Review 10 Ka Dum : Not Bad For Starters

(Well its Salman Khan. And I tend to get a wee-bit emotional when it comes to him but then again this is no new news for you. Which is why when the time came to review the very first episode of 10 Ka Dum, I choose my dearest friend to take it while I could spend the entire 60 minutes simply ogling at the man and not worrying about the rest.)

Take a glass piece to the eye, crinkle up your nose, and revisit a much thinner Salman Khan of two decades ago. His expressions, his accent and his I’m-so-Kewl attitude remain much the same as he played the bad-boy-turned-good in the Rekha and Farook Sheikh starrer Biwi Ho Toh Aisi (1988).

Then of course came the iconic Maine Pyaar Kiya and Khan simply didn’t need to look back. Everything about that movie reeked of success – from that black ‘Friends’ hat to the teddy bears that every girl just had to have in her bedroom, to Khan’s odd long hair, to the frocks Bhagyashree wore – that film made an impact on the teens still reeling under the double whammy of Rekha’s fashion statements of Khoon Bhari Maang and George Michael’s long hair. Oddly enough, each movie Khan did, nothing changed about his acting style. His attitude was always the same, and his expressions followed a formula. A twisted smile meant mischief; an open one meant ‘Happy Khan’; and no smile could either mean he was pissed or he was delivering dialogues. As muscles appeared inch by inch, the formula didn’t change. Much. It may have been tweaked here and there (he discovered the joys of removing his shirt and vest somewhere in the mid ‘90s) but the basic structure remained the same.

And now, driven by every star’s seemingly inexorable fate, Khan has landed up in primetime TV, to host an audience-interactive imported game show, this one being the Hindi version of CBS’s now-withdrawn Power of 10, hosted by Drew Carey (Remember Whose Line Is It Anyways?). Starting with Rs 10,000, contestants stand to win Rs 10 crores by answering five questions. Time to show the love people. And that’s what the first contestant to play the show did. She danced, she laughed, she joked around and she hugged Khan. Even the other contestant who lost out in the first round itself got her hug’s worth of Khan. So did her husband. The both of them even shook hands over it, while Khan looked on. Hilarious stuff. Unintentional, but hilarious.

The game itself seems fairly interesting. But the where is the India opinion poll coming from and who are the 63 (?) per cent of people who believe in inter-caste marriages?? I missed the beginning, so I don’t know if they explained the demographics of the poll: who are they asking, how many are being asked. Stuff like that. Anyhow, putting aside the assumptions of the producers as to what constitutes Indian thought, this show is one that requires a strong host to carry it to TRP heaven. Will Salman Khan be able to do it? I don’t know. The people are crazy about him and the channel will get the stars to come in sooner or later for guest shows/ charity shows and all that natak. They might even get him to sing, dance and entertain, they’ll probably rope in Katrina Kaif at some point too. But the bottom line is will Salman Khan be enough to carry it off? For Sakshi’s sake, I hope he is.

Guest Review by Dhamini Ratnam