I know many will disagree with my scores. Thats ok and like I had mentioned earlier, I completely respect that. I must add though that i think we are perhaps giving top much credit to the mentors authenticity in their judgment and scoring. There is a lot of bias and interest that accompanies that judgment (even from the opposing Gharans's mentors - these guys all work together at the end of the day its "Show Business", with the keyword being "business", so lets not forget that.
I have evaluated these songs with a fine toothed comb and adjudicated them on pretty high standards. Problem with learning and performing music for a long time (I have beeing doing since 4 and I am 33 now) is that it unfortunately trains your ears to pick up minor nuances that are pretty obvious to me but may not be to someone else. I am not sounding my trumpet here - please understand. Its just something I pick up when I listen to music. By and large I have set these contestants renditions to the standards of Kishore, Lata, Rafi, Mukesh, Manna Dey etc. and every time there is a slight error (in my opinion), I make a note of it. The overall song may have sounded very nice to one, but if I gave it a lower score, I may have noted many burn-points where they could have been performed better.
See I think Vinit is a great singer (honestly)> My general issue with him was that he sounds for now more in the boys voice range than in the mens voice range in terms of maturity of voice (maybe a teenage Rafi in the making).
So again, feel free to disagree with me and my scoring, and I totally respect that. Are bhai mentors ne Khaiyyam saab ke judgment ko nahi chhoda to main kis khet ki mooli hoon :).
My only defense is that I know I have scored them on very very high standards, and not used the video at all - its as if I was listening to their singing without having ever seen them. But to be brutally honest, if this was an 'All India Radio' music contest or a 'Sangeet Research Academy' contest, the standards would have been even higher than what I have used. You don't believe me eh :). Better believe it. In that case, the scores would probably have been even lower. Again this doesn't mean these performers are bad. The differences between their average scores are in decimals, so its not that huge.
I am used to the quality of singers than perform in Tansen Samaroh or Savai Gandharva or Gwalior Sangeet Samaroh or the likes of those. Many singers that perform at these festivals are light classical and light music singers who can sing the bollywood songs without much difficulty - they might need some hindi film singing coaching though I am not discounting that aspect of it ofcourse to be fair to everybody. But with some minimal effort, they can perform competitively and quite well.
I think the lesson to learn here is that not everybody makes the effort to get off their couch and work hard to compete in SRGMP or cross great hurdles to get somewhere in the film industry or in life for that matter. So I must give it to these contestants who have worked so hard and have gone through great sacrifices to get there. I know it takes a bucket load of effort that armchair-intellectual talk wont achieve. They are doing it and even if they are not the best, they are good enough for what the market demands. Yes there is always something or someone better, but thats always the case.
Anupamaa
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
