Understanding--Indian Idol. Review on Indian Idol

Give Me My Idol

Tell me not of an idol so large, so great that I crane and strain to behold him whole!

Tell me not of an idol of energy so vast, many lives of mine may waste to contain!

Tell me not of an idol so sacred and pristine, lest I fear my touch shall blaspheme!

Tell me of an idol I can see, I can know?of he who?s fraction in me is contained!

--Laxman Phansalkar

Concept

Indian Idol is an adaptation of the earlier ?American Idol? that kicked the Star World TRP ratings (correct me if I?m wrong) to a height that few could imagine. The success of its first round, in terms of the number of contestants and viewers, was unprecedented. Indian Idol was a successful experiment to start with!

Indian Idol is a reality show where scores of men and women (boys and girls as well) compete in singing competitions in one category?no separate male Indian idol and female Indian idol?to win the coveted Rs. 1Crore contract with Sony Entertainment Television and a bountiful of other prizes. It starts with street auditions where a panel of three jurists strains the dregs out from the good ones. Then the selected contestants compete on stage?their songs are shown on TV?and audience is expected to vote out the ones they think unfit.

The process continues as one by one the unlucky chaps get the not, and we zero down to the final two from among whom the Idol will be selected. The jury panel consists of Anu Malik, Sonu Nigam, Farah Khan.

Good vs. Bad

Judges

Indian Idol received an unprecedented following from people taken completely with the glitz and glamour. However, it was not without a few sour critics alongside. A considerable number of people?that included me for a while as well?believed that Indian Idol is a complete monkey-trick. Neither, they believe, are the judges far too large in their fields nor are the contestants anything spectacular.

All humph and scoff notwithstanding, what they believe is indeed true. Sonu Nigam and Anu Malik are instances of the broad category of musicians?good at times, average otherwise. I reckon they aren?t really the best choice for judges to pick out the ?Indian Idol?. Farah Khan isn?t, I reckon, a singer at all! So there you are?two so-so musicians and a non-musician selecting the Indian Idol from a bunch of aspiring singers!

Since selection is through a public poll, they?re just artistically useless things kept in the show to make it more interesting, once the street auditions are done. Let us turn to another aspect, therefore. All through the programmes? many episodes, Sonu Nigam behaved the one who can speak good about nobody. Anu Malik had a poem-fetish and Farah Khan had the sweet-and-stupid-auntie-from-next-door disposition. All in all, not only were the judges an unworthy choice, their presence was often not likeable at all! However, the ultimate decision of picking up the Indian Idol rests with the audience and not with the judges.

Contestants

My problem with Indian Idol wasn?t so much it?s judges as its contestants. I?ve been involved with this field?of music as a local struggling artist (who eventually gave it all up for HSC)?and I?ve seen others along with me. Even within the school I learnt in there were boys and girls who sang several times better than most contestants?yes, better than the ultimate winner Abhijeet Sawant! Not only have I seen superior talent, I?ve seen much more versatile talent!

I?ve seen people who?ve been laboring day-in and day-out, four hours a day or so, to refine small imperfections in their singing and voice. To see talent so much more superior and driven being denied a chance to come out in the open a huge betrayal of ideology.

But there is a flip side to that. It is easy to identify with Abhijeet Sawant?local chawl boy, flying kites and winking at girls, mama?s boy, with a permanent look of polite bewilderment fixed to his face. It isn?t easy to identify with the elite classicist, the real cutting-edge talent, the one?s who?ve worked a whooping fifteen years for classical music. And those with whom the masses can easily identify themselves is, after all, the true Indian Idol.

Subhash Chandra Bose isn?t as popularly revered an idol as Mahatmaji is today?not because he was any less great a person, but because his ideas were something with which not many could identify themselves. Mahatmaji?s nationalism is something you and I, the common man, can practice in real life?which is why he is the Idol of this country! There has been no betrayal of ideologies whatsoever in Indian Idol, after all.

Hosts

I complain further. Aman Yatan Verma?I can understand. Mini Mathur? Oh by the sake of Heavenly Hippocampuses, why her? Mini?s voice is terrible?harsh, nasal and projecting a distinct impression of a permanent nasal blockade. Her smile looked like either she?d had too much Biryani for dinner or that someone was trying out his Glock .37mm on her. The two of them didn?t conduct the show too well either. Their way of building up the suspense before announcing the name of the winner (or loser) of a round was simply exasperating?just repeating ?today?s winner (or loser) is?? forty six!

And guess what? There?s no flip side to this.

Verdict

As far as the concept goes?I?m pretty happy. The jury could have had a better trio?and yes, I forgot to mention, they also had a fourth celebrity jurist, who could be any actor or movie personality?but I?m not complaining. Contestants were not spectacular in talent?but that, as I said earlier, is understandable. Hosts were, of course, terrible. Out of ten, we give them six stars, shall we? (Bad hosts could cost you that much!). And I don?t quite recommend you follow it?s next round up?