Bigg Boss 11, Episode 58, 28 November 2017 update; Or, the perils of archiving pop culture

Years from now, our descendants will examine the pop culture of our times to see how their ancestors lived. They’ll come across an episode of Bigg Boss — perfectly archived — shudder a couple of times, and then close the lid on any further explorations. At least if the episode they happened to come across was the one telecast on the night of Tuesday, 28 November. We poor mortals who live in these present times and archive pop culture for the sake of posterity as part of our day jobs, do not — unfortunately — have the luxury of closing the door forever on the Bigg Boss episode we’ve seen. And so we put it down here, in the form of a quick (but hopefully effective) recap. [caption id=“attachment_4233209” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Gulliver’s Travels, or Lord of the Flies? Scenes of torture and cruelty from episode 58 of Bigg Boss 11[/caption] Day 58 in the Bigg Boss 11 house begins as days often do in the Bigg Boss house: with a song, and a fight. The contestants awaken to the title track of that ever-popular Bollywood gem, ‘Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan’. Shilpa and Arshi squabble since the former — in charge of the kitchen — has bent the rules to allow Bandgi to prepare an extra portion of vegetables for herself. Arshi accuses former friend-turned-somewhat-foe Shilpa of favouritism. Other grumblings of favouritism are being heard — against [gasp!] Bigg Boss Himself — for allowing Vikas to have a pair of sunglasses in the house. My! How_ever_ will Bigg Boss live this down? While such pernicious developments prevail in the house, a luxury budget task is unveiled on the unsuspecting contestants. They must enact a scene out of Gulliver’s Travels. More specifically, the one where Gulliver reaches Lilliput. If that isn’t an inspired literary task, we don’t know what is. Contestants are designated as Gulliver and Lilliput-ians: The ‘Gulliver’ must be tied down to a bench/bed, while the ‘Lilliputs’ torture him/her into exiting the task before its designated duration. Vikas and Priyanka are made the supervisors, while the first leg of the task sees Akash, Arshi, Hina and Luv as the Lilliputs while Shilpa, Puneesh, Bandgi and Hiten are the giants. Bandgi is the first to be strapped down. Hina, Arshi, Luv and Akash rub chilli powder over the poor girl and threaten to cut off her hair and shave off her eyebrows. When the chilli powder enters her eyes, Bandgi begins to cry and exits the task. Vikas splashes water in her eyes, and castigates Hina and Arshi for being cruel, and declares that no chilli powder will be used in the task. But things are about to get gorier. It’s Shilpa’s turn next. Luv — in defiance of Vikas’ instructions — starts to open the jar of chilli powder. When Vikas attempts to snatch it away, some of the powder accidentally enters Hina’s eyes. Hina threatens to pull out of the task, but Priyank and Luv convince her to continue. Arshi and Hina then begin by tickling Shilpa, and also put chilli powder on her; Akash draws on her face with lipstick, but Shilpa pulls through to the end of the task. Then, it’s Puneesh’s turn. Akash trims his hair while Luv waxes his chest — Puneesh, however, makes it through to the end. The same goes for Hiten, when he is strapped down. Luv and Hina wax his legs, and while he screams aloud, he hangs on till the buzzer goes. Later, Akash is heard wondering if they too will have to face the same brutalities when it’s their turn to be the giants. Vikas remarks that they should have perhaps thought of this when they were torturing the others. Hina, being Hina, gets defensive and walks out on Vikas after declaring she and the gang are ready to face any cruelty. May we suggest that the makers look to Lord of the Flies for inspiration when conceptualising he contestants’ next task? And on that uplifting note, we bid you adieu. Until the next Bigg Boss 11 episode!