No Bingo Night

Abhishek Bachchan’s much hyped aaram classes officially began on TV on Saturday, 23rd January. Too curious to miss what’s all the hype about, i settled down before the idiot box despite the 10-hour travelling ordeal from Delhi to Mumbai. Far from giving me any aaram that I was direly in need of, it left me all confused. Game shows and quiz programs are a passé and we are used to the deluge of dumb family conspiracies on TV. So we have kinda lost the gaming spirit. Two acting geniuses from Bollywood did not it anymore entertaining. i, at least, wasn't able to involve myself in it till the end.

Abhi certainly lacked the confidence and reassurance of a game host. He seemed to be rehearsing the instructions himself, spelling them out slowly and adding to the confusion. Nowhere during the promos did they mention about downloading the Bingo tickets to be ready to play on the D-day. If i were a serious home audience member aspiring to participate in the game, i would be left scratching my head, at least in the first episode. Before i realise, it turns into a family show with Big B in tow to ensure his son’s TV debut was a hit. There couldn’t be a better reason for his presence. Ms. Rashmi, whose important duty is to look pretty pick up and turn around the bingo ball could be easily done away with (women’s dignity, anyone??)

Despite sitting through the game show for one whole hour, i still am not sure if i know how the game works. To me, it seems like a glorified tambola game produced by a dunce who has crores to throw away for the Big ABs to play it with the nation. Bingo night certainly falls short of the hype and stands nowhere close to Amitabh’s KBC that took the nation by storm.