Commanding change

When Indian Idol came to the small screen,nobody thought reality shows would one day be a game changer.

D3 : Commando Force
Saturday,7.00 pm,UTV Bindas
When Indian Idol came to the small screen,nobody thought reality shows would one day be a game changer. But gradually,even these became as tepid as the saas-bahu soaps they took over briefly. Trying to infuse some sort of change and make it different from the other reality shows out there,UTV Bindass latest show D3 8211; Commando Force brings together 14 contestants selected from Lucknow,Delhi and Mumbai. The D3 denotes the third edition of Dadagiri.

The USP of the show is retired army personnel supervising commando tasks performed by the contestants to enable them to combat terrorism. And as one of them says,the winner will earn love,respect and confidence apart from Rs 10 lakh. And so,the contestants,stationed at their base camp in Tarkarli,one of the most virgin beaches of Maharashtra,try their luck at waking up at 4 am,braving the sizzling 48 degree heat,trekking 10 kms as part of their task and generally trying hard to look like commandos.

The show has retired army officers in the form of Captain Dharamveer Singh,Captain Kshitij Sharma and Captain Albert Louis along with Vishal dada trying to make life miserable for the contestants in any way they see fit. So,when a contestant removes a light bulb after asking permission from the crew instead of the officers,Capt Dharamveer makes all the boys do front and back rolls as punishment late into the night. Waking up again at 4 am,the contestants become commandos after a piping ceremony during which their names are pinned to their military-wear shirts. Capt Louis takes the commandos for shooting practice with mid semi-automatic sniper guns that have coloured plastic pelts in place of bullets. Those will come at a later stage,Louis assures the commandos. The boys are given army issue crew cuts while the girls find ways of bitching with each other,as is standard on every reality show,prompting even the quiet girls to remark yaar,yahan bhi bitching..

The show manages its USP to a certain level and is thus watchable in those parts. The grating discipline imposed on wannabe commandos has a certain macabre charm as well. And the army personnel,who believe in being thorough are impressive in turns. Vivek Bhathena as host hardly has a role and fails to inspire confidence.

However exalted the channels thinking might be to turn their 20-something contestants to commandos,it is impossible to expect contestants to be anything but that. And therein lies the rub. Do you deliberately let yourself be lulled into believing that youre seeing boys turn into men and gossip girls turning into commando women,or do you get cynical and brush it off as just another reality show? The answer,predictably,lies in between the two.
Verdict:
A reality show with a slight difference.