Koffee with Karan Season 8: Reheated coffee, a new couch and lots of yawn-versations

After the carefully constructed, came the surprisingly candid episode featuring Sunny and Bobby Deol. Since the Deols are fairly private people by Bollywood standards, one looked forward to hearing what they had to say. It was heartening to see two burly Punjabi men talk about facing failure, hitting rock bottom and battling a drinking problem. Sunny is basking in the massive success of Gadar 2 and Bobby is enjoying the kind of career resurgence that only Rishi Kapoor enjoyed before him. Interestingly, after spending decades in the business and truly seeing the industry for what it is, the Deols are now realistic and practical and not bitter and cynical. From Sunny’s teddy bear collection to Bobby having the same vices as his father, this episode had the most refreshing conversation Karan has brewed in recent times.

Sadly after the brief sparkle created by the Deol brothers, Karan went back into his recycle bin and churned out an episode that was a mashup of his previous conversations with both Ananya Panday and Sara Ali Khan. Yet again he asked them about their love lives, and there were some jokes about Ananya having a night manager and calling herself Aditya Coy Kapur.

Truth be told, actors like Sara and Ananya are not just overexposed on social media but also socialise regularly with Karan. So the idea that this conversation with him is some rare couch coup that will interest audiences, is wishful thinking. I secretly began hoping that a laughter track or background music like Kapil Sharma’s show would be introduced to make things at least a little forcibly fun. To be fair, it’s not like Sara, Ananya or even the guests in Karan’s next episode, Alia Bhatt and Kareena Kapoor Khan are uninteresting people. But there wasn’t enough of an effort made to differentiate this conversation from his earlier interactions with them. While Alia seemed very excited to be back, Kareena seems to have had her fill of the cliched discussions on who is the top heroine in the business, and how she
feels about her kids being photographed. It makes you wonder why they agree to make an appearance if they find it hard to even keep up the appearance of excitement or enthusiasm.

From being a couch of manifestation where multiple single actors found true love, this season Karan’s couch has now become the couch of public relations. Seated on it, a couple shares a five-year-old wedding video that makes sure that they trend for at least a week after the episode starts streaming. A wife attempts to rub off the blot of toxic masculinity from her husband’s name quite like she rubs off the lipstick he dislikes. Or star kids who have displayed little to no acting potential, wistfully sigh about not receiving respect from people for their talent. Where’s the lie-ger here?

Thankfully the show redeemed itself to an extent with the most recent episode featuring Karan’s OG proteges, Varun Dhawan and Siddharth Malhotra. The interaction seemed far more candid and free-flowing and while the gossip banter was a little censored, thanks to the controversies that have been created in the past seasons, it was fun to see Varun and Siddharth make Karan laugh, reminisce, honestly admit that they were not friends and charm the ladies in the jury for the rapid fire hamper.

What’s also great is Karan has cut down on his opening monologue and added new games to each episode. There are some genuine moments where you laugh, snigger, or manage a Komolika-esque grin. But these moments are few and far between in the five episodes streaming so far. Perhaps, if Karan widens the guest list to include more than his close friends and their children, this show might be able to revive itself. Stirring in a little substance (or actors with Emmy nominations maybe) alongside the style, could be just the shot of espresso this season is missing so far.

Now that social media has taken away a large part of the show’s USP of Karan having exclusive access to A-list celebrities, it’s time to stop acting classist about where your coffee beans come from and focus on what would make this cuppa worth sipping for any more seasons. Otherwise, as Alia told Karan at the end of her episode with Kareena while thanking him, “But we chat every day Karan so there is nothing new.” Same Alia same.