My original post is on Indiatimes Blogs: http://o3.indiatimes.com/television
Fame Gurukul in retrospect..
Everybody was anxiously awaiting the results of 'Fame Gurukul' - the wonderful reality show that gripped the attention of Indian Janta for so many days.. with the hopes that it will give them two good singing performers who will be worth every penny they might decide to spend on their CDs or shows. But alas....
What we got in the end was a complete waste.. we neither got a great singer like Shamit, Rex, Arijit or Arpita, nor we got a great performer like Rex. What we got was a half-hearted 2 step dancing wonder who is an unbearable singer - a.k.a Qazi, and a out-of-breath sleepy singer who sings like someone at the end of a 100 meter sprint and who can put someone to sleep the minute she walks up on a stage - a.k.a Ruprekha.
The "Jodi" is a complete mismatch - (while some proponents call it a "balanced Jodi"!!) - one is a so-so performer and a bad singer (Qazi) and the other is a so-so singer and a bad performer/communicator (Ruprekha).
Is this what we had bargained for? My question on this blog is really, who of all the people that voted for Qazi are going to buy his CDs (for reasons other than charity ;-) and who of all the people that voted for Ruprekha are going to wake up to dance when she is on stage?
I do not have a personal grudge against either one of them. But I never doubted whether or not I should buy the CDs of Abhijeet Sawant or watch him perform, but I will definitely not waste my money on CDs of Qazi/Ruprekha. With all the modern recording techniques and makeover skills, Qazi can't be a Shamit/Rex/Arijit and neither can Ruprekha be a Arpita/Mona.
If you have seen this show from the beginning, the very two people who were warned of being overconfident and a bit arrogant have been voted in as golden hearted people! How ironic!
I believe throughout this competition, Javed Akhtar and the Janta were completely biased. Javed was head over heels with Ruprekha and god only knows why! The Janta who always voted for the best SINGER in Indian Idol days (no matter how good or bad that person looked), in my opinion, totally disregarded singing in this competition.
Here is how different influencing elements of Fame Gurukul failed us:
1. Faculty:
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The headmistress Ila Arun was unfit for the job. Someone who says "aap kya khaak sikhate hai students ko" to the faculty is no headmistress (this is when the faculty questioned her decision to choose Qazi over Arijit). One who can't argue in a reasonable and decent manner is no headmistress.. One who just tries to prove her decisions all the time in a "didn't I tell you" kind of kiddish manner is no headmistress.
I could not believe when the faculty continuously bestowed the 'Best Student' honors upon Ruprekha for 3/4 consecutive weeks when she was routinely performing below par.
The funniest decision came when the faculty chose Qazi to make his dream come true instead of choosing Arijit. The faculty completely lost it here. They appeared to be playing the role of a genie who fulfilled the wishes of whoever that had the magic lamp!
2. Jury:
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The Jury was initially effective. Shankar used to have some good comments in the beginning and appeared to be doing his job as a responsible music aware judge. But a few episodes later, Mr Javed Akhtar (with due respect to his writing abilities) took over the entire jury duties. KK was always ineffective and never had any good working comments.
In sharp contrast to the jury for Indian Idol that included a music director (Anu Malik), a singer (Sonu Nigam) and a dance director (Farah Khan), this was a jury with a dominating writer who didn't have anything to do with singing or performing - but who passed and influenced (in my opinion) judgements in an increasingly dominating way.
Soon, I strongly believe Shankar and KK stopped playing any part in the judgement process.
Javed Akhtar's judgements were just reflections of his biases. His judgement that Shamit influenced Arijit to oust Kirti was a bias against Shamit. The fact that he did not even consider the possibility of a doubt in favor of Shamit (that Ila Madam was trying so hard to suggest) tells that the man is not suitable to be a judge. Again with due respect to his talents as a writer, I believe nobody should deny the possibility that he/she can be wrong in judging others. (And same goes for me too :-)
Coming back to Javed Akhtar's judgements, it was interesting to note that he willingly defended Arijit when he cleverly got rid of Shamit. Talk about double standards! He lost all credibility as a judge right there and then. He had no explanation when his bias was pointed out to him by the faculty.
Javed Akhtar's biases continued on this time to favor Ruprekha over everybody else and reached its peak when Ruprekha so confusingly chose both Rex and Arpita and in fact regretted it later. But she still got praised as being an innocent girl with a golden heart!
Javed even hinted and promoted that a Jodi should be a girl and a boy when there were only 3 contestants left. It was obvious that he didn't care about who the boy would be but wanted the girl to make it to the Jodi. Talk about balanced judgement..!
