Talent Hunt – Take 2

Fate has its way. I was watching 2 of my favourite movies, LOTR and Sarfarosh yesterday. At one time, both the channels were showing ads. So I started channel-surfing and accidentally I watched Sony television – “Indian Idol” broadcast.

It seems the judges had walked out of the show, since according to them, the contestant Amey, who was thrown out of the contest by the audience, didnt deserve to be thrown out. I viewed the telecast just when the judges were brought back to the show by Mini Mathur. There was a heated talk between the judges and the audience. The debate started.

Both of them were right in their own ways. The judges wanted a re-match since they felt that Amey(leftmost – top row of heads) was more deserving than Anuj, who survived(rightmost – top row of heads). They said that they had had enough of seeing good singers(their favourites) been thrown out and they were going to complain to Sony to have a rematch. The audience said that what is done is done and Anuj has won fairly.

My view on this whole episode is that it wasnt really necessary. To me, it was absolute CRAP. I strongly agree with what Sonu says. He is right in supporting the better singer. The best singer has to win and obviously, the judges are in the better position to see who is the ‘best’. On the contrary, the format gives the judges no weightage. The audience rule the roost. If you want it to be like that, why are the judges sitting and giving their comments there? The fault is in the format. The format is CRAP.

At this stage of the contest, you cant change the format. So it has to be followed. Then whatever the audience decides has to be followed – no rematch, no change. The best singer may not win but the rules cant be changed in the middle, can it????

I think the judges have had late realisation that the format is faulty. They should have protested way back, atleast after the first version was over. Then those changes could have brought about in this version. But sadly, nothing like that happened. So, if we follow the rules, our loss is that we dont get the best since its not possible to change the rules now.
MAX MESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let the debate continue. Atleast next time around we may get shows where pure talent wins.

PS : (I forgot to tell a very important point) The voted-out contestant Amey didnt accept the rematch offer but said what is done is done, accepted his defeat and quit. Kudos to him. It takes a lot of courage to do that.

Talent Hunts

i had watched the first version of Indian Idol with lot of interest.. though my fav contestant Prajakta didnt win, Abhijeet Sawant was a deserving winner as he peaked at the right time…. his first album was brilliant.. i loved all his songs.. it was as good as Sonu Nigam’s first album…

and then came Fame Gurukul.. i had some interest for it.. i didnt follow it regularly… i liked Qazi’s personality but i think there were many contestants who deserved to be in his place.. Rooprekha was good.. but the quality of singing had already started losing its place in a talent hunt for singers….

and one thing i liked about India’s choice in both these contests is that they chose golden hearted people.. i liked the acts that – Abhijeet said that Rahul Vaidya was better than him and both Qazi and Rooprekha gave their frens another chance…
and now we have Indian Idol II.. i have no interest to watch it.. but i have watched bits and pieces once.. n yesterday’s result show.. i have read an article on talent shows in TOI… n i have taught a lot about it… yesterday too the judges were saying that sur wasnt getting its due, the contestants who sang well were not doing well in securing the audience’s votes…

i think the whole concept has a flaw.. first of all, the sole intention of these shows is to make money, not promote talent.. if it was to promote talent, then they would have done something like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.. now even this show is going for audience votes but here, atleast imp is given to singing, not X-factor, etc..

talent is there in all talent hunts, no doubt… but the best talent isnt being rewarded.. if talent had to be the priority, only people of good knowledge in that field should have been given the responsibility of judging.. in a talent hunt for singers, singing should be the only priority, not X-factor, dancing, style, make-up, etc.. if not name it as a talent hunt for entertainers n all people who can dance, make jokes, etc will come…
k.. if u want the audience to be the judges, then why do ask other celebrities to sit there n comment.. n when u give audience the power, dont give them incentives of glamour and dont talk about their decision, no judges, no celebrity talk on it… the only thing shown to them should be singing.. even background, feelings, etc shouldnt be shown.. but instead glamour is used to woo the audience..

n one more thing, if u have to take the audience votes, why charge them.. those who have money will vote many times n others wont… i didnt vote even once for any contestant.. i didnt think one vote would matter n i wouldnt have put 10s of votes…
such talent hunts, where audience get a chance to vote should be timed well.. doing so many hunts is no use.. too much of anything isnt good..

to me, the Great Indian Laughter Talent was the best talent hunt.. the format for a talent hunt should be like this.. no glamour, no background.. only after Sunil Pal won the contest, we came to know about his poor financial situation n other problems.. the judges were in the best position n they took a good decision.. now its second installment is coming.. i will have to see whether it retains its freshness or it goes the same way as Indian Idol…