Farhan Akhtar, Go Back to the Director’s Chair
“It’s recession. Girls are actually marrying for love.” Then, the host of the Oye, Its Friday show (NDTV Imagine) paused a second for the canned laughter. Now why did that sound familiar? Because, not only had I read this pathetic joke earlier in some TOI weekend supplement but I had also seen this SMS joke do the rounds about a week ago. The last thing I expected of Farhan Akhtar on his new talk show was stale humor. Actually, I wonder what the show was exactly. It was a hybrid mish-mash of a joke-heavy Jay Leno plus irreverent Jimmy Kimmel plus celebrity-on-sofa Ellen plus spoofy SNL. Throw in a couple of Bollywood awards night type song-n-dance performances. Fit in a prodigious drummer kid who appears, makes a helluva lot of noise and then disappears. Include a tail-piece spoof that strips SRK’s Friday release Rab Ne Banaa Di Jodi to pieces (but why?!! Is this some new form of viral marketing?). Thank God, there was Hrithik Roshan sitting around, though even he looked uncomfortable ...