An interactive action special with a romantic angle
When Bear Grylls said, “This could be the most spectacular waste of time,” 20 minutes into the interactive show, you may well feel the same way. I certainly felt that! Knowing full well that the cast involved is not really chomping down actual maggots or drinking their own urine to survive hypothermia, Ranveer Singh is one actor that will light up any room he is in and the Netflix interactive special ‘Ranveer vs. The Wild’ is proof of that. Over the last few years, the series ‘Man vs Wild’ has grown into a beast of its own in India and around the world where famous celebrities go into the wild with a master survivor – Bear Grylls as their guide. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi and megastars like Rajnikanth, Akshay Kumar, and Ajay Devgn alongside a new-age charmer Vicky Kaushal, Indian acting and fashion sensation Ranveer Singh is the newest addition to the list of Indian male celebrities trying their hand at survival in a forest. In the recently released Netflix special, Actor Ranveer Singh, who calls himself a ‘hopeless romantic’, is on a journey into the wild for his lady love and wife – Actress Deepika Padukone. The actor has made up his mind that he wishes to give his wife one of the rarest flowers to ever exist – the Serbian Ramonda. Starting off in a forest in Serbia, the actor has his first encounter with a bear, not the survivor Bear Grylls but an actual bear. The actor runs away from a bear that looks extremely friendly. Way to go Ranveer! If you go into this looking to gain a lot of knowledge, ‘Ranveer vs. The Wild’ does not impart any sort of education. But if you’re looking for some light entertainment this weekend, this interactive special may be for you. From seeing the actor flaunt his tiny vanity mirror or watching him cuddle and kiss Bear Grylls while he professes his eternal love for Deepika, through to grabbing one of the rarest flowers on planet earth – you are in for a ride with ‘Ranveer vs. The Wild’. Ranveer has all the money in the world and all the resources he needs to get Deepika the said flower. This is why I was left to wonder why he decided to embark on this journey in the first place. After watching the show for a while it clicked. The show is centric to the likes of the Indian audience. Making his fans make his choices for him with the end goal of doing something big for his lover gives a sense of relief. It makes them feel like fans have played a part in helping the actor in his goal. Unlike other Netflix interactive specials, it’s unlikely you’ll feel the gravity of your choices and it didn’t really seem like my choices did anything to change the narrative or put the actor in a fix. Ranveer seemed to be getting along just fine from working his way around a bear the second time to trying out pig testicles and maggots. The romantic angle however, is enticing. It seems like it took away from the actor’s actual life story. Over the years, Ranveer has come to be known for his acting and being a semi-outsider in the industry, he too has had to make his way to the top. Having his own show centered around his lady love, it is pretty obvious that the choices fans make are also Deepika-centric. One case, for example, sees Bear ask fans to pick between who the true Ranveer Singh is and how he first met his now-wife, I too was inclined to choose the latter as it really fit the narrative that the show was going with. Having Deepika appear at the end of the show and somehow getting her to acknowledge Ranveer’s efforts to get the flower, would have completely changed the plot of the special. Fans are left wondering if Deepika really liked the flower and treated the actor to one of her special homemade pizzas or if it was a colossal waste like Bear predicted after all. Overall, the show is a quick watch and fun from start to finish. Watching Ranveer Singh dance a bait for the wolves really was interesting and despite knowing that the cast has a full crew helping them out with everything they need at all times, Ranveer VS The Wild should be fun for young kids who want to see the action actor become a real-life action hero.
