Are you smarter than a 5th grader?
Funny & Punny
Thursday, 9:00 pm, STAR World
You have seen the adaptation, now check out the latest season of the original. And, though the adaptation was quite cool, the original does give a hint or two as to why the adaptation failed to repeat the success of the original.
The adaptation in question is Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain? The original is the FOX channel show Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? hosted by popular American stand-up comic Jeff Foxworthy. It first aired in the USA in February 2007. The questions here too are culled from school subjects up to class five. Hence leaving aside the occasional American culture and history specific queries, Indian viewers may not find answering them any tougher or easier either. Subjects like general knowledge, geography, english grammar, maths more or less seem to follow a universal curriculum.
However, contrary to host Shah Rukh Khan’s indulgent and often encouraging approach towards dowdy brains in the desi version, Foxworthy isn’t as charitable when it comes to tackling stupidity. Call it courtesy cultural sensibilities - while Khan didn’t add insult to the psychological injuries of a losing candidate, Foxworthy kind of revels at encouraging them for bigger embarrassments like his asking a doomed-to-lose participant (after the latter hopelessly uses all his help lines in the first three questions) to elaborate his wish list if he won the entire prize money. Needless to add the contestant exits with peanuts at the next question post the declaration of his wish list. The kids on show are as cute as SRK’s students though they come across more camera savvy than their desi counterparts.
Verdict: At half an hour an episode this one’s quite racy. If general knowledge tests are your idea of fun, then you would love the show irrespective of its occasional bitchiness.
Lo Ho Gayi Pooja Iss Ghar Ki
Clean family comedy
Monday - Thursday, 9:30 pm, SAB
It wasn’t a question of when, but one of who would recreate the success of Kareena Kapoor’s hilarious Geet act from Jab We Met on the small screen. Quite a few successful film formulas seem to be inspiring soap themes in the recent past, latest being the Vivah inspired Bidaai (STAR Plus).
Sana Saeed (remember SRK’s garrulous eight-year-old daughter acting well beyond her age in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai) makes a confident TV debut in adulthood, recreating the refreshing abandon of Kareena as Pooja in Lo Ho… A budding singer from Punjab, she comes to Mumbai to make her mark in its music industry. As chance would have it, she lands up in the family of a strict dame with a heart of gold (Rohini Hattangadi in comic mode) who’s trying to put some sense into her motley family of non-enterprising betas and lazy bahus.
Churning comedy on a daily basis is no easy job. So after the initial Pooja induced edge, the show’s subsequent tracks involving other members of dadi Hattangadi’s family often tend to drag.
Verdict
The first daily in the comedy genre Lo Ho Gayi Pooja Iss Ghar Ki is a clean family comedy that does tickle occasionally courtesy Sana’s spirited lead act, though most of the supporting cast buffoonery is a no-brainer.