Idea Star Singer's host Ranjini's new phrase

As if we aren't tired of her "..and of course..", "not bad at all", "fabewlous", "anyways" (fill me in here guys for others) here comes another, "spot on yaar" and "spot on". Not forgetting her mannerisms, gestures, face/lip contortions, dance and Malayalam. If only she knew her frustrated viewers...

No, I wasn't wrong about Roopa

After being such a fan of her fine performances how could I be so wrong?

Roopa delivers a treat in her work on the concept album "Ramanan". All the sweetness of her voice that I missed in "Enter Sarike" is there on songs on this album. Roopa sounds soothing, lovely amd most important "clear" and un-modulated. Though a bit nasal now and then, this recording has truly brought her mellifluous voice out clearly, something that we all love her for.

The guys who made "Ente Saarike" must listen to this album and then find out how this sweetness and melody of her voice has been brough out by this recording and how they missed it or messed it in theirs.

Check out Roopa's songs at http://rooparevathi.com./audio/Ramanan.htm

"Kanana Chayalil" must be your first song. Beautifully rendered, the male voice also deserves credit. The poetic lyrics are beautiful. I will not be surprised if it is selected by a director of taste for his or her movie. Roopa singing as the character Chandrika in the poem, adds strength to the character of Chandrika that you almost fall for Chandrika.

Other good numbers are "Aarenthum Paranjotte" (male voice commendable here too and song sounds very much like "Theertha karayinile.." from K Balachander's "Varumayin Niram Sivappu", probably based on the same raaga), "Anyonyam", the duet with Gayathri, "Enthu Nee Cholkilum" and "Nirthaye lokame". In "Kandittila Njaan" listen to Roopa speak at the end of the song.

Roopa's voice is on 6 songs of the albums and for Rs.100 the album is a steal deal.
You can buy the album from Manorama's site.

Meanwhile Najeem Arshad who won Asianet's Idea Star Singer 2007 competition has his own big hit in "Ente Pranayathin" from the movie Chembada. You can listen to it on MusicIndiaOnline.com.

ISS concludes, IPL begins

I really didn't bother to write about the conclusion of ISS because I knew Najim would be crowned the winner. However I wished Amrutha could have been in the top 4 instead of Arun Gopan.

Like SSG, the winner was already pre-decided and all that last minute voting are purely rigged. ISS put on a better finale than SSG which was nothing short of chaos. Only twice there were transmission problems but otherwise things seemed to go smoothly. Ranjini was good and bad at the same time. Throughout ISS and the finale she seems to be handling too many things. When Najim finally won it she persuaded him to do a repeat performance of the song that was not fully telecast during his performance. Najim struggled to get back his cool to sing the song. I can't imagine we all have to put up with her for another year. And why that song with Ranjini being chased by those 4 guys? Did you also notice how many times she used the phrase "and of course".

For many of the performances the singers were only lip-syncing. Even my son could detect that. How can Asianet be so foolish to make us believe they were not. Remember the first song where all the singers came in to sing the prayer song. They could have at least fixed a non-working mic on the dress of each performer there to make it look real. Many other things suck but then they are all a part of the shows we poorly imitate from the west.

Will I watch these shows again in 2008? Certainly I will not be wasting time as I did on these shows like I did but it is always nice to watch new, true and good talent. However there is this sense of middle class longing which I wouldn't want to be a part of. Programmes such as these are only capitalizing on such a thinking. The way Ranjini was screaming repeatedly "40 lakh apartment" is proof of such thinking. It also makes the participants feel that the goal of their singing career is eventually the prize and not what lies beyond the competition which should be their true goal.

Where are these winners going to go? Like veteran singer Hariharan said these new singers will hardly last a couple of years chiefly because there is too much competition from a very big talent pool. So singers who lasted decades are soon going to become a thing of the past. Roopa confessed to me that after she won Gandharvam Singer Senior in 2002 she hardly got one offer. This time though she told me she has already sung one song (a duet with Yeshudas) and awaiting more promised offers.

