MTV Grind

In the ’90s,an entire generation went from being youth to adults,thanks in part to a late-night show on MTV called Grind. The show,which returned on the small-screen last week,has to be one of the lamest,dumbest and most contrite shows ever. If that sounds too harsh then it’s nothing compared to the original.

Based on the concept of having skimpily-dressed dancers groove to chartbusting numbers,MTV Grind is principally sponsored by a popular deo brand. The girls,dressed in barely-there swimsuits in a resort-like setting,take idiosyncrasy to a whole new level. As you sit on your couch watching dancers,some of them from Shiamak Davar’s troupe,you wonder where the dance is and what the music is. For,the seven to eight cameras used in the show seem to have a mind of their own and constantly feature close-ups of these dancers while they mechanically groove to songs that keep playing on loop without any set agenda. So while the soundtrack moves from Chhaiya chhaiya to Maiyya maiyya,there does not seem anything terribly exciting about watching bad dancers in song after song.

There is no reason to ‘watch’ this show too. The lure of skin show diminishes at an accelerated rate once MTV Grind begins. The idea of the show,thus,takes a severe beating when there is nothing going for it. Even Coke Studio @ MTV does not require you to ‘see’ the show. A viewer can multitask while the folk songs fuse with Bollywood and enjoy the sheer joy of the music being produced. But MTV Grind? It’s like being tortured for listening to some of your favourite tracks with bad dancers.

A word on the show’s timing as well. Usually at 7 pm on Saturdays,impressionable youngsters are sitting at home and are likely to be swayed by the more-explicit-than-usual content on the show. Relocating it to a later time may not be such a bad idea for a show that tags itself as ‘too hot to handle’.

MTV’s resident VJs,such as VJ Ayushmann,VJ Anusha,VJ Gaelyn and VJ Rhea are also present in this series. They have little to do except wriggle and jiggle to the music. Each song focusses on one VJ as he/ she dances with a bevy of assorted female dancers in different parts of the resort. These VJs seem to have pre-determined roles,making it even worse to watch the show. Thus,while Ayushmann looks carefree and happy in his songs,Rhea tries to be graceful,Gaelyn attempts to look oomphy while VJ Anusha’s one-point agenda seems to be to look as hot as possible with the help of her eyes. Of the lot,only VJ Ayushmann looks bearable on screen.

In the \’90s,there was no broadband Internet and iPods for people to enjoy music. Mobile entertainment had yet to make its debut. Watching foreign dancers in skimpy attires was the male thing to do before females became the target audience with saas-bahu soaps. MTV Grind seems stuck in the \’90s in its approach to the show even if its outlook has gone glam. Nobody in 2011 will willingly consent to watch this half-baked show which is neither about songs nor about dancing.

Verdict: *

It grates on your nerves. Skip it.