Reflections and Analysis, August 4, 2007

You know, I enjoyed yesterday's show in spite of the bad songs. I suspect there were two reasons for it: the celebrity guest's disarming charm and the fact that most people sang more in tune than usual. Govinda won my respect by looking completely embarrassed when Sumitra finished and saying, "Main bhi kaise gaane gaata hoon." Verily spoken, sir!

There was a thread a few days ago asking whether people appreciated the song or the singer. By that token, yesterday was a good episode to judge the contestants by, at least for me. I did not know most of the songs and so I was just listening to the performance. I cannot for the most part make comparative (with the original) assessments.

Abhilasha was good, I thought. Sur, taal and expression were there, and she was having fun. A.

Toshi. His sur and taal were much better than they had been in recent times, but I thought the very ill Ishmeet sang better. B+ (at some point, I have to grade him, but he still irritates me).

I heard the judges praise Priyani a lot, but I want to tell you that last night for the first time, I channel-surfed away from ASVOI when she started singing. It was involuntary, and clearly all parts of me find her tedious. Since I could not stay tuned to this channel, I did not hear her and cannot grade her.

I thought Sumitra sang very well last night. Extremely well. I enjoyed listening to her in a slightly more mainstream song. And Govinda was absolutely right (can we have him replace Alka if Alka is not coming back?): she took a very raunchy song and made it naughty, almost sweetly so. A+.

Prantik was the reason we got to hear how well Govinda sang, and the result was not favourable to Prantik who seems to be deteriorating through the episodes. Now I almost want him to go out and come back in a year or two. C+.

Arshpreet was as good as her song allowed, maybe better. A+.

Irfan is having a very good week! He was not as good as with Jhumroo but that was also a better song. His energy was amazing and his sur and taal were good too. A+ for him as well.

Govinda said to Harshit what I want to say here: If you work hard you can become a great singer. B++.

Prantika was better than she has been since the start of the competition phase. That however does not say much. Her voice is sweet but she needs to sing with more energy. Sur and taal were fine. B+.

We need a new grading scale for Abhaas. What we have is not enough for the way he has been performing. Abhaas should however keep his feet on the ground and keep practising as he obviously has. Arrogance can kill excellence and it would be tragic to have that happen here.

Mirande to my mind was not as good as usual. I will give her a B+. She is a terrific singer and performer and today she was not at her best in my view.

Ishmeet was very good--even without factoring in his illness. But he is not consistent and usually what we praise as sukoon in his singing manifests also as lack of energy. Today he was good after a long time. Was there any need to have him speak so much? His performance would have impressed even more if he had just come and sung. The judges did not grade him but I will: B+.

Two other comments:

1. Who is doing make-up and clothes? In a show where people can actually sing, there is no need to doll them up so much. And certainly not to counter-productive extents. The make-up is so thick and oily that it stands out and many of the participants look like they have very bad skin. Arshpreet has a lovely face and the make-up looks like a bad mask on her.

And the clothes are very bad too, and I understate this. Who is putting them in this bad Western clothes? What happened to designer salwar kameezes and even, sarees? Are sarees just a costume or period dress now? And what is it with the overdose of brown, pink and jersey materials, in a country whose textiles have been famous through the ages for their quality and their colour?

I know that this is extraneous to my topic, but whoever is guiding these young people is guiding them wrong. They are looking so ridiculous that sometimes it is their appearance and not their song that draws attention. Again, Alka, where are you? Sanchita had the same problem till Alka took her under her wing.

2. Today the judges were openly playing tit for tat and the contestants paid for it. The comments were rarely constructive or useful. The marking was vindictive and arbitrary. They behaved worse than toddlers and embarrassed the guest. I am now glad we get to vote in this contest or else the result may be worse than what voting will bring.

I wish to comment on the last two points mentioned... The dressing of the contestants is really weird at times, and coming from a well known person like Vikram Phadnis, it is really baffling... I wonder if the contestants feel comfortable in such outfits and it doesnt affect their singing😕

Second, regarding the scores by judges, Abhijeet was clearly being biased against the opposite team... As Lalit pointed out, Abhijeet was the one who used to give maximum scores earlier on, and now has changed all of a sudden... I did not like this partiality... And totally agree that am happy now that there is public voting...

