Star World's latest ‘LOVE2HateU', a show where a chosen celebrity comes face to face with his or her hater, seems to be asking “Why this kolaveri di?”
Except it goes one step further and tries to ‘rid' the ‘hater' of his hatred for the celebrity, who he apparently loves to hate.
The concept is pretty twisted as Arjun Rampal, the host, admits in one of the episodes.
Rampal chooses a celebrity and then rummages through Twitter to find the ‘most beloved hater' of the celebrity. He then sets up a meeting and attempts to adjudicate the conversation between the celebrity and the hater.
When the ones sitting at home watching this show on television have already begun to question the point of the show, it gets worse with Rampal and the celebrity teaming up to ‘reform' the hater by telling him or her that he ought to love the celebrity. What is the point of this show? Celebrities couldn't care less as actor Preity Zinta confesses in the episode featuring her and Chirag, her hater. In fact, her apathy is quite evident when out of sheer ennui she convinces Chirag to play a prank on Arjun Rampal.
Chirag pretends to have an asthma attack after a staged argument with Preity.
A terrified Rampal panics and attacks the cameramen in an attempt to stop the shooting of the episode that he thinks has gone terribly wrong.
But he gathers himself once the prank is revealed. The episode ends with the three of them sharing a Christmas cake, with Preity admitting that she does not care if Chirag hates her any less, while Chirag maintains that he, in fact, hates her as much.
At least there is an ‘unfollow' button on twitter where you can block people who relentlessly rant about pointless subjects such as ‘why I hate this celebrity and how my life depends on this'.
But here the programme offers a platform for such tweeters and even gives them 30 minutes to make a complete fool of themselves. For example, all it takes for Nilesh, an ardent hater of Farah Khan, to free himself from the shackles of loathing is an offer to assist Farah Khan in her next film.
The option to change the channel or switch off the television is too tempting if not for the promise of entertainment. In the same league as shows like MTV Roadies and Splitsvilla, this show makes you want to read out your resume with I will survive playing in the background.
