It is always such a pleasure to listen to old songs and so much harder for the performers because everyone in the audience knows every note, every bar, every sigh, they are impossible to please.
So let me begin with my continuing disappointment with Toshi. 'Din dhal jaaye' is a song full of sadness and despair. And not full of Toshi. I know people have started reading these posts looking for technical analysis; for them, I have this to offer, off-note on two 'Raat na jaayes' and off-beat on transition from verse to chorus. But that bothered me less than my sense of irritation at Toshi's sense of self-importance that overtook the song's own mood. I think he is vastly overrated and I am getting very irritated by his smugness.
Sharib's attitude was also like this through much of EMET (I watched only the end of Challenge 2005) and the fact is we have seen better talents on these shows than both these brothers. A little confidence is fuel; smugness is petrol on fire.
My grade for Toshi's sur, etc. is B but my overall grade is the same. I want Abhaas to sing this song for Toshi and show him how it's done.
Harshit's singing was technically flawless but when I heard Arindam I understood what I had been missing when I heard him. When Arindam sings, he infuses not just the singing with melody, but the spaces between the singing and something else besides. Harshit sings tunefully, which as others prove is already a big deal. For this difference, Harshit gets B+ and Arindam gets A. I am very sad to see Arindam go, and yesterday would have gladly sent Toshi out instead.
Ira's singing needed to go a little further. Her rendition sounded like she had simplified the tune to suit her ability rather than stretched her ability to suit the tune. She can do better and needed to. That said, yesterday, I thought she was better than Prantika.
I do not agree with Alka Yagnik's pronouncement about heroine's playbacks needing to sound like her and Lata Mangeshkar. Rani Mukherjee and Preity Zinta only sound like them when they are singing, and that is true of more and more heroines now. My problem with Ira's singing yesterday had to do with the fact that it showcased her limitations rather than her abilities. I do like her voice.
Prantika's voice is also easy to listen to, but she seemed to be out of her depth yesterday. Maybe she needs a little of Toshi's confidence to fire her performances. Prantika missed taal a lot.
From me, Ira gets B for yesterday and Prantika gets C.
This brings us to Rahul, whom I did not forget today! I have however forgotten his performance almost totally. So I will give him the benefit of the doubt on sur-taal and a B, while holding back the creamy points for how he sounded.
So we now have fourteen. I would still say, lose Priyani and Toshi, and we will have a watchable group.
This time, I disagreed with almost everything that Alka said and all her grades. Perhaps she hears something other than what I hear through her headphones. I do not understand the praise for Toshi and for Harshit. To me it seems that the judges have pre-judged who will stay and who will go. To have certain people perform appears to be a formality. Whereas with Arindam, his singing and performance were incidental to the determination of his fate. Likewise, based on last night's performances, Ira should have stayed and Prantika gone. That did not happen but was it because the judges had already decided the results in their minds?
Anyway, it looks as if Alka Yagnik is going nowhere. So much for believing what we read!
Kabhi Neem Neem Kabhi Shahad Shahad
