The most controversial indian TV reality show will end this weekend.
"Saach Ka Saamna " this show was based on american TV reality show called " The Moment Of The Truth"
Trust an Indian television channel to market a risque, daring show as '
Sach Ka Saamna, is a fascinating look at the way we really live, behind all our put on hypocrisy and bland exterior selves. I was chatting with a couple of colleagues over coffee and we all agreed that the first half hour in
Dev D was the best part of the film. Anurag Kashyap's interpretation of Paro as a regular bold, brash, horny desi girl from Punjab provided stunning insights into the way we actually are.
Back then, actress Mahi Gill said she could identify with the character, that it was close to her heart.
Anyway, here's what I wrote about
Sach Ka Saamna after seeing the first episode. Don't forget to catch it tonight! i also sent SMS to all my friends.
A female dressed in a blue sari, former teacher with a lovely smile (that fades rapidly as you watch her), two children and a husband of 16 years. A Sindhi married to a Christian. She's classic Incredible India. Incredible at hiding the garbage life has shoveled her way. Until, of course, television offered her the chance to win Rs1 crore in exchange for 21 truths about her relationship with her mother, her inner sexual longings and her childhood secrets and jealousies.
Thus far Indian television has never managed to successfully replicate the American-style intimate, confessional chat show format, a genre powered by Oprah Winfrey, arguably one of the world's most influential women. Indians just aren't brought up to confess on prime time television that they were raped by their uncle/neighbour when they were 11, or that they are having affairs with their wives' sisters. Family secrets, we believe, should be buried in the darkest recesses of our emotional selves.
Star India's sensational show,
Sach ka Saamna, the local version of the globally successful
Moment of Truth, manages to smash through this barrier with its deceptively simple format. All a contestant has to do is answer yes or no to any question the host asks. Twenty-one right answers and she's a
crorepati. A lie detector test, taken prior to the show when the contestant is asked 50 questions, confirms whether the answer is right or wrong. How difficult can that be, right? And how dramatic can it be when she has already answered all the questions that she is going to be asked on the show?
It was tougher than you think. Especially when your family is sitting on the same stage, watching you spill your guts with a simple yes, no, yes, no. "The best part about this show is that you know all the questions and you know all the answers,The channel screened people with interesting lives, those who had been through a lot, nearly 50% of the contestants backed out when they realized how far they would have to go-some of them quit after the lie detector test.
Indian version of the show had less sex and more emotion. But maybe that's the smart approach considering the show was recently banned in Greece on grounds of decency/taste. I'm almost certain that no contestant has won the big prize since this show went on air in the US last year. Incidentally, the US show was inspired by a Colombian show which also ran into trouble after a contestant said yes when she was asked if she had paid a hitman to kill her husband.
Star's yes/no brand of truth certainly was more radical than Rakhi Sawant's attempts to play pastel princess on NDTV Imagine.
Star's new show also had head-to-head with Sony Television's reality biggie
Iss Jungle se Mujhe Bachao! that begins two days earlier. When viewers have to pick between "Saach ka Saamna" and a B-grade celebrity trapped in a Malaysian forest, which one you choose? I was awalys up for "Saach Ka saamna".
But truth is this show will end by this week.
