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Just to keep things straight - I am a BIG Fan of Sreeram. I think he is a phenomenal Singer and I loved each one of his renditions. In fact, as Sunidhi herself highlighted in the Top 5 Special I saw y'day, Sreeram seeks Perfection and pretty much delivers it becos he is technically so strong (this is a paraphrasing of her statement). The icing on the cake is his voice, I can't get it out of my head, absolutely soothing and fits the different genre's without strain (punju, sufi, new age romantic, old style romantic etc.).
What bothers me is this "Feeling" thing, a Bogey that Sunidhi raised against Sreeram. Suddenly I notice Shivam saying "his songs lack feeling" and Rakesh saying something similar (can't figure out what he is saying exactly) about how he sings from point to point without putting anything extra (Feeing??). Obviously these guys want to win the competition and they want to use whatever little advantage they can get on this guy who is clearly way ahead of the pack. So they all piled onto this Feeling Bogey. I enjoyed both Shivam's and Rakesh's performances, but I think they are being unfair here. In fact, I would really want them to sing these songs that Shreeram sang to show me how they can sing it better. That would be really interesting.
Coming to Sunidhi (who I really admire and to boot I have paid good money to see her perform live here in Singapore, so I am not just saying it), I think there is an issue here. During the Gala that involved Ashaji, Ashaji made 2 significant observations, which was not discussed much in this forum.
One after Sashi sang that song from Sagar, Sunidhi said that his rendition lacked the "pagalpan that the original had". Ashaji then explained how the song was sung by the Great SPB (also from Hyd) who has this habit of adding the ooooo's and aaaaaa's (stretching the last notes, that's his signature style in such songs) for such songs and how it was NOT RD's idea in the first place. It so happened that the song went to SPB and RD had to accept the version he produced and then Ashaji said, RD would have liked this version of Sashi better because he doesn't like too much of those nakhre's (which incidentally Sunidhi adds to her songs). So lesson number one - Feeling is subjective and even the great people don't have the same opinion about it (SPB who I adore and Sunidhi in one camp and Ashaji and RD, 2 gods in the other).
The second instance is after Sreeram's performance, Ashaji did something astounding. She mimicked Lataji. Specifically, Ashaji said how Lataji would sing this song. First thing she said is, Lataji is very emotional and she would interpret the song differently and would sing like this and went on to sing it. Amazing,the song sounded very different, a different tune altogether. She was not trying poke fun, she is sending a message to everybody (including Sunidhi) that Feeling is fine but it has its place and importantly it affects the interpretation of the song.
Last, soon after Sreeram's peformance that day Sunidhi said "I see that first time you enjoyed singing (or something to that effect)". WRONG!!! Sreeram is basically an introvert type guy. He put in lot of effort to put on a show. It is possible that Sunidhi ennjoyed such a performance more than his earlier singing. Doesn't mean that Sreeram enjoyed it more!! Do you think Ashaji or Alka Yagnik or Kavita Krishnamurthy who don't go dancing around enjoying their singing less than Sunidhi who dances around a lot in the shows?? Most certainly not!!! That is a bias Sunidhi has . Because she enjoys it more that way. Sunidhi seems to respond a lot to visual clues about feelings and that's why she keeps asking people to smile and we have Rakesh with an etrenal (plastic??) smile (remember how she told Tia that she is able to see her expressions which are very good but not able to hear it?)
She has to realise different people have different tastes and styles and they enjoy most when they are in their comfort zone. My suspicion is Sreeram would have sung the song even better if he didn't put on the show (extra strain!!!) not that his version can be improved on much!!!
I think Sunidhiji should lay this Feeling Bogey to rest next time when she goes on to comment in the show becos Sreeram sings with adequate feel that complements his Perfection in singing. Let's not forget Sreeram is not just an Indian Idol contestant, but the next big playback singer in the Indian music industry (Bollywood, Tollywood, Mollywood etc.) and she may be accompanying him in one of those duets sooner than she thinks (remember he is far more versatile so he will sing her genre at some point soon).
We have discovered the Sachin of Singing and let's just sit back and relax and enjoy the next few years as Sree Ram goes on to ROCK (his primary motivation in joining this competition)!!!
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