Journey Starts: Speed Breakers All The Way!

Finally, the episode Satan himself would have been proud to script.

Roadies:Hell Down Under is finally upon us. The skies have darkened, the battle lines have been drawn and the warriors have been given a short spell of post apocalyptic trauma. Women and children cry for mercy as the ones who remain sane try to figure out the inferno that unfolded before their screens.

The journey is yet to start, but one can already feel the speed breakers along the way.

Episode in Review:
----------------------
The roadies all gathered around Manesar where they received their usual "tika" welcome . After some chit chat, they walked into their rooms, there were some oohs and aahs at the branded gifts lying for them and then they were quickly told to shift into party mode to mark the initial celebrations. Out came the make up boxes, and the memorable quotes.

Naumen: I could sense it, the girls were defininitely looking at me

Paulami : I was looking like Bipasha in that dress, all were telling me that.

Huhuhuhu...ROTFL..LMAO....moving on

The party was a pleasent affair on the whole. Devarshi brought out the Mimoh dance steps while Gurmeet turned on some body heat between Naumen and Sufi.

I really didnt need to see that :|

After the party was over, the Roadies got a scroll asking them to meet Ranvijay at the back. 49 seconds later we were treated to a set we are all to familiar with.

Night sky, dazzling bikes, a helmet marking the occasion. Voteouts!

And from that very moment, the equations got all screwed up.

Raghu walked in as the messanger of pure evil as he set about on his sadistic ways qucikly dividing the roadies into two groups of 10 each based on their deserving status. One group was declared safe, which was controversial to say the least-Roop and Samrat surely deserved it but the same cannot be said for characters like Devarshi and Paulami.

Vicky and Neha Kapoor on the unsafe group?Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat???

The Roadies are told only the chosen few will survive, and a task will decide their fate.

Raghu Analogy:-

1. Split up of groups would create friction. So those who survive the challenge would hate the ones who were safe from the beginning. Good for future controversies.

2. A mix of characters required to have a smooth journey. Paulami and Devarshi are entertainment assets- so a let off on the first task isnt a bad idea.

Taskmaster:
-----------------
Early next morning, the Roadies arrived for the task. Akshay Kumar smirked at them through a big screen previewing them about the task at hand. Ranvijay filled them in on the details.

The 10 unfortunate souls were to be spilt into two groups of five each-The Yellow and Green team. Each team had to cross an obstacle course to reach some Chandni Chowk paratha gali wala parathas. The team to win most parathas wins. Oh yes, no hands.. :P

And they had to do it with their arms and legs tied to each other.

The team that loses immediately goes home. Holy Shit- 5 gone already!!

Yellow team went first, hopping their way onto the course. And then the fall. And then more hops.

The climbing part was done quite well, but the real goof ups started during the descent.

Sufi seemed to be in too much of a hurry and tried to go down fast. The result, a frightning fall all the way down with bodies rolling down over each other like nine pins.

Thankfully, in true roadie spirit they rose up and were back to crawling in the mud finally reaching the parathas.

They gobbled up as many as they could before their time went out.

The Green Team seemed to have learnt quite a few lessons as they marched on well and climbed the net in perfect co ordination. While preparing to come down slowly, Vicky took a sudden spill and CRAASH!!-deja vu all over again.

Like their predecessaors, they rose up and crawled under the wires. The paratha stuffing process started in full swing as the dirt made for a really bad appetizer.

Ranvijay called time out with Vicky and Bhanu caught midway in french kissing a paratha.

The result came down to a close 19-21 with the Yellow team making the cut by eating 21 parathas.

Vicky, Bhanu , Sonia, Ankur and Neha are out. Vicky deserved a lot more. Neha gone ....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO: ((

A new twist follows- one would exit from the Yellow team as well. ONE MORE?? O_O

Fights And Frights(Pre Voteout Conspiracies):
-------------------------------------------------------
It was time for some fun and games! A harmless truth and dare turned into snarls as Gurmeet displayed her intellect of a matchstick by turning against Roop over a simple answer. Roop kept her calm and handled the situation brilliantly as Gurmeet was suddenly the most hated person on the show.

Bobby wanted to show Gurmeet a thing or two while we saw Suzzane carefully trying to be with Gurmeet to avoid being voted out. Plotting on in full swing!

Naumen seemed to be in big trouble with all pre vote out talks related to voting him out.

Voteout:
----------
Those who thought Naumen was a goner came in for quite a rude shock as a firece rage of votes flew against Sufi and Bobby.

Finally, the last vote formed the deciding factor as apna muscleman left the show. Sufi Malhotra-eliminated.

Bobby and Gurmeet congtinued their tensions accusing each other. Tamanna seemed to be fuelling the fights. The trio would make for some interesting moments in the future.

Pledge Of The Week: Bobby threatening to show all those around her. Go girl!

The episode closed among mixed reactions in my mind.

The Good: Roop survives. And still looks like a million bucks. Wohoooo!!

The Bad: Six gone already, Vicky and Neha exit are major shockers.

The Ugly: Bruises all over and some really bad speed breakers early on in the journey.

Coming Week: The bikes hit the road. And Roadies have to really take a blow "down under".

