Bigg Boss Tamil 8 Week 3 Roundup: Dharsha Gupta creates rifts on her way out; Vijay Sethupathi gets exhausted playing the game for the housemates

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Food Wars 2.0 

Yes, the house teaches the housemates to control their responses to hunger, teaches them the importance of rationing, hopes they understand the rules of the game, and how to adhere to it all. But… ‘pasikkum la’… This was the underlying emotion of the entire week, and it started right from the time Vijay Sethupathi signed off last week. There was the payasam fiasco. There was the Bull’s eye issue. There was the banana count problem. There was a lot more, but it was best summed up by Jeffry in the weekend show when he said, “I have to learn to adapt to what is there.”

Now, this came even after Sethupathi pointed out that asking for food is a right of each contestant. But it is clear Jeffry got the memo about the functionings of the house, which seems to have flown over the head of Soundariya. 

Gold Coin Task 

Now, when there is a game happening, and there is an overwhelming sense of unfairness in its functioning, there are two things we can do. A) Stop it immediately B) Let it continue as is with/without protest. The Bigg Boss housemates found a new technique, which was to act as if everything is alright till Vijay Sethupathi pointed it out on the Saturday episode. 

Now, in a physical task involving hiding a coin, or plastering it on to someone, which has the potential to get rough, manoeuvring it gets tough. If the Men slack off because they are playing against women, they would be labelled as ‘misogynists’ and if the men play too harshly, they would be labelled as ‘insensitive’. It might seem like being between a rock and a hard place for the Men, but as RJ Ananthi rightly pointed out, “The problem with their strategy was that it didn’t make the game interesting.” Now, that is the right way to look at the task, but it is also important to win the task, right? Both teams are caught in the dilemma of playing a task interestingly, or winning the task. Bigg Boss needs to take up these things, and treat them with the required nuance. It isn’t enough if you look at the boys and say it wasn’t interesting. And the men shouldn’t be unaware of how their game is affecting their housemates. The men couldn’t be apologetic, and the women couldn’t be seen as emotional. 

But honestly, did it seem safe to anyone who watched? At some point, housemates (read men) should have realised that wrestling is painful, especially when such moves are done on unsuspecting individuals who don’t have that training. Even if Sunitha says she felt safe, her immediate response that night was one of pain and incredulity about how weird she felt. Of course, it was told in confidence with her fellow women housemates. Because… that might not have been the intention, but sometimes, consequences trump intention. 

Bigg Boss Hotel 

What should have been a fun task didn’t reach its full potential because of the simple ego clashes between the hot-headed individuals of the house. All of them are. Now, did this make for good entertainment? Mostly. Did it reflect their inner thoughts about each other? Definitely. 

It was almost like a Stanford Prison Experiment, and every housemate turned into a different version of themselves that they might not really like if seen with objectivity. However, points to some contestants, including Muthukumaran and Jacquline for using this task to place themselves as the de facto leaders of their group. Of course, there are other strong contenders, including the benevolent yet conniving Deepak, and the strong yet scheming Tharshika.

But there is no point drubbing them down because cunningness is the name of the game. Cooped up inside a new place for 20-odd days would break even the strongest of minds, and can lead to thoughts that offer them temporary peace rather than wait for peace of the eternal kind to make its way. 

Vijay Sethupathi and the Weekend Showdown 

After two weeks, we have warmed up to Vijay Sethupathi’s style of hosting, which is less Kamal Haasan, and more Salman Khan. Now, Sethupathi is giving all of them a rap to their thought process, and pulling them out of their stupor. But it also means, the hurriedness of Sethupathi’s approach isn’t allowing the contestants to speak their minds. After the three weekend episodes, I think the housemates are confused about what to say and what not to say. And I don’t blame them. 

One of the highlights of Vijay Sethupathi’s hosting style is his way of addressing the feedback about his weekend episodes. When there were voices about him being partial towards Sunitha, he immediately shut it down, of course, with his sardonic wit. 

Certain burning topics were addressed well, including the body-shaming jokes veiled as riposte. He didn’t completely admonish Jacquline and Soundariya because he understood their intent. He asked them to tone it down, because even if it is happening inside a house, it is still a public forum. 

Saturday was relegated to questioning the Men about their decision to play the Killer Coin task the way they played it. He was firm yet understanding, and it was a decent way to deal with this without hurting the sentiments of his housemates. But, it also paved the way for the men to hide behind the growing clout of Muthukumaran. Vijay Sethupathi had to cut the promising contestant to size, but he didn’t mince words about this move by the men’s team. “Give your title chances to Muthukumaran and leave the house,” bellowed Sethupathi. 

Soundariya’s cry for attention was acknowledged, but it was also criticised for being out of place. If Saturday was fixed to bring down the morale of the men, Sunday was the chance for women to get a recourse. And it happened with the cries of ‘groupism’, which yours truly doesn’t see as a fault at all. Bigg Boss show is the survival of the fittest and craftiest. It isn’t a place to showcase virtuosity. It is all about strategy, and time and again, Bigg Boss Tamil audience see this as a bad thing. It is only when we come to terms with the requirements of the game that we can truly see the show become a reflection of society. Till that happens, and if Vijay Sethupathi continues to steer all of them like a goatherd, we will only have assembly line of contestants. 

Individuality thrives under pressure, and this pressure should be coming from within the house, and not from Vijay Sethupathi. But, he also manages to win our hearts by oscillating between being the devil’s advocate, jury, and the house’s patriarch. Just like how he shut down last week’s evicted contestant Arnav for using the farewell stage to express his toxic responses, Sethupathi had to intervene and stop Dharsha Gupta from doing the same mistake. 

Dharsha, who was just getting started in the game, had to cut short her stay because the people voted her out. Of course, the women had a nomination free pass, which they didn’t use on Dharsha. Now, she can make a hue and cry about the same, and Sachana can try to sneak into her good books, but the game is simple. Weed out the non-group people, and stick together till the time comes to fight among themselves. That is the plan, and even if Dharsha’s little show on the farewell stage was entertaining, it was once again overwhelmingly negative.

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This is something we haven’t often seen in previous seasons of Bigg Boss Tamil. Everyone who left, even if they were fuming on the inside about being sent out, understood that there is something called decorum. It seems like the contestants of this show, who are unable to express their minds freely when the opportunity arises inside, get evicted to find their peace.  

Well, as we wrap up this third week roundup, yours truly has something similar to Sethupathi too. “You are pragmatic and say almost all the right things. But they are the players… Let them play.”