As our columnist Deepanjana Pal insightfully explains in this week’s column, there’s a point to haters, critics, and discerning members of the public who choose to express their opinions. Bollywood, like so many creative endeavours, usually prompts violently divisive reactions, and that’s part of the entertainment allure that makes the industry one of the most robust in the world. Rampal, however, seems to forget that for every hater, there’s an equally rabid fan out there, who as evident by the Twitter ticker that runs at the bottom of the screen, is likely to now bombard Farhan with hate Tweets. So trying to rid the country of the non-fans, one person at a time, seems like a Sisyphean task at best. Except that it’s the viewers at home that are subject to the eternal tedium of it all.
Television Review: 'Love 2 Hate U' | Mumbai Boss
This article told me that the show is biased indeed. I mean why the hell do I have to justify my opinion in front of a
television set? If I was targeted through this show, I would probably call the cops and complain about harassment.
I used to have very strong opinion about a lot of people. I blogged a lot about them. Karan Johar, Sachin Tendular etc etc. I no longer do that. But I can certainly see many of my friends using me as bait for a show like this.
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Rampal kicks off the first of the confrontations with a boy called Farhan Syed, by huffing and puffing with such badly acted indignation, that you begin to understand why Farhan seems intent on comparing Rampal’s acting abilities to wooden furniture. The twist is that Farhan, goaded into a diatribe against Rampal, has no idea that Rampal is next door, about to pounce on this unsuspecting hater whose Twitter handle @duggalsahab is helpfully flashed on screen. After listening to Farhan’s reasons—whose chief contention is that Rampal simply can’t act—Rampal’s best comeback is to tell viewers at home that Farhan needs to “re-think” his job as a freelance writer because he didn’t like Rock On!!, and that “he’s not really funny”. Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be about hating Rampal?
Rampal then shows him how it’s done by cracking this joke: “There’s another Farhan, who’s an actor, director, writer, musician. You need to change your name because it’s insulting to Farhan Akhtar.” Ooh, psych! Mission accomplished because one frothy pink margarita later, Farhan downgrades his hate-o-meter reading from 3.75 to 0.7. “As a person,” Farhan concludes, “Rampal is a 9 on 10.” Score one for Bollywood; zero for humanity.
