Nach Baliye 8, Episode 12: Bharti-Haarsh impress; Sonakshi Sinha grooves to Dum Maro Dum

With the theme being ‘Film Wala Love’ the weekend episodes of dance reality show, Nach Baliye were renamed ‘Nach Bahubaliye.’ The show kickstarted with both, the judges and contestants dressing up as movie characters. Judge Terence Lewis made a grand entry as Peshwa Bajirao, while host Karan Tacker dressed in an elaborate attire trying to pull-off a Baahubali. Sonakshi Sinha aptly dressed as Zeenat Aman and Mohit Suri entered while grooving to ‘Jumma Chumma,’ a la Bachchan.

Bharti and Haarsh were the first jodi to come up on stage and they dressed up as Munni/ Rajjo and Chulbul Pandey — characters from Dabangg. Bharti doubles up as both, Sonakshi’s character Rajjo as well as of Malaika Arora’s Munni. They perform on most of the tracks from the movie — peppy as well as romantic — and included famous dialogues like ‘Thappad se darr nahin lagta…’ in their act.

Overall, their performance was average but nevertheless entertaining, so much so that Sonakshi calls it ‘seeti maar’ and ‘paisa vasool’. “It was truly a dabangg performance and you guys showed the whole film in just three minutes. The expressions, energy, everything was great,” said Sonakshi. Terence praised Haarsh saying it was his best performance on the show till date. “You missed some steps but you didn’t lose ground,” said Terence. Added Mohit, “Bharti clearly took a backseat and pushed Haarsh in the forefront, your love has grown from the show. It was definitely masaledaar and romancewala dance.”  Further, Sonakshi joined the contestants on the floor and performed on ‘Munni Badnaam Hui.’  Bharti and Haarsh scored 25 points from the judges.

Up next were Sanam and Abigail. They looked very cute in ‘school uniform’ as they put up an act on ‘Pehla Nasha’ from Aamir Khan’s Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikander. The judges loved their performance and they gave them a total score of 29 which was the highest score of the episode. Terence, who gave the choreographer and contestants a standing ovation, felt that the beauty of the act was the innovative way in which the background dancers were used as props.  “It was nothing short of near perfection,” said Terence. Mohit said, “I got goose bumps while watching the act and wanted to go back to school.”

Dipika and Shoaib danced on the heart-rending number ‘Tadap Tadap Ke’ from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. They were dressed up as Salman and Aishwarya and they tried their best to recreate their moments from the film, but their dancing was not up to the mark and the chemistry was missing as well. “The moments where you guys meet was creatively done but the dancing could have had more finesse. Too much energy was infused into the dance so it didn’t go above the mark,” said Terence.  For Mohit, it’s an inspirational song, and he said, “It takes lot of guts to bring this song on stage in one take."

And the main highlight of the episode was Sonakshi Sinha’s sizzling performance. Dressed as Zeenat Aman, she set the stage on fire with her moves on the iconic number, ‘Dum Maaro Dum’, from Hare Rama Hare Krishna. Her act was hands down the best part of the episode. Further, bringing in some more entertainment was the game of Dumb Charades between the judges, and Terence was the best at miming. Also, towards the end, ex contestant Trupti and Siddharth Jadhav make a comeback and now judges are confused (or are they pretending to?) that whether they were on the show to perform and that they were not aware of any such thing. Let’s see if they are the wild card entrants and whether other ex contestants will come back, too?