Thursday, August 28, 2008

Moment of Truth

The show is finally being aired in India.9:00 pm Tuesday on Star World. And man it is scary. After creating quite a furor in USA the show has now found its way to the Indian television.
The contestants are asked personal questions and they have to say the truth to win money. Now as you go on from one question to another the prize money increases and simultaneously the questions become more and more personal. The moment you answer a question untruthfully you lose the game and all your money. And yes there is a polygraph in use so one can’t escape lying either.

Now let me give you an example of the kind of questions that are asked -
To a guy who has been married for 3 years – “one of the reasons why you haven’t had a child with your wife yet is because you aren’t sure if you want to spend the rest of your life with her”. This question was asked with the wifey sitting right in front of him. Now that is a complete Catch 22 Situation. If he says the truth he is dead but at least rich. If he says a lie, it will anyways be detected.
And imagine the plight of the wife. Yes it surely would have hurt.

Take another – This guy was asked “if he thought he was superior to his friends when looks where concerned”… huh… poor thing… there goes all the narcissism for the rest of his life…

This one is my personal fav – to a physical trainer – “have you touched your female clients more that it was needed”…hehe… I surely hope he won some money as he would have definitely lost his job after that…

Actually there are a lot more which get even more personal. But since mine is a Universal Blog I wont venture into those. Although I have managed to see only 1 episode till now I am sure there are lot more firecrackers in there. Do catch it.

I am sitting on 31st floor of our Melbourne office and looking straight out of the window. Thank god for the Air Conditioning, the chill can’t reach me. I can see the shore line and a few random ships. And there is only one thought in my mind - get me home.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Can we please ban movie reviews???

It has happened with me so many times now. Before I get a chance to see a movie I have read and heard so many reviews about it already that I am far from forming an opinion. In the interest of all those who love watching movies, all kinds of reviews should be completely banned.
Now you’ll ask if I was forced to read or listen to the review. I wasn’t but I still do as there is no escape. Its on the TV, it’s in the newspaper, it’s on the radio, people blog about it, colleagues discuss it over lunch and coffee. Now how the hell do I escape all this? In my media savvy world ignoring so much noise is practically not possible. I can’t virtually insulate myself.

Case in point – Remember Mithya?? I was keenly waiting for it. And then just before going for the movie I happened to hear what Rajiv Masand had to say. He went all out praising Mithya giving it 4 stars and calling it an answer to everyone who feels Hindi movies are mindless and predictable.
So whoop goes my expectations. And ironically I didn’t find it too great.
No doubt it is an interesting movie, with a brilliant performance by Ranvir Shorey and an exciting plot too. So why was I not all that thrilled after watching it??
The answer is “EXPECTATIONS”. Yes expectations - the mother of all agony. Expectations - that build up as an after effect of these reviews.

Another example is of Jodha Akbar, a movie that received comparatively sad reviews but I liked it. my colleagues hated it and they made it a point to come and tell me so. And as a result throughout watching the movie more of my attention was on being critical about it rather than enjoying it.

Not just these two but many more movie watching experience has been spoiled because of listening to people talk about them. So in the general interest of many more sufferers like myself I plead all the day 1 watchers – zip your mouth and don’t solicit information unless I ask for it.

I essentially dash away from the sight of these reviews but it feels like I am being bombarded with these reviews from all possible directions. Looks like there is no escape. Ahhmmm.