Meanwhle the much awaited IPL (Indian Premier League) begins. More on that later.

Can people look beautiful when they cry?

You bet they can be. One of the earlier instances in my life was when I saw a classmate, a girl, cry in school. It must have been in the 5'th or 6'th grade. It was the first time I saw her cry. She was a studious girl and she was crying becuase she got very low marks in a test. Instead of feeling sorry I was only surprised at how beautiful she looked when she was crying. It was a strange yet beautiful experience. I have been witness to quite a few similar incidents later in life too. Sometimes even a teary eyed face looks beautiful as it happened on a recent trip to Kerala. The scene wasn't actually one of pathos. This time a relative of mine, someone in her early teens had some physical discomfort that got her teary-eyed and I couldn't help admiring the beauty in those eyes.

So why am I writing all this? I was just reminded of these incidents when I saw Amrutha cry on Idea Star Singer (ISS) on Asianet. Please don't get the impression that I would like to watch her cry or that judges should make her cry. Amrutha is a softie and easily breaks down and yesterday Usha Uthup's comments were harsh enough to make her cry. Didi is aware of Amrutha's sensitivity but I wonder what made her be so rude to the girl. As I wrote before even the judges are cracking on ISS these days. Amrutha made a genuine mistake but one that didn't deserve such a treatment. This is the second time I am seeing Didi make such a harsh comment. Earlier she had done it to Vani. It was hurting to see Amrutha sob and when she said "I am sorry Didi", it broke my heart. I am sure she did break many other hearts as well. Though Amrutha tried best to recoup she could hardly speak and Ranjini (thanks to her) had to speak on her behalf towards the end while requesting for votes.

Idea Star Singer vs Super Star Global

I have just watched two shows of Super Star Global after subscribing to Tata Sky and I can clearly say Super Star Global wins hands down when compared to Idea Star Singer. There is no question about it. Not that SSG does not have defects and not that ISS does not have any merits, but overall my thumbs up clearly goes in favor of SSG. Here is my detailed unbiased analysis. Let me know what you feel.

1. Production - SSG is truly professional. Monday being the first day of the week the host took time to introduce the guests and the chief guest of the show, singing legend Vani Jayaram. Everything was done so well and Shyama the host does a far better job than Ranjini. All over YouTube there are numerous viewers demanding Ranjani be thrown out of ISS and for good reason. The interaction among the judges, and the singers before and after the performance on SSG is truly pleasant and professional. Performers and judges really take time out to interact and not via strict time slots as in ISS. It is impromptu and it feels good instead of having to talk only at a particular time. Shyama is more relaxed and introduces guests pleasantly unlike ISS where it looks as though the introduction is accompanied by a drum roll. Conversations between contestants and judges are a lot more meaningful and purposeful. ISS clearly needs some better programming and event management.

Graphics, Editing, Music on SSG are also better and more pleasant than on ISS. ISS has a bigger stage but that hardly matters. Both ISS and SSG need to do some filtering of their guests though. I am sure there are more passionate beings who could be better guests at both the shows.

2. When is the show going to be over? Each time you think 2 or more are going to be eliminated from ISS, just one is. Looks like the show will go on till the end of the year at this rate. I can already see the pressure on M G Sreekumaran who I think feels the show must have been long over by now. The strain is also showing on the participants and I am sure many of them think the same. In the elimination round on Monday Vani admitted that was hardly worried if she was in or out of the competition. And how much longer do we have to put up with the host of ISS, I am not sure.

