I won’t be foolhardy enough to recommend Splitsvilla as a great programme that people should watch but truth be told it has been a guilty pleasure of mine. It became especially interesting after the concept of ideal matches was introduced and seasons 11, 13 and 14 I found particularly enjoyable. Season 15 though is a completely different story.
The beginning had been promising. The idea of exes coming in, staying in a different Ex-Isle, airing their grievances and then coming face to face to argue it out seemed quite interesting. At that time the possibility of this season being even better than it’s predecessor could not have been ruled out. However not many could have at that time anticipated the disaster that it would eventually become.
In order to bring in too much unpredictability merit and logic have been heavily compromised. Harsh and Rushali and Jaswant and Akriti became the first two ideal matches. They seemed to be favouring the same people making the game somewhat one sided. Then Digvijay and Unnati also became an ideal match. This is when things could have become really interesting and different people could be favoured. However for no rhyme or reason ideal matches were suddenly dissolved with this new ideal match not even getting a single episode to enjoy their powers.
We have been clearly told that one guy can be an ideal match only for one girl. Since nothing has been shown to change between Digvijay and Unnati who had already been declared an ideal match by Oracle, how could Digvijay even want to try out the possibility of being an ideal match with Nayera? What’s worse is that Oracle actually declared them an ideal match.
In previous seasons Oracle’s decision on an ideal match had at least a semblance of sense apart from the odd exceptions. This season Oracle seems to be deciding on a coin’s toss. Lovers don’t become ideal matches but friends, acquaintances and at times even near enemies do. It’s just so bizarre. The one love match which Oracle declared as ideal namely Aniket and Deekila are quickly jettisoned. It’s like this time the makers have decided that lovers just cannot be ideal matches. So much for a show that claims to be based on love and says that it respects and values love.
While all this crap was going on we were taken to what I would term the lowest ever moment in Splitsvilla history. Sivet who had been very justifiably dumped and who had been seen failing in almost every single challenge is brought back as a wildcard without any justification.
Several dome sessions are wasted with nothing much happening. No one gets dumped after much hoopla. As the title of a famous Shakespearean drama goes -’Much Ado About Nothing". This may have been acceptable if it was building to something more interesting. However what came next completely killed whatever little good was still left in the show.
Suddenly the makers seem to have realised that far too many episodes have gone, very few remain and too many contestants are still present in the show. So the solution they came up with is to dump not one, not two but three contestants on the basis of one single challenge and that too without extending them the courtesy of a proper dome session. These three contestants namely Sachin, Unnati and Shobhika had performed much better in the show than Sivet, at least the former two. It feels like gross injustice to the participants while cheating the viewers of any kind of hope for merit and logic. The whims and fancies of the powers that be is all that matters.
I had eagerly waited for Season 15. Even now I can’t stop watching it due to the connection developed with some of the participants. However after this I do hope that I will never again wait for a Splitsvilla season. Perhaps it would be better to stop watching future seasons.
More importantly those responsible for the making of season 15 should never again be allowed to work on any future Splitsvilla season. Only if that happens could the quality of seasons 11, 13 and 14 be possibly brought back in season 16 and beyond. However all this is just hypothetical at the moment. I will end by summing up the reality of the current season in one word.
Atrocious!