Dance With Me...

When I saw the promos and the concept I wasn’t really kicked about viewing this show. In fact, with an overdose of reality shows who really cared about celebrities dancing? No real career dreams to chase, no points to gain, and nothing to prove. Apparently the producers must have had something in mind to go ahead with this concept. After watching it yesterday, I’m pretty glad they stuck to their belief.

I often feel that if you don’t build up any expectations, the results are often more enjoyable. This is exactly what happened with Star One’s new Reality Show Nach Baliye.

Now the concept is simple, 10 real life celebrity couples- stars of Indian television and choreographers for each couple will set up a dance piece every week. This will be judged by the three judges: Farhan Akhtar, Malaika Arora and Saroj Khan. Fairly competent judges I think, and Farhan himself is a good dancer (Apparently he cherished that dream). Judges will score the couples and their choreographers, and viewers will cast their votes to eliminate a couple every week. All couples are supporting a charity of their choice and will donate the prize money to the same. The real gainers from this show will be the choreographers who will get a helping hand in their career.

Well it’s not all that simple though; now none of the star couples are great dancers. Those who have been in movies can shake their legs a bit but most are paranoid dancers with two left feet. The biggest challenge lies with the choreographer and if you can get a person with two left feet to move around with a bit of grace, you are on your way on the road to success.

If you are a trained dancer or love dancing; you know there are Three Important ‘E’s to being a good dancer:

• Enjoyment: However bad you are , if you enjoy your dancing you won’t seem half as bad
• Energy: Energy and vigor has to be seen in every small step you do. It just about helps you make up for everything else you lack
• Expression: Express the dancing mood, just don’t do it mechanically. It makes a world of a difference to your audience and to you as well.
  
  

And after the ten performances, all the couples realised the importance of these three Es Surprisingly the oldest couples 'Sachin and Supriya & Parmeet Sethi & Archana Puran Singh' got them right. Sachin and Supriya have a 16 year old daughter, and seeing their chemistry and enthusiasm everyone was dazed. They really rocked. Delnaz and Rajiv Paul probably got the Second E the best among all. Oh, that Delnaz was so cute! Absolutely loved watching her! Mihir Mishra and Manasi Joshi-Roy openly admitted that they had two left feet, but they were pretty sporting about it. All the couples seemed to have really worked hard and taken effort on this. In all, it seems quite an enjoyable show.

Now for the irritating part of the show and sadly we have to bear them throughout. The anchors: Shabbir Ahluwalia and Sangeeta Ghosh. Star One has got it terribly wrong here. Both can’t dance for nuts. ‘Kajra Re’ is a super dance number and they made a mess of it! To improve the popularity, avoid getting these two to dance at the commencement of the show. Why do they have to shriek and talk! And after Delnaz-Rajiv Paul’s performance on, 'It’s The Time to Disco' , Sangeeta Ghosh’s comments such as, 'Now is the time to Breako', and 'Let’s see what’s the Scoro', were so not happening. Not done, not done, even to evoke laughter. It only evoked embarrassment! And I found the dresses and make-up a little garish and overdone. Sometimes simplicity and subtlety works wonders!

Anyways, overall it was pretty enjoyable and a nice way to spend your Saturday prime time compared to the stupid saas-bahu sagas! I hope it sustains itself for the next ten weeks.