Kaun banega bore-pati?

Well, I had the misfortune of watching Shah Rukh Khan host KBC-III last night (Jan 22). I appreciate the fact that he has some rather large shoes to fill, but then it’s not the best way to start by announcing “Freeze kiya jaye”, is it? Worse still, one must refrain from hugging participants at the drop of a hat. SRK did not. He got up, massaged and hugged Prasenjit (the over-smart Excise Inspector from Kolkata) and kept giving him high-fives.

A role to which AB had brought much dignity was killed in the opening minutes with SRK belting out an interesting parody (it resembled AB+Adnan Sami’s Kabhie Nahi, if you ask me) and then proceeding to ham his way for the next hour.

 

How much he apes AB is a lesson in itself. AB did ICICI commercials, SRK went and got those. Now KBC and he didn’t even leave the famous recital from Amar Akbar Anthony (just before the “My name is Anthony Gonsalves” when AB emerges from an Easter Egg) and aped it in his aforementioned parody. And after this, he goes on to proclaim that there will be some “changes” like freezing stuff and all that. More like brain-freeze. Yawn!

But he did liven up proceedings ever so often. Once every 20 minutes, he cracked a joke. Hah.

All said and done, he is trying hard. As some would say, too hard. I wish he did not. And unfortunately, I cannot even wish he ‘be himself’. And stop with the hugging man!

Update: This photo of the endless hugging. This was in episode 1, wasn’t it?

 

Er, and SRK is the Indian Oprah? That explains the hugging!