3. Judgement - I happy the judges on ISS are now giving their marks instead of making Ranjini, the fortune teller guess them. Here is one thing I like in ISS in that, that judges are critical of performances. Even Usha Uthup who is always encouraging never fails to remark when it needs to be done. Here is where I am not fully in favor of SSG. Jaychandran and Chithra Iyer seem to be praising contestants even if they are making mistakes or if they had performed poorly. While it is encouraging it gives viewers a false impression. Both Teena and Jeethendra's performances lacked lustre but the judges were never critical of the same. On ISS it can sometimes can get very far and contestants are left in tears although some of the comments may be justified. But I have noticed some situations where I thought the judges went a bit too far. I have respect for both M G Annan and Sharath for their musical acumen but Sharath is certainly not a person to be taken very lightly. Even a small intimidation can evoke a serious response from him which I think is not quite correct. At least on two occassions I have seen him snub contestants. Some arguements of his are also unwarranted and there is no use in trying to console a participant after making him or her cry. This makes contestants seem very subservient to him whereas on SSG contestants are more free and this also puts them at ease to bring forth a better performance.

4. Guests - A plethora of guests have come and gone on ISS but the guests on SSG are fewer. However on SSG they certainly speak more and considerably well on music whereas in ISS they don't do that and neither do they get the room to do that. I am also in favor of guests related to music like Karthik, Unni Krishnan and Sujatha on SSG than many of those on ISS who have hardly any say in music.

5. No self proclamations that SSG is the best but on ISS I have already heard them enough that ISS is the best, most watched show etc.

6. Talent - Here ISS clearly scores. Najim, Durga, Hesham are better than most contestants on SSG. There are others who are good too like Thushar and Amrutha but I'll keep them in my second best list and many others who put on memorable performances, Krishnajith, Teenu Telence, Arun Gopan and Bineetha. However SSG has one contestant who beats them all and that of course is Roopa who stands so tall that no one from any contest show that is on currently can even come close.

7. Judgements and Elimination - I am yet to see eliminations on SSG but there is less drama at least when announcing the safe and danger zones. On ISS it is a nightmare with play acting, crying, embracing and such. Ranjini and the guest that come to announce who is in and who is out of the competition take it to pathetic and hysterical levels testing our patience. Many a time I would just leave the room and wait for my son or wife to tell me who won and who lost.

Were judgements fair? Not on ISS. However here the judges cannot be blamed. Two contestants Sunny and Vijay Madhav had a very long run which I understand were due to the number of votes they were getting.

8. Rounds and creativity - ISS sucks with its stupid rounds such as Family and friends, Property round etc. Why judge a singer on his dancing, acting, set designing abilities? How many of today's big singers had to do these to get this far in their careers? In fact I doubt if any of them would have even made it had they had to go through a competition as this. Isn't this supposed to be a music show? I believe SSG has categories too but I haven't seen anything wierd as in SSG.

9. Host - The quality of ISS will improve if Ranjini alone is removed from her job. Many have told me that they mute her parts and listen to the performances alone and several others have stopped watching the show because of her. I have seen Shyama on SSG make mistakes but they are few and forgivable. Overall I think she does a very nice job. Meera, initially who came to participate on ISS and subsequently who co-hosted ISS could have anchored the show as well. And talking of hosts, Gandharva Sangeetham on Kairali TV has a very pleasant and attractive host. I could write about Gandharva Sangeetham too but I'll save that for another post. I am not writing about Star Wars (you are wondering how I manage to see all of these, actually I don't) because I am a big Stars Wars fan and I think George Lucas or the Star Wars franchise should be suing Kairali for stealing the Star Wars logo. Shame on these guys who couldn't come up with a better name. Even the font and style of the original Star Wars logo has be copied.

It is Wednesday today and I cannot wait to watch Roopa perform "Ezhu Swarangalukkul" Vani Jayaram's evergreen and very popular hit in front of Vani Jayaram herself. On SSG Vani provides tips and insights that are a delight to listen. I am moved by her intelligence and her voice that she has worked hard to retain inspite of age. I am sure it is going to be another feather in the cap for Roopa who has been delighting us, one after the other with her mind blowing live performance.