I must confess that I keep waiting for Abhilasha to trip because her singing is so unbelievably good. 'Aaj ki raat' is such a difficult song! There are jumping notes, as Alka puts it. The laya changes all the time. The beat is unusual. There is so much expression. What an almost-perfect performance! In fact, given the difficulty level and the level of pressure, what a flawless, live performance. And this girl chooses excellently from a variety of genres. I am almost afraid to praise her.
Vipul was good, but not as good as yesterday. Today there were Mahendra Kapoor moments in the Rafi song that did not work for me.
Prantik also did wonderfully on a very unusual kind of song, and he sang both male and female parts, which he did on Fiza too. The song he chose had the same qualities as the one Abhilasha sang, and except for one place where he missed a beat and one place where (nervously) his sur was shaky, it was a performance to watch again. What I really liked about him was that he lost himself in the song after the two shaky parts, and that was when it was flawless. I guess this is why they say, when you merge with your task, there's nowhere to go but perfect.
Aditi. I thought not grading for Hari Om Hari was a bit much; but I would have given her 3-4, so maybe this was kinder. It has less to do with technical perfection, and more to do with the joie de vivre that Usha injects into that song. Her next performance convinced me that I should buy her first light classical (thumri/ghazal) CD. Her talent is undeniable and it would be a pity if she thought that the only outlet for it was film music. There are still lots of people left in this country who like classical and semi-classical music.
Sometimes when very trained voices sing light music, it is hard to control the voice to maintain the simplicity of the melody. The vocal chords strain to get back to what they have been trained to do and the mind desperately wants to move on. I do not know if I am describing this properly, but I could feel that difficulty when Aditi sang.
Amitabh deserved to go. Abhijeet's pointers were right on target. I said yesterday that I could not pinpoint the problem I had with his singing. Yesterday I did. He has a lovely voice but he turns music into muzack (elevator music) with it. There is a laziness in the performance--he has talent and he rides only as far as it will take him. I am sure he has faced struggle and he must be working hard, but there is some place inside that stops maybe. Just a little push, a little edge, and he has it all.
In the immortal words of judges on this show, Dipin's song ne 'dil ko chhooaa'. I thought he had decided he was losing, and he sang that song as a meditation, as a way of telling himself not to lose heart. The result was a lacklustre performance but a strangely moving one. Each word was spoken, in tune, with an intended audience--my guess is, himself.
All in all, a show that reminded me that whatever else, Gajendrrra Singh is really capable of bringing quality talent to our television sets.
