Oye Its Farhan's Friday!

I am not an avid watcher of TV but even with my limited viewing, the inverse relationship of quality and quantity is not hard to miss.
Whether it is a reality show (frightening, really!!), some silly soap, news or even interviews, mostly the content on the telly is downright dumb.
It is in this context that the variety show “Oye Its Friday!” hosted by Farhan Akhtar quite simply stands out for its refreshing brilliance, seen on the TV after a long time.
Although it is technically a variety show, a major part is about Farhan interviewing the guests, leading to an inevitable comparison with earlier chat-shows of Simi Garewal and Karan Johar, other filmi insiders interviewing their fraternity.
I remember Simi as being positively mannequin-ish & maudlin, and Karan as very stylish and intelligent. Both, however, were overbearing – the former most of the time and the latter some of it.
In contrast, Farhan is sheer fun. His intelligence and delightful tongue-in-cheek humour permeates through the scripted lines, so visible in his clever turn of phrase and efficient wordplay (with Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani as his parents, can you expect anything different?). And, it is delightful to watch his unpretentiousness and masti quotient inevitably get to the guest. The episodes with Shahrukh and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy were simply crackling with energy.
Adding to it is the ensemble of various interesting garnishing items like gags, songs, dances, instrument recitals, rope tricks, acrobats, what–have–you.
In short – good conceptualizing and even better presentation. Talking about the Indian telly, a rarity indeed!