Lastly, Govinda is a very good hearted person and it shows in his comments, his disposure on the show 👏 No wonder he is so popular and liked by everyone....

mujhe gana achcha nehi laga. I liked only pryiani's song. rest can't score didn't liked at all. they changed sur of original song. n sometimes i feel sur vi nehi lag rahatha which were pointed out by govida politely 😳

Whenever any show has a Govinda special, one thing is sure, that the songs attempted are going to be bad!

I only found Arshpreet, Abhaas, Abhilasha, Ishmeet, Irfaan and Sumitra singing well... May be it was the song quality that overshadowed the singing ability for the others!

I had no idea that Govinda has this talent of singing, and I was mighty suprised... 😊 But, please - no Govinda type special episodes anymore... do we have a dearth of good songs? 😕

Didnt think i wud actually like this epi as much i actually did ...
loved it when govinda attempted that thumri ... i thot it was known that he has learnt music from his mom 😕

most ppl sang well with the songs they were given ... again expected some peppier numbers like 'kisi disco mein jaaye' ... i love that song for its 'make u dance' quality 😛
and wasnt abhilasha singing 'ankhiyon se goli maare' in the practice sessions ... why did she switch over to 'sona kitna sona' ?? the song didnt suit her voice and i didnt enjoy it so much ...

sumitra was good, some unnecessary drama by abhijeet there ... was it a desperate attempt at being 'alka' there ?? much better than priyani who IMO murdered 'makhana' another song i love for the same reasons as above ...

ishmeet was surprisingly good ... and yes there was no need for all that drama ... makes me wonder if he was really sick at all ...

harshit was singing like a robot !!!
prantika was surprisingly good, but i wonder why was the scale lowered?

abhaas was again the best, by a long margin, irfan was next again, his only mistake being the one pointed by adesh ...

dress sense ... i think all these shows are competing with each other for more than singing talent and one of them is 'worst dress sense'

my rankings for the week
abhaas
irfan
arshpreet, mirande
sumitra
abhilasha
toshi
harshit
prantika
ishmeet
priyani
prantik

One thing I liked about Govinda is that he clearly found the judges as ridiculous as we did. And he has the candour and the industry stature to tell them so. So if Alka is not coming back, let us have some grown-up celebrities at least who can squash the pesky brats that occupy the minds of the judges.

I hope you were being sarcastic calling me a genius, because I most definitely am not.

The change in channel was involuntary; I just suddenly found myself watching SRGMP.

Thanks for the great analyses vanajakshi..i admire thefact that you concentrate on the singing and its intricacies as you know music.
I think most of us here, are people who just listen to music more than watch movie channels,that is why we are here -to listen to and appreciate some good music.-if seeing Govinda or Anil was our thing,we would have been in the bollywood section(am i in trouble for stating that 😕 )..

I really hated the saturdays show..The show started with Abhilasha in that fancy dress wearing that dreadful cap singing 'tu mera hero no1'..is that what all those weeks tortuous auditions and painful eliminations was going to lead us to. .then Abhilasha was firmly told off she is not all that...by the time Arshpreet started singing(breathlessly) I was down in the dumps.

It is really not their fault, if we dont like to hear them sing those songs they too must loathe to have to sing it in front of millions and that too dressed like that 🤢 .most of them are still in their teens or barely out of it.Perhaps my expectations is too much.expecting them to perform like a madari ka bandar every time.
I think we may have gazal night on friday with ghulam ali saab ..What if Hrithik Roshan or say Zayed Khan is the guest on saturday..which episode would the members prefer,i wonder..

Oh, Ankita, your frustration is evident.

There is another unpleasant reality we must face: no matter how exquisitely they sing and how exquisite the songs they sing, in the real world of playback singing, most songs fall in Saturday's category. If playback singing is their bread and butter and not their hobby, they will have to learn to sing these songs with conviction as well.

And Govinda is a good example for this: clearly, he is musical; clearly, he is more or less sane; and yet, he acts in insane films and lip-synchs to the silliest songs with enough conviction that other people think he must be silly too. This is because he makes his living this way and then you cannot choose.

Unpleasant as this is for us, perhaps it is a good test of the contestants' ability (as in qaabiliyat and not hunar) after all: do they have the dedication to do all the grunt work (and sing silly songs) it will take to get them to the song that they win the National Award for?

Hrithik or Zayed: Hrithik has better songs.