Really, I mean it when I say it. For Indian Idol I only have one thing to say. Abhijeet Sawant is a great singer but he’s the past and he was one of the only worthy and competitive contestants on stage for the award to represent the entire nation. As of now, they are a weakling, even fiddling to FAME GURUKUL. May be FAME GURUKUL produced a decent performer like Qazi, but his partner Ruprekha is sadly nowhere near winning material. Rex was a better choice...but then again that’s public and not the program’s fault. Still, overall GURUKUL lacked the power to be a big challenge...it too had only a few decent talents like Qazi, Rex, Arpita, and Arijeet. That’s it...overall it was a boring and sparkless program otherwise. The jury was sparkless and everything seemed like an act...especially the parts with jury favoring Qazi. There really wasn’t a reality challenge being viewed.
In case of SA RE GA MA PA...which I only started following this year, I believe there is a lot more. After producing award winning singers like Kunal Ganjawala and Shreya Ghoshal, this program simply continues to thrive Indian television with the amount of talented youngsters present to fire up the stage. There are plenty of reasons too why there is so much energy and true material in this program---there are wise people behind it...the songs picked for performances, the mentor part, the public participation, and the overall motivation is very well planned out...completely user friendly and in the program’s favor.
Two times a week, this program truly is one of the best shows on T.V. today. With the challenge having only 9 contestants remaining, I will briefly describe them now.
Let’s actually give an elimination summary out of the top 12 so far. Two talented ladies like Swananda (Jatin Lalit’s DUM HAI gharana) and Raktima (Aadesh’s JAI HO gharana) were eliminated (Raktima first and Swananda next)!
We were then left to top ten. At that point unfortunately, we were treated to, at least for me, probably THE MOST SHOCKING of all eliminations there could be. The stunning Sharib Sabri from Rajasthan was eliminated by public choice in what was a close run contest with Twinkle Bajpai and Himani, both explained later.
Sharib no doubt was the show stealer with his great performances on ’’Mann ki lagan’’, ’’Aashiq Banaya Aapne’’, ’’Nach le’’, ’’Sayoni’’, and last but not the least ’’Chand taare tod laaoon’’--a song which his singing simply exemplified even better than original artist Abhijeet. Yet the public voted him out, infuriating his mentor Jatin whose Gharana had its last representative in Sharib. For them the challenge was over but basically it was the public who lost with such a poor decision. The remaining male contestants came nowhere close in any department--be it consistency, vocals, personality, performance--basically they had nothing over him so hence the decision being a shocking one. Yet, life moves on and with closing of one door, another usually does open. May be the Challenge’s only MAJOR FLAW so far was to witness Sharib’s defeat as it was very unkind on him, yet he did win an opportunity to sing with Lata-ji as part of Ismail Darbar’s commitment to him after being impressed by his singing! Sharib also landed himself on the edge of the top 10 by occuopying the number 10 slot.
Just as Sharib moved on, so should us.
The remaining nine contestants:
DEBOJIT (ISMAIL DARBAR’S YALGAAR HO): Assam’s silent young man turned the cool dude on the stage who is a very sincere performer. He has the vocals to be a conventional singer and suit many actors’ voice. He struggled a lot to get here and he surely does belong here in the top 9. Here’s hoping he gets a good deal out of this Challenge. Well, I guess I have been too modest to describe him. Debo rocks. Period. He’s the best. At heart and personality, I give him a 100 out of 10. And out of 10, I give him an infinity for singing. He’s a class apart and thus won the whole show with amazing support from his home town of Assam.
PARESH (HIMESH RESHAMMIYA’S LET’S ROCK): The UK based NRI who has the charm of a performer and sometimes the great vocals of a singer too. But overall just doesn’t have what it takes to be a complete winner--this is just my personal opinion. If Sharib can’t win it, then how can he? But then the public can pull off just about anything, so let’s keep our fingers crossed. Well, fortunately public was fairly reasonable as this undeserving candidate was out on number 6.
HEMACHANDRA (AADESH SRIVASTAVA’s JAI HO): Now he’s one of my choices for winner since this guy is very dedicated and sensitive for his victory. Just like Sharib, he’s an intense and ambitious 17 year old. Let’s hope he emerges victorious with his manly and yet conventional vocals. He was the second runner up (number 3 of course).
RAJEEV (AADESH SRIVASTAVA’S JAI HO): Rajeev being a relatively untrained artist is still a very fine young man. His efforts are very evident and a few songs he has sung with his heavy vocals have been better improvised than the originals--like Shabba Shabba and Vaada Raha! So here’s he being another of my favorites. He ended up with position number 9.
VINIT (HIMESH RESHAMMIYA’S LET’S ROCK): Here’s just an opinion. Despite being the favorite of public and mentors, I believe that since Vinit isn’t that competent a singer and is just there with a huge backing behind him of his mentor Himesh who I believe is apparently very biaised towards him. He keeps getting offers and footage for nothing. One of my most unfavorite contestants, no offense! He ended up the runner up on the show.
UJJAINI (HIMESH’s LET’S ROCK): Another okay type contestant who sings a few songs very well and a few very mediorce--that’s inconsistency my friend which does’t help you win still. Her attitude is apparently just passable too! Overall average to good! Eliminated at number 7.
HIMANI (AADESH’s JAI HO): Another fine, young, and attractive lady from AADESH’s gharana who has a great personality and great vocals for item songs. Overall she’ll find it still hard since there are other girls with more conventional voices and she never really gets the top student award either so winning can be hard! Yes, in fact it did turn out to be hard. She was eliminated as the winner in girls, but at number 4.
NIHIRA (ISMAIL DARBAR’s YALGAAR HO): A fine young lady who has probably the best conventional female vocals and has already sung part of DHADAK DHADAK with Sunidhi in B&B. She sings every song sincerely on the show here. Yet, her performance is limited to slower songs more than faster ones and her versatility can be doubted. She was eliminated as the number 5 contestant.
TWINKLE BAJPAI (ISMAIL DARBAR’s YALGAAR HO): My favorite female contestanT as numero uno she’s HOT n CUTE. She’s just so beautiful. She blows me off my feet. Secondly her voice is so sweet and versatile. She does specialize in fast, racy, and item type tracks. But she sure can sing slow as well. She is a tough competitor for Nihira for sure as she’s a popular face too. She’s been surprisingly in the danger zone a couple of times lately but she’s playing it safe so great luck to her like to every other contestant!
Completed in comment number 10.