Moving on to the next phase of this grand saga. But first another look at DDR and even a bit of Guitar Hero. Speaking of DDR. I've personally played the game a few times. I've got a friend though who is a huge fan of the game. Not just a fan, but an expert at the game. Funny thing is my friend can't dance. My friend knows that. In fact it takes a lot of alcohol in the blood stream for my friend to be up for rhythmic public embarrassment. However, my friend is so good at the game that they would win with perfect scores even with that high a bit of blood in their alcohol stream.
Why is that? Why do you think that my friend who cannot dance to save their life is an unbeatable expert at DDR?
On a similar note the incredible shredder Herman Li from DragonForce could not complete his bands own song 'Through Fire and the Flames' on Guitar Hero. Surely, teenage Danny Johnson is not actually a better guitarist than Herman Li himself...or is he?
Adbhut Athra: Alright then folks. Our esteemed sifted through thousands and thousands of chaff that just fly in the winds of our country and finally picked 18 grains of pure gold. The finest of the finest, the cream of the crop. Or so they would like us to believe. I've always wondered how much we would agree or disagree with the final eighteen if we could actually sneak into the studios and watch the entire proceedings uncut.
Either way the competition is getting serious at this stage. This is the last chance the masters have some amount of power in their hand. From the next stage on the decisions are in the hands of the junta. Although, in this stage they share lay the final decision making in the hands of a weathered yesteryear whose pelvic thrusts, thrust him into the thresholds of disco notoriety.
(Fun Fact: Don't be dismissing the grandmasters Pelvic thrusts and cheesy I'm failing at being John Travolta disco dancing and screaming so easily. Our grandmaster single handedly revived the career of eighties futuristic punk rock band
Devo. It was some bizarre hybrid thing only Mithun duh could inspire)
Either way its terrifying to know that the pirouettes, lock steps and kicks are ultimately going to be determined by a person who probably sees a pirouette as the reaction of centrifugal force on a high velocity pelvic thrust in a circular direction. That is if he knows what velocity and centrifugal force are. Umm....if he knows what the pelvis is. For starters it was not discovered by Elvis, although he did find good use for it too.
Anyway, this is an important stage for the masters. First they have to set a brilliant piece of choreography. Secondly they have to make the heartbreaking decision of choosing the bottom male and female from their team. Not only do they have to choose the bottom they have to judiciously choose the bottom two to minimize the probability that they get knocked out. Finally they have to set a choreography again to the bottom two to minimize the probability even more.
This stage of competition is supposed to set a precedent for the rest of the contest. After all it is all part of an ongoing distillation process to remove the impurities that sneak in. Unfortunately we forget that we are consuming illicit moonshine and that the incident of quality is a freak accident and impurities do sneak in.
Nevertheless, I think Kunwar and Shakti's Khuda Jaane completely mesmerized the audiences with an unprecedented level of grace and flawlessness for the first round of competition. Even Shashank, Bhavana and Nikitasha wowed everyone with their classical act. Funnily, I think some of the most memorable performances of this season were in this stage. I'm still nostalgic about Kunwar, Kruti, Parvez's Tango, or Kunwar and Kruti's Bhojpuri salsa. Dharmesh and Binny had a memorable marathi hip hip. You'd think the next few stages get better, but bizarrely so I think this stage had some of the best.
The most unfortunate aspect of this phase to me was the loss of Parvez, Altaf and Vandana. Yes, the days when they went out was when they were out of their game. But these three were exceptionally hardworking people willing to learn. I would say more so about Parvez. At this stage of the contest he showed as much promise as Shakti and Kunwar and I was pretty confident that he would be a top ten contestant at the very least. In the short period he was on he displayed great talent and versatility, from romance, to comedy, from Bollywood to contemporary. I'd miss his simplicity and honesty for the rest of the season.
Pet Peeves:1) If the dance masters were Spartans they would have cast their worthless dancers off a cliff and saved us all the trouble. Unfortunately, they are not Spartans; which means they display the irrational human tendency of protecting their weak. Instead of casting them out without a second glance and raising only the best that are fit to survive as mother nature does, we harbor our week, croon and cajole them in delusional hopes that they will somehow defy Darwin.
That is why instead of weeding out the weak right away, the masters tend to display a tendency to have their champions battle it out. This often defeats the purpose of choosing a bottom too. Some do it more so than others. However, the point is that its done. Someone had a bad day, you know someone can do better, you want to give them the chance.
I think this round would be improved if two masters picked the weakest link in the third team. See if the Persians had to choose which Spartan they had to fight - they would for sure pick the scrawniest. There are no Davids here seeking to slay Goliaths, everyone wants to squat a fly and be crowned champion. Unless we can make the masters go all Spartan on us, the only way to get the weakest link is to make the other two pick. On the other side, it saves the masters a Sophie's Choice.
2) Slightly related to point one. If there is only one girl or a boy left on a team, it makes no sense that they should have to go in the bottom. Firstly, it gets to a situation where a worthy contestant is in the bottom. Secondly, it can wear out even a good contestant to mediocrity. First imply my suggestion above. If this bizarre situation arises again - then each of the masters and Gm cast a silent ballot on to put in bottom or not. In case of a tie Jai and Sowmyaa cast deciding vote. 😛
3) Cut to the chase. There is no room for undue drama or emotion. The rules of engagement have been set. Just follow through. What really irked me was the undue extension over choosing between Ameeth and Kishore. Jizzy Crizzy and this was not in the final stages. I would have been more forgiving if he had some random emotional time consuming saga of a veto in the later rounds. Especially if he used it on a worthy contestant. But seriously what was the point of extending this again. If its that hard flip a coin. One has to go and they will go - unless you exercise some bizarre veto against yourself. Or wait a minute? Did he seriously veto himself for a week? Thats why we saw no veto or recall against the junta. He used his magic powers against himself.
4) Aaah! It was in this stage already when we saw dissent over Shakti and her immaculate skills when it came to contemporary. I think most people conveniently forgot her 'Buttons' rendition in mega audition. I've always found it odd when perfection is cause for critique. Sure you have the best apple pies, but the question is can you fry chicken? But we live in a world of war for peace. All I hope is that through this competition Shakti has proven that she is a contemporary trained dancer, who has perfect that style. She has strong fundamentals as well as exceptional expressions due to which she can adapt to most styles from Latin Ballroom, to street styles, to Bollywood. Unfortunately she has not established herself as a Jack of all trades, but I think she will live with it.
.....to be continued
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