Akshay Kumar's Khatron Ke Khiladi - Review

Channel: Colors
Timing: Mon – Thu, 10 pm
Genre: Action Game Show, Reality
Host: Akshay Kumar
Contestants: Aditi Govitrikar, Anita Hasnandani, Anjana Sukhani, Dipannita Sharma, Meghna Naidu, Nethra Raghuraman, Pooja Bedi, Sonali Kulkarni, Tapur Chatterjee, Tupur Chatterjee, Vidya Malvade, Urvashi Sharma, Yana Gupta
Rating: 3/5

The Indian television scene seems to be pretty pathetic. It’s either sloppy soaps or, in recent years, reality shows that seem to rule the idiot box. While the former is intolerable till eternity, the latter too has lost its charm for the staged dramatization by the participants and the panelists to the extent that it has no ‘reality check’. In such a scenario Fear Factor comes as a refreshing breather and the format of the show is such that it doesn’t offer any scope to manipulate facts.

Fear Factor has always been a huge hit amongst action lovers for its genuinely original and meticulously designed stunts. The international show had already been adapted for the Indian subcontinent by Sony TV that was hosted by Mukul Dev. However with Akshay Kumar as the host, the show not only gets star power but also action authenticity, for one can’t think of a better anchor than Akki for a stunt-based show like Fear Factor.

Other interesting variation is too have an all-female cast and see them indulge in some precarious feats which is a pleasant change from the standard saas-bahu prototypes that the feminine form is widely relegated to on the small screen. Though the women weep in both category of shows, the tears here are real, unexaggerated and an outcome of scare over sorrow. Another addition to the show is that every contestant has an ex-army serviceman partner with whom they can swap one stunt in the entire course of the show.

From the four stunts per episode format of the original, this one has only two stunts in each episode to accommodate the 13 contestants. And one of these two stunts includes interface with a live creature that could be a snake, spider, rodent or any other being. While this segment might find varying acceptance with the Indian audience with the stunts ranging from being gruesome to gross, its ratio is clearly increased as compared to the original show, which only makes life difficult for the girls. Plunging head into a snake tank, having spiders crawling on their faces and handling rats are some examples from the first week.

On the flipside, watching 13 contestants do the same stunt, sets in a kind of monotony which will dissipate in the coming days with an elimination in every episode. With this brisk elimination frequency, the show doesn’t unnecessarily stretch itself just to gain additional episodes for telecast, a regular tendency with reality shows. Another setback for audiences who have keenly followed the international version is that many stunts would come across as repetitive.

The makers have also incorporated the ‘luck-factor’ with this Indian adaptation which can conflict with the fairness of the stunt intensity for each contestant. For example, contestants had to choose the number of spiders crawling on their face from a pack of cards which defies equal opportunity, as a lot has been left on luck. Also there are safety belts for the best performers that allow them to skip another stunt which could also dispute with parity.

However the elimination of the contestants has been almost fair so far. Clearly the ones with non-athletic bodies have been eliminated first like Sonali Kulkarni, Dipannita Sharma, Meghna Naidu and Vidya. The ones who are physically agile like Yana Gupta, Tupur-Tapur Chatterjee and Anjana Sukhani are performing pretty well.

The good part of having Akshay Kumar as the host is that he just has to be himself and not act, like Shah Rukh and Salman do in their respective shows. He encourages the girls to give their best shot and with his (in)famous flair for flirting, Akki always looks comfortable around girls. There were complains from the initial episodes that Akshay Kumar doesn’t perform any stunts but he also did that in the fourth episode.

The one big glitch is its desi title. Khatron Ke Khiladi sounds like a B-Grade Mithun Chakravarthy film from the past decade. But what in a name! It’s the game that matters.