How much celebrity content is too much celebrity content? Can overexposure be damaging for public figures? In the age of social media when stars are putting themselves out there in ways unthinkable five years ago, how relevant are exclusive, elite chat shows such as Koffee with Karan? Is it bad news when a new episode feels like you’ve watched it already? Too many questions and lots to discuss. Let’s dive in.
After the blockbuster pilot episode featuring Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone and the second starring the Deol brothers, it felt like Karan Johar actually did have a talk with his “konscience” and decided to revamp the bitchy, gossipy, overtly sexual tone of his controversial celeb chat show.
But alas, that noble change of heart and theme lasted only a fortnight. When the third episode with Sara Ali Khan and Ananya Pandey dropped last week, all the pretence of Johar trying to have new people on the couch or meaningful conversations around things that matter fell off entirely. Now with the new episode that has Kareena Kapoor Khan and Alia Bhatt as guests, Koffee with Karan is back to feeling like a video recording of three friends who meet daily catching up again within 24 hours.
Of course, there’s an incredible, unshakable sense of comfort and camaraderie. In his introduction of the two actors, Johar calls Bhatt his firstborn (as he has several times previously) and Kapoor Khan his spirit soulmate. Their ease around each other, which can only exist when you have known someone closely for several years, is effervescent, and sparkling. It’s hilarious to see Johar and Kapoor Khan roast each other relentlessly through the 50 minutes. As is common among best friends, they just cannot help each other.
Johar mocks Kapoor Khan over two of her most horrid performances from an era when she went blond and took hamming to heart—Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon (2003) and Khushi (2003). She, in turn, calls out his endless pouting, top-angle shots, and how he went a bit overboard with the show’s last season. He asks her uncomfortable questions, and tries to put her on the spot. But even though her comebacks are not always smooth, she doesn’t take any of it lying down.
It’s heartening to see that despite over 20 years in the business (at one point, Johar reveals that after Hema Malini, Kapoor Khan has been the Hindi film industry’s longest-reigning leading lady) Kapoor Khan is still bustling with main character energy. She is still her own favourite and wants to continue to be her audience’s too. I couldn’t help but hoot when Johar asks her who, according to her, is the best Sanjay Leela Bhansali muse—Aishwarya, Deepika, or Alia. In quintessential Bebo fashion, she quips, “I still have a chance na to work with him?”
She isn’t entirely unfiltered—it’s risky to be on a couch as infamous and inflammable as Koffee’s, but nonetheless, Kapoor Khan’s candour is so charming and arresting, that it completely overshadows Bhatt’s squeaky, rehearsed guardedness. Bhatt makes so many faces while talking, it’s distracting, so much so that it makes it difficult to concentrate on what she’s saying.
She is so formidable in her films that her unscripted, on-screen appearances always seem to play catch up and inevitably fall short. The chasm between the persona and the person is just too wide to bridge, her performances have created shoes a bit too large for her to fill.
The guest reveal promo that Johar shared on his Instagram after the second episode featured a slew of faces we’ve seen way too many times on Koffee and entirely killed whatever hype and acclaim the first two episodes had built. When Koffee with Karan started 19 years ago, celeb chat shows were a novelty, with only a few formal, structured formats that felt more like interviews such as Rendezvous with Simi Garewal and Farooq Shaikh’s Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai to stand for examples.
The idea of getting the biggest stars of Bollywood for a free-flowing conversation that felt more like living-room banter between friends was a fresh, tantalizing concept worth exploring then.
But it’s been nearly two decades since. Now we have countless social media content creators whose chat shows are far more fun, diverse, insightful, real, and relatable. None of which anyone can say for Koffee with Karan anymore. In the age of Instagram, Koffee has begun to feel like Orkut. Redundant, obsolete, and in dire need of a major upgrade.
(Edited by : Akanksha Upadhyay)
