An old proverbial saying goes as follows, "Poetry is music in words and the Music is poetry is songs". Music, theatre and cinema have played an important role in national awakening and social transformation. Now, even medical science has acknowledged the importance of creative and therapeutic art formations. In fact, creation plays an important part in processing emotions and helps in improving emotional health encompassing anger, low mood and bipolar anxiety. In fact, psychiatrists have recognised that medical treatment alone would not work in management of mental health. Creative art techniques via music, painting, etc., should be encompassing into talking and counselling. Unfortunately, since the 1990s with globalisation even music and cinema have also become highly corporatized.
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| Alka Yagnik, Javeed Ali, Himesh Rashmmiya |
Recently, I was concerned about the procedure adopted by Judges in choosing 6 finalists in Super Star Singer 2 competition held on SONY Pictures. In any completion, like the Courts & Tribunals for administration justice, three judges are appointed. An odd number is chosen to avoid collusion and break the tie and/or in case of any disagreement. Super Star Singer started in the same spirit and grate enthusiasm with Alka Yagnik, Himesh Rashmmiaya and Javeed Ali as judges and Aditya Narain being the anchor. Out of dozens of participants in first stage after elimination 11 were selected.
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| Legends Wahida Rehman & Asha Parikh |
In course of several weeks a number of celebrities have appeared as guests among them Dharmendra, Waheeda Rehman, being the best. In due course, it turned out that the at least two of three judges along with Mr Aditya Narain started engaging in a marketing campaign for their favourite participants prejudging as they should advance to the list of finalists. For example, Mani, Pranjal, Faiz, Saisha Gupta, Samaira who were given opportunity to give their performance twice every week and others were only once. I also noted the judges openly promoted particular participant declaring them the winner and giving them seal of “shook the world” (Duniya Hiladi). Of course, judges are entitled to provide a feedback o improve their future performance, but to engage in a promotion campaign on compensate (socio-economic background and announcement of monetary help to some) grounds is not the function of the judges. Of course, participants with great financial difficulties could be helped but must be done anonymously as so doing so openly may destroy other deserving participants’ self-esteem. In this regard, Soyab Ali got my attention who not only gave an excellent performance but he has also gone through extreme hardship and loss of his younger sister. I had not heard his solo song until last week that too when I complained to the organisers about it. In fact, Soyab Ali along with some other was not kept on equal-footing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxIv3hn45Hk ).
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| Soyab Ali |
I noted that Alka Yagnik was missing for
the last few weeks and Javeed Ali, one of the best was not even seen much
longer. Himesh Rashmmiaya was also off for a couple of days. However, Alka
Yagnik appeared from nowhere to judge finalists and when Soyab Ali gave his
excellent performance, she sarcastically commented that he not only shook Salman Ali’s chair but her chair too. In the
entire process of elimination, the bias of at least two Judges, namely Alka
Yagnik and Himesh Reshammiya was so obvious that Soyab Ali got only 2 medals, the
lowest number compared to the finalists. A week before the Grand Finale, it was
claimed that the finalists were decided on the basis of last 4 weeks public
voting and judges’ numbers although I have not seen any judge assigning numbers
to anyone. It was all arbitrary! There is another problem with the process as
the public voting was restricted because Soyeb Ali was asked to sing duet and
that too once a week, most of the time with Chetnya with incompatible nodal
quality. In contrast his competitors had two chances every week and with 2-3 different
songs. Hence, competition would not appear fair as all were not kept on level
playing field.
Prior
to the finalists were selected, I offered to give Rs 50.00 to Soyeb Ali
anonymously and asked Aditya Narian, the anchor and also sent a message to his
mentor, Pawandeep, but no response was forthcoming. Usually, five finalist are
selected, namely; Mani, Pranjal, Aryananda, Rituraj, Faiz, and 6th name
of Saisha Gupta were added as a consolation for being a Baby Doll. Obviously,
Soyeb’s elimination was a foregone conclusion, however, selection of Aryanand
and Rituraj was a pleasant surprised who were the best.
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| Malika-a- Tarunum: Noorajahan |
It is commonly believed that Noorjahan's like voice appears once in 100 year however we were lucky to have such rare tonal quality voice just within 50 years which has been silenced unjustly. I wanted to hear her singing again. Certainly, she deserved a wild card entry.
Rather than learning lessons from past mistakes on 14 September 2019 yet another unjust elimination of rare challenging voice of young Soyeb Ali who did not hesitate to take Salman Ali on. Both Salman and Soyeb come from same village of Haryana. In my opinion no one could match Salman’s tonal range except Soyab who at the age 8 has shown tremendous potential and certainly deserving of being among the top ten. Perhaps, he scared every one. However, once again Alka Yagnik chose to make premature and unfair comments as soon as he finished his song, “Today you were lost and was also go into No entry zone”. In all fairness a judge is entitled to make suggestion appreciating good parts and identify the deficiencies, if there are any, but not to ridicule the singer who was only 8 years old.
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| Aryananda Babu |
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| Rituraj |
This didn’t happen for the first time, in another India’s voice show Anu Malik had shown highhandedness when he eliminated Krishnakali from Tripura who was ridiculed her although well-known script writer and lyricist, Javid Akhter who openly disagreed with Annu Malik and commented that her singing could not have been better yet she was eliminated.
Further, Finale deviated from the well establish practice and tradition of inviting the eliminated contestants, but on this occasion no one was invited. In course of an event of the Finale, Aditya Narain announced Alka Yagnik’s performance addressed her as the Malika- a-Tarunum and alo suggested that no one will match her level of singing for 100 years which was not only an insult to both, Noor Jahan and Lata Mangeshker and was also an irresponsible and reckless statement, but was also an act of an infantile disorder. One left with wondering how Mr N P Singh CEO of SONY Pictures could say it was the best show!!!
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