Lock, stock and Hindi

KBC has acquired a new hue this season, says Suveen K Sinha, one that reflects the aspirations of small-town India.

Rajesh Chauhan, the first one to get on to the hot seat in the fourth edition of Kaun Banega Crorepati, said he had been trying for 10 years to get there. It so happened that his village, Jheemar, in Madhya Pradesh, where he has a small shop of everyday things, did not have a telephone network (what, then, did he mean by trying?). “When a network came to my village, I came here,” he said, dressed suitably to reflect his moorings.

The first question, which picks the person for the hot seat from 10 participants on the basis of whose fingers move the fastest, was tailor made for the network man. The contestants were asked to arrange the words of the Hindi adage, Ek anar sau bimar, in the order that they appear. The first question Chauhan faced in the hot seat was in the same vein — he was asked to choose one of four Hindi phrases involving eyes (aankh) which meant, to fall in love.

As KBC’s fourth edition opened last Monday on the 68th birthday of Amitabh Bachchan, who returned as its host after ceding the seat to Shah Rukh Khan for the third edition, a colleague wondered aloud if it was actually a quiz show. There was a long stretch in the beginning which tried to showcase a montage of Bachchan’s most memorable scenes and songs, though it only reminded us that he is a lesser actor now, a pale shadow of what he was before Shahenshah. That, however, takes nothing away from Bachchan, the television host.

To respond to the colleague’s musing, no, KBC is not really a quiz show. It is about getting to interact with your favourite superstar, who gives you a gentle, caring hand while you find your way through some simple, commonsense questions — though you may get one or two really difficult ones as the money on offer shoots up.

This time, though, as the show has moved from STAR Plus to Sony, it has acquired a new hue, one that reflects the aspirations of small town India. Which is just as well. When KBC first started 10 years ago, it became India’s first reality show on television and marked Bachchan’s debut on the small screen. The audience’s reaction was stupendous. The show revived the channel and helped it stay number one for a long time. Television at that time was a big-city phenomenon. Economic liberalisation was taking root. STAR Plus could capture that very successfully. But as the cable and satellite universe has grown, the television universe has come to be dominated by audiences in tier II cities, small towns and very small towns.

The first week of KBC IV has been about this new mix. Sony is lucky that Bachchan has returned. No one can match him, his mastery over Hindi, and his ability to connect with the people — all of which are critical if Sony’s KBC has to find new audiences, which is likely to be different from that of STAR’s KBC.

Bachchan has brought back “computer ji”, experimented with “computer mahashay” and brought in the “ghadiyal babu”. His is the avuncular presence when the shopkeeper gets a jaadu ki jhappi from his favourite star. His is the hand that guides the young chap from Orissa who recently passed out of a mass communication course. He is the conspiratorial ally as the housewife pursues the booty so she can buy a house and get rid of her cantankerous neighbour who wouldn’t let her dry her clothes in peace.

All of you spoke endlessly about the saas-bahu soap operas. Now, watch the saas-bahu-Bachchan opera.