05 June, 2007

The kids have taken over

If I’d waited for the piano rounds of this season’s Indian Idol to start, I might never had written this Rave Out. As I mentioned here, there are just too many kids in there. Twelve girls took part in yesterday’s round, and a third of them made me feel that I was watching some children’s singing competition. Most disconcerting.

A few quick thoughts: 

1] Javed Akhtar is going to make or break people simply by going overboard. His effusive praise of Smita Adhikari is, I predict, going to work against her. She’s the best singer among the girls, but I don’t see her reaching the final stages of the competition. She might survive today’s vote-out, and maybe even the next one, but no more. (His praise is not the sole reason for this: she simply doesn’t have the personality or stage presence that makes people want to send SMSs. Sad, but true, and Akhtar’s effusiveness will turn people off even more.)

Also, much like Sunil Gavaskar when it comes to Dinesh Mongia, Akhtar is harsher against some contestants than he needs to be, like against Priyanka Mukherjee. Priyanka was mediocre yesterday, but no more so than some others who got kind words from Akhtar. I don’t know if this will help Priyanka survive by making her supporters vote more fervently, but I think it will get her more votes than it otherwise would have.

2] We need Anu Malik back. When Malik is harsh on contestants, he is, like Simon Cowell, usually right. Akhtar just seems biased, and this becomes evident when Alisha Chinai and Udit Narayan disagree with him on the nuances of vocal delivery. I’m not saying that they’d know better than him just because they’re singers, but I find myself agreeing with them just as I did with Malik and Sonu Nigam. Akhtar, it seems sometimes, is watching a different performance from the rest of us. Not always, but often enough for viewers not to take him too seriously.

3] Song choice is important. None of the girls seems to be good enough to sing just about any song with great comfort. If the song they sing takes them out of their comfort zone, they could be in trouble. Puja Chatterjee, for example, excelled with ”Tujhse Naaraaz” in the first piano round, but did less well with an utterly boring song I’ve already forgotten. I think the songs they sing are assigned to them by the channel, in which case there’s a bit of luck involved.

4] Two of the guidelines I earlier laid out for predicting the next Indian Idol don’t seem necessary now. I’d said that the winner will be an early favourite, but unlike the last two seasons, we don’t know who the early favourites are, because the winners of the Piano Rounds are not revealed.

Also, I’d mentioned that regardless of quality, the winner would be male, because there seems to be a bias towards the men. The bias is now irrelevant, because the male contestants this season seem much better than the female ones. The girls this time aren’t anywhere as good as in the first two seasons. The last three, I predict, will again be men, as in the first two seasons.

(More Indian Idol posts here.)

Update: Scribbler points out some more problems with the show.