Vivekanandan delivers a stunning pro-performance on ISS 2008

It is only recently that I have been watching ISS more frequently unlike ISS 2007. Vivekanandan was my initial favourite but later fell out in favour because of poor performances. But he is slowly making a comeback and yesterday was a smashing comeback performance.

In fact I was surprised at the low praise that Sharath and Venugopal gave for Vivekanandan after yesterday's awesome performance in the Fusion round of the competition. Being proficient on the violin Vivekanandan used it to enhance the total effect of the fusion song where he stretched his vocals to the limit including even a little pop-like vocal. The video actually showed judges completely blown by the performance. At one stage Sharath's mouth was literally open.

Vivek's long performance is in two parts.





Highly appreciative was Didi's comments but when she said something about George Benson, that was when I was really fell for what she said. So obviously I am going to explain what George Benson does and how Vivekanandan performed a similar thing.

George Benson is more popularly known for making hits such as "The Greatest Love of all" which became a huge hit for Whitney Houston in the late 80's. But what many don't know is that George Benson is one of the greatest guitarists around. His style is predominantly jazz but his style seems to transcend all genres. He plays a custom made Ibanez guitar and besides his melody and virtuosity what he is popularly known for is his "scat" singing, i.e singing along with his guitar licks and solos the same note that he is playing on the guitar. He does it with precision and speed. Check out his song "The world is a Ghetto" from the album "In Flight".

So what George did using his guitar Vivekanandan did playing his violin and Vivekanandan did go another further step in that that he was singing Carnatic swarams simultanesouly playing the same notes on the violin. Vivek's was difficult because he had to use his vocals while simultaneously supporting his violin below his chin.

Earlier Gayathri's ghazal wasn't bad either. She could have slowed down a bit.

More good performances at ISS 2008

Rahul springs a lovely surprise by singing the best ghazal so far in the competition. My only regret was the duration of the song. It could have been longer. Rahul can pull of a victory in the competition if he could use some killer instinct towards the end of the competition.



Sonia does a great job at singing "Ninnukori Varnam" effortlessly. I fully agree with Sharath's comments as those were the only errors I could make out. She was spot on and with a voice as this she did full and more justice to the original. Even where I thought Chithra strained in the original Sonia did it with utmost ease.



The Prashob Durga duet lacked lustre. But looking forward to some big performances today.

The simple formula to win Idea Star Singer

Or for that matter any singing competition in India.

The contestant be allowed to choose his/her song to perform.

The contestant that chooses the best songs that matches his or her style and voice will emerge winner. By best songs I also mean rare and old songs, not necessarily hits.

Looks very simple isn't it. But that is the truth.

Unfortunately contestants are offered very little creativity to exercise. Most of the songs they are singing are co-erced upon them by someone going by their own list of favorite songs. There are just too many hits and in a competition like Idea Star Singer where you can sing Tamil, Hindi and other languages besides Malayalam the list of hits are almost infinite. Many hits have yet to be sung. The others are mismatched with the wrong singers in the competition.

So a contestant with decent singing skills only need to get to know the good songs to perform. So the winner will also be one who has good taste and isn't it a good thing if the winner is also a person of good taste?

A R Rahman and uniting India

"Can't you speak even one word of Hindi?". I was asked this unpleasant question twice by my fellow Hindi-speaking Indians during my stay in the U.S. I passed them off lightly though I did want to give these chaps this answer - "My employer doesn't want Hindi and so I didn't care either". In the U.S no matter how hard these guys try to fight their identity crisis with all the Hindi they can speak loudly no U.S employer actually cares for thier Hindi. Translation services do want Hindi speaking people but then H1 visas aren't granted for them. Unless you want to be employed in some Indian gorcery store or gas station run by some Hindi speaking folks there Hindi is of hardly any use in the U.S. I was surprised when I was told by a Tamil boy how a friend of his (another Tamilian) was chiding him for not knowing Hindi. And even though the Indian paper currency uses other languages I am not complaining why my Hindi speaking questioner doesn't know Tamil or Malayalam.

What many of these Hindi speaking folks in India and abroad don't know is that many in India whose mother tongue is not Hindi have actually learnt Hindi at least up until the X standard and that many can even converse, read and write Hindi quite well. In the south we love Hindi movies and songs. Down south Hindi has never been a problem to understand or to learn or to speak. In TamilNadu, only the imposition of Hindi has been opposed. Most of our singers from the South such as Yeshudas, S P Balasubramanyam, K S Chithra and of course Hariharan and now Shankar Mahadevan sing in Hindi with ease. Hariharan even made inroads into Ghazals and has carved a niche for himself in this genre before making it big in film songs. On the contrary the many Hindi stars who made it big in Tamil movies like Simran, Jyothika, Nagma can hardly speak a decent word of Tamil and that too after decades of being in the film industry in the South. Khusboo is the exception. What to say of those South Indian stars (some of them who still rock Hindi cinema) like Sridevi, Rekha, Hemamalini, Vyjayanthimaala, Waheeda Rahman and Padmini. Both Juhi Chawla and Kareena Kapoor have openly confessed that Sridevi was their sole influence.

South Indian directors also make Hindi movies. Manirathnam, Ram Gopal Varma and Priyadarshan have made big hits in Bollywood with originals.

And now there is one more person from the South, Chennai's very own A R Rahman who not only composes songs for Hindi movies but also sings them. Hindi film music has never been the same after "Roja". Besides introducing elements such as the real good drum beat (as in "Roja Janeman"), "Reggae" elements as in "Choti si Aasha" and a number of other techniques A R Rahman also proved to the Hindi masses that you could be a single composer and yet make good music instead of working as a "duo". That way in the south most composers work alone and not as combos.

Today the nation is singing one tune because of A R Rahman. What a way to unite the country using music. Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu composers have even made singers from the north sing south Indian language songs. Though the diction is still far from perfect (Shreya Goshal being the exception here) the south is always open to experimentation without complaining. Imagine Adnan Sami singing Tamil but that's what Yuvan Shankar Raja has done in his latest offering.

....and we from the south are asked for our knowledge of Hindi???

Some others who share my opinion on "Slumdog Millionaire"

Popular writer Salman Rushdie has criticised "Slumdog Millionaire" saying it piles up impossibility upon impossibility. Here are others who share the same view as myself on "Slumdog Millionaire". Follow the links.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20090224/1241/top-it-shouldn-t-have-won.html

http://www.indiatime.com/2009/01/13/gandhi-and-slumdog/

http://www.indiatime.com/2009/01/12/a-r-rahman-stands-tall/

A R Rahman wins Oscars

For all what he has been composing and entertaining us A R Rahman deserves the two Oscars he has won if not for "Slumdog Millionaire" because I don't consider it to be A R Rahman's best. Lyricist Prasoon Joshi also said the same today while speaking about ARR's Oscar triumph.

Congratulations to A R Rahman for bringing the honour to India.

Feel happy for Kate Winslet and Sean Penn too.