Mumbai: Remember the song John Johnny Janardhan in Manmohan Desai’s Naseeb where the stars from Raj Kapoor to Rajesh Khanna to Amitabh Bachchan trooped in one by one? The Grand Finale of this season of Bigg Boss was like a saturated over-cast Manmohan Desai film of the 1970s with latkas, jhatkas, nakhras and drame-baazi thrown around like confetti at a particularly desperate New Year’s Eve party where guests somehow want to let the world know they’re having fun.
But the real fun element was sorely missing. Clearly the roster was a TRP booster. The lineup of guest stars included Malaika Arora who danced to introduce the finalists as though they were chillar-amount royalty and she the royal messenger who must do her job although her heart was not in it .
Amidst the furious flow of frivolity “serious” mediaperson Rajat Sharma(last seen doing the lungi dance with the three Khan superstars) came on to do an impromptu Junta Ki Adaalat with the finalists. A makeshift witness-box was pulled into view, like a prop on the sets of a dramatic Sanjay Leela Bhansali film.
Sharma, never known to flinch from asking uncomfortable questions, asked Karishma Tanna what the world was dying to: if , as she claimed, she had a boyfriend waiting for her outside what was she doing with Upen Patel inside Bigg Boss house? Karishma gave an answer that left the world stunned. She said it was a private matter!!! Private matter when 50 cameras were watching ???? Baby, you’ve got to get your act together. Junta yeh jaan-na chahta hai ke aap public ko private kyon bolti hain?
RJ Preetam who walked away with Rs 25 lakhs rather than wait for the winner to be announced, gave it back to Rajat Sharma when he was called a ‘thaali ka baingan’. “No harm in being the baingan.I am happy being that, ” he said with pride. The vegetable allusion was apt considering every celebrity at the Finale(and here I include the likes of Pritam Singh and Gautam Gulati whom I had never heard of before this season of Bigg Boss) was in the vegetation mode.
Everyone including the hefty hostess had given up. This season of Bigg Boss was as good as dead. RIP. Welcome to the memorial service a.k.a the Grand Finle , a memorial memorable only for the forgettable performances. Sonakshi Sinha showed up to do a spot surevey on the inhouse conduct of the 5 finalists. She reminded me of one of Hitler’s deputies at a concentration camp scrutinizing the prisoners’ conduct, peering into their molars for suspicious articles. No wonder Pritam, Dimpy and Ali soon fled(the last mentioned had to be carried out of the show by Ajaz Khan, sure sign of exhaustion and fatigue ).
Finally the winner of the evening. No one was surprised when Gautam Gulati won. He was being touted as the winner for weeks now. Gautam was the Rajiv Gandhi of the reality show. No shouting , ranting, abusing or manhandling of fellow-contestants...Softspoke
