Sunday, June 7, 2009

Airtel Super Singer 2008 Adieu : Not a Fair Conclusion?

It has been close to one year since Airtel Super Singer (ASS) 2008 started and the D-Day was on June 03, 2009 in YMCA Grounds, Chennai. The Grand Finale took place with so much of hype that viewers probably thought a deserving contestant would win the title! Majority of the Indian viewers across the globe were in track of the show. The channel tried out all possible ways to increase TRP. I must say many of them enjoyed every bit of it and the TRP for this show did increase inspite of the gimmicks played by the channel till they reached finals. The finals changed the perspective of many of the viewers about the show and the show ended leaving negative remarks among many of the viewers. I have come to this kind of conclusion only after browsing through various websites, blogs, communities in the social networking websites and comments of the viewers in the channel's forum and other websites.

Considering the individual talent exposed in the show, each of the final five had their own speciality:

Ranjani is both technically and singing wise great. One of the most versatile singer in the female contestants during this season.
Prasanna brings out the feel in the song so perfectly in any kind of genres he sings, however, was strong in Kuthu songs! Technically needs improvement and voice imitation has definitely gone down which is appreciable. So, he just needs improvement technically in singing.
Renu has a honey like voice and any kind of genres suits her voice. She has got all talent to get used to other kind of genres with sufficient time for practice. Undoubtedly a playback material as everybody says! She has a long way to go. Her strength is Melody genre. One of the most expressive singers during this season of ASS.
Ajesh is good both technically and singing wise with a great voice. The question is if his voice will suit today's heroes in Tamil industry. May be very soon as his voice matures, he will make a good playback singer. His strengths are Melody and classical/Semi-classical genres. My opinion is he has to open up more wherever necessary.
Ravi attracts every single person with the way he sings! His dedication to music is impeccable. The most versatile singer out of the lot. According to me, he is the most expressive singer in the ASS journey so far. Technically and musically strong and has been the most consistent singer throughout out the journey. Never in the verge of elimination throughout the journey which is commendable.

That was all about the final five in a nutshell.

My order of the contestants would be:

Ravi
Ranjani
Ajesh
Renu
Prasanna

I would prefer Renu in the third position. The reason being Ajesh needs time for his voice to mature. Moreover, Renu is the ideal voice, the playback industry might need.

Few of the awards ignored by the panel:

Magical voice of the ASS 2008 - Renu and Rohit deserves this one.
Super Singer title - Ravi deserves this one. Since, he did not make it, he should have been given the best performer award throughout the journey.
The most expressive singer - Aishwarya or Deepshika

My thoughts on the judgement and validation of votes:

All the five finalists performed the finals in their own special way and we did enjoy the performances. Regarding the judgement, when the super singer is to be decided by the public, then why to get comments from the judges. If at all they want the judges comments, it should never have an influence on the public voting. Also, the comments should never be biased. All this happened in ASS finals. Oh my god! Why am I writing about the public voting when the whole point of voting has been ignored!

You will understand more clearly from the validation of votes. Here are the statistics on number of votes disclosed by the channel

At the end of Grand finale Ajesh alone gets 2,50,000 Votes
Renu and Ravi's votes were not disclosed.

The positions after Grand final 1 at the end of 1st week
Ajesh - Not disclosed
Ravi - Not disclosed
Renu - 4 times Prasanna's votes
Prasanna - 39249
Ranjani - 31179
One of the anchors of this show Malini told Renu's votes were 4 times Prasanna's, which means 4 times 39,249. So, Renu's votes should have been 156996

Total votes at the end of grand finale ( All the three rounds put together) - 5,70,000

As mentioned earlier, Ajesh himself got 2,50,000 votes which means the rest is 3,20,000
Ranjani got 31179 in 3,20,000 which brings down the remaining votes to 2,88,821
Prasanna got 58623 at the end of second week before he got eliminated and the remaining votes comes to 2,30,198
Renu got 60,832 votes is what they say, however at the end of first week itself her votes were 1,56,996 or does it mean that Renu's votes were less than that of previous week. Utter non-sense! Renu's Grand finale 2 performances were fantastic when compared to Grand finale 1. Did people vote reversely? :-) Quite baffling here! Vijay TV please clarify!
If the left over votes are more or less what Ravi could have got, it is crystal clear that they have fooled the viewers big time!

Now, people who read this post would have come to conclusion, why the hell am i concerned so much. As i have mentioned in one of my other posts about Ranjani's elimination, there are a few things in life which haunts you so much. The result is you can't be keep your mouth shut and nod your head for whatever crap is happening around you. Injustice is something very difficult to accept in life to whomsoever it happens!

In my opinion, even though i have enjoyed some of the best performances in the show, they have become baseless now. Anyways, I must thank the channel for giving such a great exposure to all these talents. They have been known to people because of the channel. Gimmicks - they did it successfully, however, not smart enough in getting a positive remark among the majority of viewers across the globe.

Atlast, I must tell you that I am not against Ajesh in any way. I love his voice and what a soulful singer he is! It is just that Ravi is one step ahead in the race. His dedication to music is incomparable and no way less than Ajesh.

My heartfelt wishes to all the contestants who gave a few wonderful performances and delighted so many Indian hearts across the globe. May all your dreams come true and wish you good luck in all your future endeavours.