When I switched on my TV to Sony Entertainment on the 12th of Dec, the only thing that I wanted to watch, was the never-seen-before jodi of Malaika Arora Khan and Arbaaz Khan come together as hosts. Power Couple, the new couples’ reality show on Sony is the adaptation of an Israeli show by the same name.
The show brings together 10 popular celebrity couples and tests various attributes of their relationships by challenging them both individually and as a team. The couples have to bet money on each other to prove how much they trust each other.
So as I said, when the show began, I was all eyes to see the magical chemistry of Arbaaz and Malaika unveil on the small screen, but what unfolded was not magical. Both Arbaaz and Malaika were mouthing lines which were just not meant for them and they looked so uncomfortable and superficial while delivering them.
Malaika evidently looked the more comfortable of the two has a host, so she kind of managed to pull off her bit, but Arbaaz….. ok, let me try and soften the blow. I really loved how he looked all excited and beaming throughout the show, but anchoring is clearly not his cup of tea.
Whatever Arbaaz spoke, be it the small frivolous lines on motivation, task instructions, a joke on Naved, a funny comment – it came across as he’s putting in such a mountain moving, desperate effort to make it work. It’s his first shot at driving a show and he may ease into his role through the season, but I highly doubt that the show will retain an audience to witness that curve.
Now, here’s a list of the couples who appeared on the show. Don’t doubt yourself if you feel lost by the end of it, even I had to look up most of the names here.
There is Aamir-Sanjeeda, Mugdha Godse-Rahul Dev, Apoorva-Shilpa, Sandeep-Jesse, Mahek Chahel-Ashmit Patel (wasn’t he with someone else a month back?), Pratyusha and her boyfriend Rahul, Shawar Ali and his Slovakian model-wife Marcella (she is a jarring version of Sofia Vergara from Modern Family, who you just want to yell, “SHUT UP!” at), Naved-Sayeeda, Delnaaz-Percy, Salil Ankola and his doctor-therapist wife Riya.
The show was introduced in a very done-to-death and clichéd to the core, Splitsvillan way. The yacht entry, the top angle retreat reveal in Goa, it’s like the producers have just auto-piloted the creative after making so many seasons of Splitsvilla. Or they must have figured that it was the best way to use the contract with the yacht supplier, which was still active.
If I had to sum it all up in one line, this show is a wannabe couples version of Fear Factor. It will bore you in the first 5 minutes itself, because none of the couples or their stories, or their chemistry, or they themselves for that matter, are interesting to watch.
To add to the show’s negatives, the team has just recreated every challenge done in Power Couple (Israel) as it is, which further adds to its mediocrity besides the tacky villa, uninspired anchors and middling participants.
Watching 10 couples do the same task again and again is exhausting especially if your attention gets saturated at the first couple itself. So, unless the wild card entries on this show are George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin, I really don’t see Power Couple having any takers. Even Salman Khan’s tweets won’t be able to save this one.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)