Roadies:Behind The Scenes:
----------------------------------
The popular addition made Roadies all the more fun last year. The crew are back again with our favourites Nature Baba, Chotu and Debbie being the centre of focus. The episode raised quite a few laughs with Bumpy's somersault, the crew dancing over an early vote out and Raghu promising Bumpy some hard core action.
The segment ended on a sad note, as we learnt Raghu will no longer be a part of this journey. His presence out there added the soul to the show. Needless to say, we will miss him more than ever. :(

P.S. : On a closing note, I heard a female contrestant mention the show as Roadies 6.0 and not Roadies:Hell Down Under. We under the community would have got a warning. Is Webbie listening? :D

Mumbai Masacre-A Fitting Finale To Some Chaotic Auditions

It really can't get any better.

The promo promised, the show delivered. Mumbai was the last pillar of the auditions so it stayed in focus for the entire journey so far. Last week, Roop made us proud by her par excellence performance and this time around Ashish from the community was in the hot seat. We will get to him later, but first a quick round-up

The priliminary auditions were held online and the shorlisted victims appeared for the GDs. It was its usual chaos and commotion, throwing up 12 participants out of which Ashish and Tejaswini were familiar to me.This one was gonna be an entertainer.

Truer words were never spoken. :P

PI time. The first to walk in is apna "macho" dude Sufi Malhotra.An aspiring actor, he seemed way too agressive to be normal. He had a good physique, so apna desi Tarzan was ready to carry off his pics everywhere.(He had met Raghu last year at Roadies auditions, and Rajeev at Splitsvilla auditions already with the same set of pics..but still :|)Neways, a scuffle over his portfolio turned into a mini combat as he rose up from his seat and approached the twins in an attempt to prove his point. BIG mistake. Three things happened almost simulatenously- he was pushed, Raghu started his swearing, and the guards escorted him out. Sufi was still panting and cursing as he exited the venue, and looked like the muscleman had taken a bit more than he could chew.

But he was back, more on that later.

Next in line was Suzanna Mukherjee, another stunner to the group of pretty faces this year(Not complaining ^_^).However, she had more to her than just her looks. Innocent, outspoken and charming, she was well versed in Ukranian and Russian and cursed the twins in multiple languages at the drop of a hat when asked.(Jaw dropsO_O).She was at ease throughout the interview and her confidence seemed to be rising. She was asked to dance, and what followed was the most entrhalling and finest dance performance ever in the history of Roadies. (Drool Tsunami O_#). The twins were visibly impressed and so were we.Selected!

My Rating: 3.5/5(Another livewire in the cards.Would be intersting how she manipulates the guys in order to get her way. In short, a true entertainer.)

Sunny was the next victim on hold. His form seemed sensible, so the twins went aggressive on him just to gauge his reactions. Sunny stuttered and stumbled through a boring interview as Rajeev brought out the laughs through his jokes. The twins laughed, Sunny babbled. I swtiched between smiling and yawning. Finally interview over.Sunny you are SO-NOT-FUNNY. The result was pretty obvious-not selected!

Our own community banda Ashish walked in next, claiming to have a two year preparation on his side.He spoke about how he saved and watched every audition clip to take tips, and his hard work was evident as he talked about postures and other criterias, citing examples from the Ayaz interview. This guy had done his homework! All was going according to plan, so Raghu decided to switch the plans. Suddenly there was some serious amount of manhandling(which included a chair being pulled from under him) and Ashish was too shocked to react. Raghu apologised for it later but i still find it a bit overboard. However, Ashish still stuck to his plan and kept it cool. He had a focus to impress the judges, as he went about his determination. The twins seemed confused at times, and frustrated during the rest. Ashish tried to pull out all the stops, including a card of missed opportunities and chances in life. Alas, he had already dealt in the wrong hand. I gave a sigh as the result unfolded-Not Selected!

ANOTHER SHOCK. Apna muscleman is back, sans the agression O_O

Yes, Sufi was back once more, in a more sober and tolerable form. After sending a despotic SMS to Rajeev that screamed "WTF" , he was back on the ropes once more, with another shot to live his fame and success. Gone were the snarls, the tiger had been tamed into a pussy cat. He seemed in the principal's office, as he mumbled and nodded to what the twins said. He also acted a bit and showed us his physique. Both were impressive, and this time he seemed tolerable compared to the last(When I wanted to douse him in kerosine and set him into flames >_<). He seemed to be faking his calm nature, but it worked for him. Selected.

My Rating: 2/5( Roadies has a hunk, nothing more. His physique is the only thing that screams hot" in him because his no-brainer mindset, a repulsive screen presence and wannabi-sh attitude go limp for him right at the start. He would have it rough out there!)

Finally the auditions were drawn to a close, as we had our 20 roadies.

And then came the BEST part of the evening, a sneak peek of the journey.

It was INSANE. We had the roadies go through the most outrageous of tasks as they bitched, swore and seemed to be under demonic possession beating the shit out of each other. (Pradeep kicked Devarshi as Poulomi was grounded to pulp by another roadie O_O).Twisted, maniacal and with a whole lot of jaw dropping scenarios, this is truly Hell Down Under this time around.

Akshay Kumar dons the badass cap this time. Couldn't get any better.

Don't forget to tune into the opening frenzy as the journey kickstarts next Saturday 7 pm.

It's my MTV.