It is funny how things work and get repackaged in a gold foil. What everybody missed was the fact that Ruprekha did not know of the danger while making that decision. Had she known that, she wouldn't have done what she did. It proves that she is no great soul as she was advertized to be from then on. Also, nobody saw the U-turn she took in the final episodes when she suddenly started liking Qazi for Fame Jodi - isn't that opportunism - kind of like swimming with the tide?! But Mr. Javed Akhtar and the Janta jumped on the 'glorifying Ruprekha' bandwagon and rest is history.
3. Janta:
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Janta is the utlimate judge but cannot always be right. A few people with enough bucks in their wallets and cell phones can totally hijack the results. There are a billion people in India and only a small percentage of them have cell phones and some percentage of those have the will and resources to spend hundreds of rupess on multiple SMSs.
Given these facts, consider how Qazi got voted in, 11 times!
This person was put in danger zone 11 times by some of the most qualified professionals in this entertainment industry - for a reason. The reason being that he was consistently not up to the mark. He was put in the Safe zone in the last round and I strongly believe, it was premeditated and a fluke.
I believe, Sony buckled under Janta pressure for sure. In Javed Akhtar's words, I could've said "There was no shuck.. yeah yakeen hai".. but I do give them the benefit of the doubt :-)
Where was that sense of music that Janta showed during Indian Idol.. where did it go? What happened.. where did it crack? Sure, the guy is fair and good looking. But at the same time he is so out of tune, too skinny to have a personality and his dancing bag has only a couple of steps of juggling his feet around. I can understand if you go crazy with Rex, that guy really makes you jump to your feet with his singing and expressions.
Besides Qazi, the Janta got caught in an emotional tide when they voted in favor of Ruprekha instead of Rex/Arpita in the semi-final round. Okay, here is how Indian audience goes.. they saw a girl who was being hailed as that oh-so-innocent and oh-so-'mahaan' girl by none other than the likes of Mr Javed Akhtar and they went for it. They did not think for a bit that the decision she took was not a conscious, well thought decision that could qualify as being 'mahaan' but a spur of the moment one (which she also realized later - isn't it obvious here?)..
4. The contestants (those who mattered in the end):
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The extra contestants (Monica and Sandeep) were just that.. extra. And they were just instrumental in getting Shamit and Arijit out.
Shamit and Arijit were a good match to one another and unfortunately got killed in the politics of it all.
Arpita appeared to be a strong and intelligent girl who finally landed herself in a controversy. She kept bickering about Ruprekha and basically dug a hole for herself in the end. The effect? - she started singing erratically towards the end.
Rex was on a winning streak, but in the end could not avoid making controversial statements about Qazi which were totally unnecessary. That I believe, might have pushed him down in the Janta's list of favorites. He was the one person who was really lively, sang well, gelled well with everybody and rocked on stage.
Mr Qazi: One thing that goes to his credit is that he was honest in his verdicts. But he held himself in too high of a regard once he started getting Janta's votes. He never realized that all the phrases like 'mujh mein junoon hai', 'mujhe chattan banana hai', 'mujh mein potential hai', 'I like challenges' were put in his dictionary by the Janta! He actually never faced any challenge after his first encounter with the Danger zone.
Ruprekha: She was always a sleepy girl almost to the point of being dumb with horrible communication skills. Her singing was 'breathless' and her pronounciation faulty. She just happened to be in the right place at the right time doing the right thing - albeit unknowingly, she had the right person rooting for her in Mr Javed Akhtar and had the safe haven of the 'Best Student' title for too many undeserved times.
To summarize:
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I believe Rex should have made it to the Fame Jodi and so should have Shamit/Arijit/Arpita/Ruprekha in that order of preference. I cannot say about Kirti/Anubhav/Mona who were also good but they may not have been able to put the stage on fire (not that Ruprekha can!). But well..
So for now, let's find out who voted for Qazi/Ruprekha and make them buy (and listen to) all their CDs and show tickets and see how they feel about that.. ;-) well, you can't just turn your backs on these two, 'coz you chose them! Maybe Javed Akhtar can write a movie script and insist that Ruprekha sing all the songs in it and Qazi should be the lead actor instead of Rithik Roshan. Hmm.. wonder why Shankar didn't promise these two a song in his film like he did to Arijit and Kirti.. Questions, questions!!
Finally, I feel sorry for Sony for having wasted 2 crores on this Jodi, they made a good investment in Abhijeet Sawant before but this time I think they blew it. Maybe that first CD with songs from all the singers in it, can cover some expenses and of course the advertizing revenues from their episodes and stage shows. So I guess they will survive.. to make another 'Lame' Gurukul! Hope they only make Indian Idols instead...
Anyways, people, Enjoy your Fame Jodi!
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Kedar
Ganesh Kartikeya
CID
Anupamaa
