TV Review: Katrina Kaif and Varun Dhawan on ‘Koffee With Karan’

Classy people pee too. Apparently.

For all intents and purposes, and rather unexpectedly, this week’s Koffee With Karan was the best of a mediocre bunch, with Karan’s own protégé Varun Dhawan and Katrina Kaif taking centre stage in a mostly light-hearted episode, which engaged, provided banter, and gave an insight into what or who the stars actually were rather than the mostly morose episodes we’ve had until now.

Instead of the standard ho-hum intro by KJo it was Varun and Katrina that opened the show, with a tongue in cheek intro about their sassy host and of all the guests, it was these two unlikely stars who seemed to have the easiest camaraderie and chemistry with each other with their consistent, albeit playful jibes at each other.

The episode was high on fun and good energy

Right from delving into the history behind the ‘Katrina Hate Club’, which it turns out, was formed because Arjun (Kapoor) and Varun were jostling for Salman Khan’s attention which was diverted on to Katrina, through to providing anecdotes into their love lives (or lack thereof in Katrina’s case), the show flowed remarkably well which made for a refreshing change.

Varun finally admitted his relationship with Natasha Dalal, with whom he’s been steady with for a number of years and revealed that marriage was indeed on the cards, which came as no surprise.

But it was Katrina with her astonishing self-awareness and insight into how and why relationships fall apart, that proved to be the episode’s major highlight. Classy, dignified, and impressively emotionally intelligent, the show belonged to Katrina all the way, even if she lost both gaming rounds to Varun, proving just how far she’s come and grown in terms of maturity as a result of her failed relationships with both Ranbir Kapoor and Salman Khan (who incidentally, had a cameo on the show through a video clip). His comments made little sense, and were probably in jokes, because they were more or less lost on the discerning viewer, but hey that’s Salman Khan for you!

Unsurprisingly, Karan probed Katrina with his favourite topic of the season – Ranbir and Alia Bhatt’s blossoming relationship and whether it had affected her in any way, but Kat, on her part seemed the least bit bothered, and like Varun pointed out, everyone’s moved on so why flog a dead horse? Whether that was a direct jibe at Karan wasn’t entirely clear, but it’s obvious that bar the show’s inquisitive host, nobody actually gives a flying f… about this supposed elephant in the room involving Ranbir, Alia, Deepika and Katrina.

Varun’s comment regarding not wanting to switch places with either Ranveer Singh or Ranbir Kapoor, supposedly raised a few eyebrows particularly on Twitter, but it’s unlikely the comment was meant with any malice. If anything, it smacks of self-belief and confidence, and to a large extent, contentment – i.e. ‘I’m happy in my space, I don’t need to be anyone else.’

The episode ended with the standard shenanigans and games, which while fun, didn’t really detract from what the two stars brought to the table in terms of energy. Varun was cool, calm and collected, while Katrina is clearly comfortable with who and where she is. As such, a bout of authenticity was welcome this week, and with a peek into next week’s episode (Saif, and daughter Sara), the show seems to be finally gaining momentum after its rather tepid start.