Of Voices & Idols.....

I was badly looking for my next qualm, but was hindered by bad health & a busy schedule. Finally, here I am with something that's been in my mind for months...


Last year saw a flurry of Talent shows on Indian television. I was hooked to 2 of them particularly. While one promised to give us the 'Voice of the country', the other still promises to bring out the 'Idol' amongst all. Both these shows shared an extraordinary amount of investment (in terms of money, publicity, time) and boasted of the best talents in India as guides/mentors. They started off very successfully, raking in the moolah with a never-before-seen public involvement and surprising speed! Suitably enough, the talents that these shows honed and managed to bring up can also be categorized as some of the best in the country.
I will mostly talk about the show that gave us India's Voice....

As the last 15 finalists went on, 1 getting eliminated per week; we, at home, waited with bated breath. Being a musical buff myself, alongwith my mom, we used to screen their performances and predict the winners/losers ourselves. At such a level of competition, any loss is mostly very marginal, and we understood that. But as the noose tightened around the show's reducing participants, a strange phenomenon seemed to occur.
Pure talent no longer seemed to be the winnng mantra; instead, people were being swayed by the participants' appearances, their families, their dreams/aspirations etc... It was therefore natural that the most gullible (read the most economically/educationally backward) ought to vote the most frequently. Sadly so, for what followed was the unfair elimination of the significantly better ones first. To add to this, even the guides/mentors resorted to public hoopla of their disciples. Ultimately, it was very clear that the winner of this competition had arrived mainly due to the immense support of those back at his native place. There can be no doubt at all that the last 4 or 5 who went out before him were way, way better!! And those singers are already playing in Bollywood.
Same case with the other show, wherein certain eliminations are shockingly unasked for.

One might say that talent is very subjective to choose from. But the fact is that if you consider the consistencies of their performances throughout, and the kind of accolades they got from other celebrities who visited the show, it was quite plain as to who were the cream among the pie!

But then, this is not the end of their careers; it is onl the beginning! Undoubtedly, time will choose the real Voice and the real Idol (of India); not the Public's Choice and some Mentor's Disciple!!!

Amen.