Sajid it was a bit of let down. Here's dissecting Sajid's Superstars with Vidya Balan:
Sajid Khan thinks in English and that's when he's at his most spontaneous best. He just doesn't come across the same way when he's speaking in Hindi. As a result the witticisms, the punch lines were a trifle forced. Nothing that had one rolling on the floor with laughter.
Sajid's speciality has also been his ability to poke fun (without getting malicious) at other industry bigwigs and the top stars. But these days Sajid Khan seems to be in a politically correct mode. So all the famous one-liners were missing.
Coming back to his guest for the evening the current heartthrob Vidya Balan. Unfortunately success has come to her a little late in life. And she can be sensible and opt for avatars where she looks her age. But somewhere Vidya Balan is hellbent on portraying the sultry siren image. Black chiffon sleeves make her muscular forearms look even tubbier but the lady doesn't seem to pay any heed to these issues.
But to give due credit to Sajid he did try to draw her out. Some volatile questions he posed himself and there were others, where Farah Khan or Karan Johar stepped in.
But Vidya somehow seemed averse to open up. When Karan Johar asked her who her favourite director was – Pradeep Sarkar or Rajkumar Hirani, Vidya refused to take sides.
Then Farah Khan posed a question about Vidya's favourite designer asking her to choose between Manish Malhotra or Aki Narula. But once again the diplomatic madam refused to get forthright.
Hats off to the research team who probably slogged it out and pulled out a clipping of Vidya Balan from Hum Paanch. Pradeep Sarkar was one gutsy man who had the courage to cast her in his film and the rest as they say is history.
The sets and lighting are really well done and give the show a very sophisticated and polished look. No complaints where the execution is concerned.
Let's hope the next guest on the show big mouth Vivek Oberoi is slightly more forthcoming and shoots his moth off…