I have been keenly following the ‘Indian Idol’ competition on Sony Entertainment Television. Having seen the ‘original’ (The American idol) I feel let down. Talking purely of the money involved, the original Idol has been a huge hit in the US. An average 25-30 million people watch on a given day, that’s a huge audience for a TV show. A 30 second commercial slot goes for about $7, 50, 000. And one of the hosts Simon Cowell takes home about $36 million per season. And as far the voting, average 20 million votes cast on each episode.!!
Indian Idol has been another moderately successful venture for the producers. I have not seen the last season, so cannot comment on it, however so far as the current one is concerned, it’s a damper. First of all the choice of judges was .. a big idea gone bad. Three of the four judges; Alisha Chinai, Udit Narayan and Annu Mallik (not Anu Malek, as he calls himself now) have been able to do any justice to their roles on those chairs. Annu Mallik has tried to emulate ( as he’s always done - copy others) Simon Cowell, and has fallen flat on his face. I have a sneaking suspicion that he was bogged down with so much criticism that he feigned sickness to stay away from the show- and that crazed fan of his Pinky maidasani..!!
He has always irritated me as person, blabbering buffoon – he reminds me of. Udit Narayan struggles for words and Alisha - always impressed, no matter how the performance is. Javed Akhtar definitely is the best pick; with his measured criticism and proper follow-up with his comments on the pronounciation of words- his inputs are definitely valuable to the show. The hosts Both Mini and Hussain are trying their best, but are loud and irritating at best. Mini has absolutely no sense of dressing, I’m at loss every time to figure out if her waistline is increasing on a daily basis or on an hourly rate..!!!! Hussain desperately tries to speak with a baritone, and the end result - constipated voice. He seems to have taken off from where Vinod Rathod had left!!
I liked the Idea of the wild card round- in which seven of the contestants were brought back. I wished Aisha Sayed and Shantanu Sudame stayed on. These two would have definitely replaced the two undeserving ones; Richa Aneja and Suhit Gosain. I hope by the time this blog gets published, Suhit is thrown out. Aisha Sayed is definitely a good singer, she has the attitude and the perfect charm. But she is out so no point in discussing. I know most of you folks are pitching for Emon, but Prashant is a better bet- in my opinion. Just observe the way he sings, he is the most comfortable on the stage; no doubt about it. Ankita Mishara is another undeserving tomboy. I cant belive she survived this long- and so did Richa and Suhit!! Smita ‘Didi’ Adhikari has managed to stay on- playing the pity card. She has no chance in hell to make it through to the next round. Let me make a prediction, Its going to a guy idol, again. It would have been different had Aisha, Deepali and Shifa Ansari stayed on. Alisha can just go back home dreaming about a girl idol. It ain’t honna happen, I bet the last one of Annu’s ‘Weaved ‘ hair on it..!!
All comments welcome…