Indian Idol Enters the last Eight Phase

Yesterday's Indian Idol on Sony Entertainment Television saw the exit of Parleen Gill who on the day was atleast the 3rd best singer after Amit Paul and Ankita. But unfortunately performance alone does not make someone the "Indian Idol" . Had it been only performance on the given day, I bet Chang the dentist and Prasanth the Army man should have been out by now. Now I am not being too harsh on both these guys but after having set some exceptional benchmarks impressing one and all in the pre-Gala stage, we expected these two guys to be more consistent.

But over the last 3 weeks in the gala round,(where the stage has been reduced to last 8 from 13 in the initial gala stages) , Meiyang Chang and Prasanth have been the biggest disappointments. Both these contestants have excellent voices but unfortunately are not capitalizing on that. Add to that the looks factor of Chang and you potentially have a loved by one and all Indian Idol in Chang. But the basic thing an Indian Idol should have is singing and Chang has not been able to deliver on that front.

In fact the best two singers in the gala round have been Wild card Entrants Amit Paul and Ankita Mishra,one of them I strongly believe will go on win this event unless Emon or Chang come out with something dramatic in the next 2-3 rounds or Amit himself goofs up because of overconfidence. Amit Paul's performance of Pehla Nasha from the movie Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander was amazing and I think was sung even better than the original singer Udit Narayan.

So what next? My gut feeling says next two weeks will see the exit of Deepali and Puja one after other and unless Prasanth and Chang, come up with some great singing, they will be next in line on the exit door. So let's wait and watch .......

Indian Idol and Mass Psychology

As the Bharat ki shaan Indian Idol( A rip off of the Original American Idol) enters the gala round stage, the audiences are being asked to vote for a talented set of singers. This week saw the end of Richa Aneja, who though a beautiful singer, I believe was a year or two early in trying to be the Idol of India. Nothing but her Childish voice did her in. But as they say, the show must go on and over the next few weeks , we will see the remaining 12 singers trying to outperform each other and win the Indian Idol.

One interesting aspect I observed over the last few weeks has been the role which judges and the organizers themselves are playing in helping the so called Janta to choose their idol. With not much separating the various singers in the show, I guess much will depend on how the Hosts, judges and organizers play out the game and in whose favor. For example, everybody who is a regular watcher of the show knows that Ankita is among the most talented of the gals but her Tom-Boyish looks go against her. But Ankita being the favorite of all the judges (and may be the organizers and hosts as well), they nicely fitted in a small trailer of how the rest of the participants in the Final 13 don't like her. This clearly is a playing with mass psychology strategy.

How you may ask? Well as an analogy just think of a typical road accident in India. You are driving your car on a main road at a decent city speed of 40kmph. All of a sudden, a guy on a cycle comes in from the cross road on the left to join the main road. Obviously you being the typical city driver don't expect this cycle and end up brushing your car's edges against the cycle. The cyclewaala falls off balance and gets some minor bruises. The good guy you are, you stop the car and check with the Cyclewaala if he needs some help. But a crowd gathers and for no fault of yours, you are held responsible for the accident and scolded left and right by the crowd. This is called the sympathy psychology. The mass hysteria is to support the weaker section or the suffering section. So by creating Sympathy for Ankita, are the organizers trying to increase the votes for her? Well only time will tell.

I guess the same thing is happening with Abhishek Kumar as well. Like what is the relationship between his being an Adopted child and his being a good talent. But still the Indian Idol showcased him as an adopted child. Obviously Abhishek will get some sympathy votes for this act of this. Let's wait and watch if this will help him win.

Apart from these gimmicks, we had the usual talents Emon, Chang, Prashant,Charu,Puja doing what they are good at !! Singing. Lots of people are putting their money on a gal winning the contest this time and the Ankita ploy may well be a part of the that plan. As of now if you ask whom I have put my money on? It will be a tough fight between Chang, Prashanth And Emon( with Prashanth having an edge as he will get more sympathy votes. He has been shown to be the sole bread earner of his family). I do believe one of these three will surely be the Bharat ki shaan this year . (Personally I have loved and voted for Chang). But can't say whom the organizers want to win. So let us wait and watch........

Jahnavi Kapoor Et al.....

The most celebrated wedding in India's modern history finally got over and the poor Media frankly did not get much sound bites thanks to the Amitabh ji decision to keep the whole affair private. But media is well.. media,and so it finally got the sensational bite needed when a little known "model" and "actress" Jahnvi Kapoor barged into the media conclave near Partiksha, the home of the Bacchans and claimed that Abhishek was indeed her beau. Now don't ask me which movie or ad has this person acted in. (Apparently she danced in the movie Dus with Abhi, did we even notice?)

So what happens to people like Jahnvi Kapoor ( or Naina or Haya god knows how many names she has) who forsake everything they earned so far ( not that she had earned anything substantial money or otherwise) for a 2 day fame/publicity. Over the next 2 days, the media will go gaga looking for her antecedents and precedents, try to prove/disprove her claim, some will come out in support of her, others will mock her. But after the initial brouhaha is over, Jahnvi kapoor and others like her will once again lead the life of obscurity with a lot of the people trying to avoid her and not wanting to do anything with her. Her Sobriquet would change from "one who acted in the Movie Dus" to " One who claimed to the actual bahu in waiting" to Bollywood's first family.

So is it all worth it ? If there is some truth the claims made, then it is truly worth it. Remember Udit Nayaran ?He had to accept that he indeed had another wife in Ranjana Jha and had to accord legal status to her. But the Abhi-Jahnvi case here mostly does not any ground. So long Jahnvi... if all you needed was some publicity and fame, you have got it from Aaj tak, TimesNow and the hundreds of blogs like this one.

The Karan And Sweta Nanda Gimmick

Last month NDTV started a new series "NextGen" ,hosted by Sweta Bachchan Nanda, the daughter of apna Bollywood's first family. The only bachchan not to have faced the arc lights as yet, I guess simply could not resist it anymore . So the first show had her interviewing Karan Johar which must have a ploy by NDTV to make Sweta comfortable since the Johars and Karan in particular are known to the Bachchans since the 1970s. Sweta I feel needs to fine tune her interviewing skills, but she did ok for a first timer .

Coming to the point here, this week Sweta Nanda will be on the Koffee with Karan ( produced by KBalaji KTelefilms??), the filmy talk show hosted by none other than Karan Johar. So what's happening here ? Exchange offer?. The "I will feature in your show and you feature in my show" seems rather self promotive with each of hosts/guests trying to get the publicity and eyeballs .Or is it a larger pact between NDTV and Star TV, the one time partners who are now competitors ? While there is nothing wrong in doing something like this, atleast some of the viewers will surely feel they are being taken for a ride. I mean how can the questions asked in the talk show/interview be realistic when you the guest/interviewer have known each other since they were kids. Obviously some of the uncomfortable questions will never be asked ( Like Karan being a Feminine sex symbol. Any comments ?) ?

So when it comes talk shows, I have always loved the one hosted by another Karan on CNBC. Karan Thapar's no non-sense approach even with people of the Stature of Vijaya Mallaya makes an interesting watch.