Game shows mein toh hum tumhare baap lagte hai, naam hai, Kaun Banega Crorepati. Haayein!
The suited-booted ‘complete man’ Amitabh Bachchan is back with his desi version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire co-sponsored mostly by Chinese brands and riding majorly on dhan dhana dhan ka dhan.
Anyhoo. Devyion aur sajjano, that’s not the point of this post.
After a three-year hiatus, KBC in its ninth edition promised to be grander, more entertaining and more exciting. It awakened our questioning spirit by continuously echoing ’Jawab dene ka samay aa gaya hai!’ Our TV zeal, which had long remained buried in the Netflix craze was suddenly alive and kicking to play the fastest finger first and answer Amitabh Bachchan’s questions.
Until…
“Which country did Narendra Modi visit in July 2017?”
“’One Tax for One Country’ is the tagline for which government initiative?”
“What image is drawn behind the new Rs 2,000 note issued by the government?
“Uzma Ahmed was forced to marry a man at gunpoint. With the help of our MEA minister, from which country did she return to India?”
“Which of the current or former Chief Minister’s name means ‘Earth’?”
FYI, the sahi jawab is Vasundhara Raje.
Errr. Is this KBC or a sarkari general knowledge quiz show? Has KBC run out of genuine GK questions that they now need to look at political parties and their leaders for some inspiration?
And if this wasn’t in-your-face sarkari PR enough, you’ve got Amitabh Bachchan in his rich baritone promoting Digital India by transferring the prize money online. The good ol’ signing of the crisp cheque has become a post-dated concept; it has now been replaced by the dry click of a button, reminiscent of a PSA on Digital India. Every. Single. Time.
Not even a week into KBC9, I’m already missing the old format-wala show. Where Amitabh Bachchan’s questions were unadulterated. Where contestants were thrilled to hold that crunchy cheque after being fashionably signed by the superstar himself. Where the phone-a-friend lifeline had an element of excitement in the caller’s voice, which unfortunately one misses in a video-call-a-friend.
Mera KBC badal raha hai, digital bann raha hai but I’m not lovin’ it! Haayein!
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