Netflix has just dropped the trailer of their new show What The Love , with Karan Johar as the host. In the new reality show, the director turns guru for a selection of starstruck contestants looking for love. At one point in the trailer he asks in a dramatic fashion, “How many people believe in the power of true love?” Karan being Karan ufff.
Watch the trailer here:
One can see why Karan was the apt choice for a show like this. Through his movies, he has created these aspirational love stories, that TBH ours is far from. A girl on the show even says, “I have Karan Johar to blame, you screwed up my idea of romance completely.”
But people on social media have been calling the show Netflix’s version of Spiltsvilla, and rightly so. Here’s what we think of the trailer:
1. Netflix Give us Better Stuff Pleaaaaaase!
Netflix produces stuff like Dark, Stranger Things, Money Heist, Sex Education, You and the list is endless. Why is the Indian content so mediocre? If Drive, Chopsticks, Ghost Stories and the second season of Sacred Games wasn’t enough, you give us the kind of show that we were fed up of watching on TV! There are enough and more reality shows on TV, give us those amazing binge-worthy shows that you make abroad.
2. “If you want to be in the love game you have got to look good.” Like, Really?!? Is this a KJo Movie?
Karan has two designers on the show who help him ‘transform’ the people looking for love. And one of the designers says, “If you want to be in the love game you have got to look good!”
Ummmm we need better clothes to find love? I hope the show offers a better explanation for this statement.
3. Contestants are finding themselves through this show...
“I think in this process I’ve found myself, and that’s the most amazing thing right?” says one of the contestants on the show. Karan tells another contestant emphatically, “I think you have started loving yourself,” to which she says, “Yes, I think I do love myself.”
It’s great to rediscover yourself, but they only show us glimpses of them getting a new wardrobe... and nothing else really.
4. 'What the love’ is soooo ‘Splitsvilla’ that they even got Sunny Leone
The show also has a bevy of stars making an appearance on the show like Parineeti Chopra, Arjun Kapoor, Huma Qureshi, Ali Fazal and Sunny Leone. Sunny Leone is categorically telling a male contestant, “There’s nothing more attractive than a man who takes the driver’s seat.”
And then she casually asks...
There are also tastefully shot sequences at the Gateway of India, in a lovely garden and on a truck full of hay (read: romantic)... budget toh hai, boss! We say that because it looks like they’ve used the sets of Koffee With Karan and shot it like a Karan Johar film. LOL.
5. KJo is that single friend....
Karan was earlier hosting a radio show called Calling Karan, where he was playing agony aunt to a bunch of confused people in love. This seems like an OTT version of that. He’s literally that SINGLE friend in the group who’s always dolling out relationship advice!
An example of a great reality show on similar lines is Queer Eye also on Netflix where a team of gay professionals (‘Fab Five’) in the fields of fashion etc performs a makeover, usually for a heterosexual man. They revamp his wardrobe, give tips on personal grooming but the show also gives a glimpse into his life and also of the five men. It’s not just a surface-level observation, but also moving.
We hope that Karan and What The Love has much more to offer! But we hope Karan does break into a spontaneous jig like this:
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