Barely Any ‘Nach’ in ‘Nach Baliye’: 5 Things Wrong With Season 9
What’s lacking in Nach Baliye this season?
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Though not a brand new concept, when Nach Baliye was launched in 2005, it did create a sense of excitement among viewers. Celebrities coming in to dance with their real-life partners offered glimpses into the personal lives of these stars, and kept the audience wanting for more. Right from Ravi Dubey proposing marriage to Sargun Mehta in Season 5, to Abigail Pande going down on her knees for Sanam Johar in Season 8, Nach Baliye has always been as much about dance as it has been about such endearing moments.
However, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. The concept of the show this time and the melodrama of the contestants in the first episode itself, is proof of the dwindling quality of our favorite TV shows, especially this one. There are chances that the coming episodes might be different, however, here are 5 things that have gone wrong with ‘Nach Baliye 9’ from what we have seen so far.
1. Why Ex-Baliyes?
Since 2005, the eight seasons of the reality dance show have stood for real-life couples coming to dance together. It has stood for partners standing beside each other through the competition. The show has come a long way from when Sachin and Supriya Pilgaonkar melted our hearts with their performances and won the first season.
Though every reality show’s concept evolves with time, Nach Baliye isn’t something we wanted to be changed. This concept of celebrities reuniting with their former partners, doesn’t do justice to the original show. With these ex-couples, the individuals would first have to face and overcome their past, before they can even start dancing with their ‘ex-baliyes’.
2. Love Is All You Need to Become the Top Scorer
Nach Baliye started as a show that took the audience through the couples’ journeys in the competition. The highs and lows of their personal lives, paired with the long hours of practice, ended up in powerful performances on stage. Now, however, dance doesn’t seem to be the criteria for being on top of the scoreboard. All you need for that is love, chemistry and efforts! Babita Phogat and her baliye’s performance was more of wrestling and lacked expressions, and yet they were made safe from the next elimination round. Same happened with Vindu Dara Singh’s performance. Couples that can barely dance managed to be safe from elimination, with some exceptions. Guess, it’ll take some time for us to get used to the new criteria for winning Nach Baliye.
3. Dance Judges or Love Gurus?
The judge jodi for the show, Raveena Tandon and Ahmed Khan, also take on the role of being love gurus for most part of the show, and choose to ignore the contestants’ dancing prowess. Apart from the normal banter, teasing and a few personal remarks here and there, they are also seen giving relationship advice to ex-couples, on how everyone wishes for them to patch up. Sounds a bit like an amalgamation of Nach Baliye and Splitsvilla, doesn’t it?
If one starts taking note of the judges’ remarks, words like ‘technique’, ‘choreography’ and ‘synchronization’ are rarely heard. Instead, one would hear ‘emotion’, ‘passion’, ‘soul connection’ and ‘chemistry’ for about ninety percent of the episode.
After Madhurima Tuli and her former partner Vishal Singh’s performance, all the judges could say was how the two should forget the past and hug each other, and how such a performance wouldn’t have been possible had there not been a soul connection between the two. Ahmed Khan even went to the extent of calling their relationship ‘Kabir Singh wala pyaar’, treating it as a compliment. Do we need to say more?
4. Prince & Yuvika’s Performance: Purely for the Sake of TRPs?
The day the couples were unveiled, Prince Narula and his wife Yuvika Chaudhary, came for the shoot despite receiving the news of Prince’s younger brother’s death the same day. It was a tough time for the two and they proved their commitment to the show by making it for their performance. But, when does it become too much? It’s not clear whether the extended emotional scene was for TRPs or for sympathy, since both reasons aren’t new to Indian reality TV shows. It didn’t feel right for Prince’s brother’s death to be made into a spectacle for the entire nation to watch.
The couple’s first performance was dedicated to his brother and they surely did a fabulous task at executing the act. However, they were judged on how well they performed despite the emotional turmoil they were going through, and not on their dance skills. The AV screened before their performance showed the couple managing to pull off rehearsals, despite being devastated by the tragedy. It is clear that the makers are using the personal loss to create some drama for the episode.
5. Where Is the Quality of ‘Nach’ in ‘Nach Baliye’?
Comparing it to the previous seasons of the reality show, the quality of dance and experimentation didn’t quite seem to match up this time. Though we have only seen the first two episodes, in previous seasons, the couples’ performances in the initial episodes used to be phenomenal and more dance-oriented. There used to be more experimentation in terms of dance styles and the focus was on style and technique. Hope we’re proved wrong in the coming episodes of the show.
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