Asianet's Idea Star Singer

What began as American Idol has had its ramifications far and wide on this earth with all kinds of versions and variations of the show being conducted in many countries and one of them being Idea Star Singer 2007 (they had a lack lustre one in 2006) on the Asianet channel in India. After months the singing contest program has now reached its Quarter final stage. I really want to know if the so called 2007 contest is going to be over before the middle of 2008. The program is being dragged meaninglessly with more stupid rounds such as Performing with friends and family, Performing with property (can't they say props) and stuff. Some of the events including friends and family were obnoxious making me cringe. One even wonders if a singer needs to know dancing, creativity in designing sets and the studio, dressing, interaction with audience, dancing/acting skills of friends and family to win the "Singer" award of the show.

The "when-is-this-show-going-to-end-thing" also means there are still many more weeks of putting up with the host of the show. It has become a torture session to watch her and conduct the show. I only wish viewers also had an option to SMS negative messages and have her removed from the show for another host. 8 out of 10 viewers want her thrown out of the show. Just check out for comments on YouTube. One of the contestants Meera who incidently was picked to play the role of co-host of the show. The girl had to leave the show when she was offered a movie role. Why couldn't they pick a host from one of the candidates who was disqualified. There were one too many participants who I am sure could do a much better job than the current one who can neither speak Malayalam nor English right.

In spite of all this viewership for this show is high and I can't help watching it myself although most of them these days I hear more than watch. There have been some great performances and some even stunning. Here are, in my opinion two of the most stunning performances that literally gave me the goose-bumps. The first is when Durga Vishwanath (in my opinion the best female singer of the competition) turned the competition around by singing this song from the Rajnikanth Tamil movie "Padaiyappa". Chekc it out. A one-of-a kind performance where she sings both male and female parts. Check out the way she passes a sweet smile at the judges as she glances at them and that too just before doing a difficult portion of the song. Very cool and confident singing.



Check out the comments from the judges at the end of her performance in the video that follows.


And then check out the performance of Najim Arshad, my choice for the Idea Star Singer, 2007 Award. This was a performance that stunned viewers and the judges and a performance that netted Najim the highest score ever on the contest. The only flaw I could detect was the Hindi lines that he spoke bfore beginning the actual Ghazal but it was tolerable. It is difficult to belive a young Malayali sing a Ghulam Ali ghazal so cool, confident and relaxed.



One of the judges Sharath was chocking (he is usually the best critic of each performance) and had hardly words to speak. Veteran singer M G Sreekumaran even admitted that it would be impossible for even him to sing a Ghazal as this.



There were some other great performances and some from singers who were eliminated from the show but I'll save them for another post.