Asianet Idea Star Singer, part 2

My favourite lady participant Durga Vishwanath did a poor show yesterday in the Fusion round. I did vote for her because she sang it so cool but she could have certainly selected a better song. In fact I strongly believe this competition can just be won by any good singer provided he or she simply took the pains to select good songs. This is one reason why Durga excelled at most of her stages and also lost valuable points at other times. I am afraid her close rival Amrutha who I originally used to consider the best female candidate might overtake her. I knew Amrutha would end up as one of the best if not the best right from her very first performance. But somehow the stress of winning the competition seems to be showing on her and her mother's face a lot these days. She has a great voice and great voice control but she seems to be stressing a lot while performing these days, her face bearing the stress of singing a rock song in her performances. Singing fast songs and pop songs is certainly not her forte and this is where Durga excels.

These days the contest could aptly be renamed "Ranjini's Guess Show" or "Ranjini the Clairvoyant" because one wonders if there is any program monitoring going on. For the past several weeks after every performance, Ranjini the forever-despicable host is being asked to guess the marks of the performance and after watching some sick histrionics from her, provides the answer which most of the time turns out to be right. I wonder then, why have judges afterall. Let Ranjini decide the marks and the winner. I wonder why the people behind the show cannot stop this circus or think of another technique than this. Some serious programming needs to be done.

In my previous post I had mentioned about some very memorable performances. Here they are.

First up, this memorable song from Renjin, a contestant no longer on the show. I am happy watching this show got me familiar with many good songs, this one in particular from the movie "Sarvakalashaala" that I have seen in bits and pieces. A great number from the late Malayalam music director Raveendran. This is one performance I have downloaded on my computer. Each time I listen to the song I am also reminded of the heart-touching farewell speech he gave when he was eliminated from the competition.


Next, from the youngest contestant on the show, Krishnajith singing "Ennavale". There are flaws but considering that it was a live performance Krishna did a great job.


Arun Gopan is a fine singer but who constantly makes mistakes, particularly in his pitching. He is still in the competition and this is one of his finest songs. M G Sreekumaran, judge of the show and original singer of this song had good comments to make. Honestly I liked Arun's version over MG's.


And who can forget the lovely Teenu Telence from St.Theresa's college. My wife went to the same college and she has tales to tell of the beauties there. Teenu proves she is not just beauty with this performance. Sharath, judge on the show was very critical of her performance and I even thought he went a bit too far. Teenu was in tears because I thought (and she might have thought it herself) that she did a great job for such a difficult song. Teenu is out of the competition too.


And finally Nikhil Raj with this hit, another M G Annan's number.


Most of these singers who are out of the contest are being offered performances on other celebrity shows and events, a luxury most aspiring singers did not have in the past.

Will there be an Idea Star Singer 2008? Maybe but then you can expect even lesser vareity in the songs as most of the good ones have already been sung. So it may end up being a repeat of the the songs and performances that we have been hearing or watching until now with maybe some small variety. And of course not to forget another season of torture putting up with the host.