Recently we all witnessed popular program through which winner of the title, "Indian Idol" they chose out of countless contestants. I saw almost every show of that contest on Sony channel. In that program we saw talent of rising young Indian singer boys and girls. Their confidence amazed me. While watching those presentations, critic in me was continuously alerting my conscience about many shortcomings of the concept and the way they were presented. I wish to share those comments of my conscience with my readers here and with expectation that my comments will reach up to the organizers of this event. I must admit of the fact that one free ad of "Indian Idol" boasts on one of my Blogs.

From the names of contestants it became very clear that southern states were conspicuous by their absence. It was essentially a north Indian contest and so the claim that the winner is an Indian Idol is not proper. Actually the winner is a north India Idol and not all India Idol. Care should have been taken to see by the organizers that all states given share; by this, the title becomes objectionable.

The purpose of such contests is clear; industry wants to hunt new talent out of the budding generation for the future. In this context, we should note that the film industry is more developed by the southern states, and more number of cinemas is turned out by the south. Had we appreciated this truth we could have participants from those states and the tussle would be more interesting for the viewers. The contest could be truly a contest for an Indian Idol. Why southern states were excluded I do not know; and I feel that people of India who participate in it; by casting their valuable vote to choose the Idol have a right for explanation from the organizers. I also voted!

There are other discrepancies; to mention a few, the contestants were singing only Hindi songs. This is not proper. If we see the career of immanent singers like Lataji, Ashaji, Anuradhaji we see that they sung songs in many other Indian languages with equal competency. I insist, when we select all India Idol the participants must show their competency and talent in other Indian languages also. This is important because when in the future these young singers will go to sing songs in languages they do not know; how and what difficulties they may encounter we could see in this contest. This contest is a type of examination of these singers and so the test performed was not complete. This is important because to pronounce words in other languages is a problem with many contestants. Particularly north Indian participants always show their inability to pronounce southern accents accurately. For a proper professional singer intonations are as important as the melody and voice. Listener should not feel that the singer does not know the language he/she sings. Quality of song depends a lot on that. That trial for this contest is very crucial and that was not performed for these participants.

In music we have many different types of songs. Classical, Bhakti or Bhajan, Drama (for Marathi), gazzle, kawali, folk songs, are common few to name. To add to that, knowing the modern trend in youngsters, western varieties of songs included. These participants should show their capacity and capability in singing all types. Organizers of the contest should have given them a song of each type and they sing to show their ability for each of them. If not complete song at least a few couplets they will sing. That was not done. One more test they should pass through and in that, the same song given to them and observe how they perform. This would show exact comparative potency of each singer. There was enough time to do all these but instead of that they were singing songs those did not actually examined their talent. I suggest there still is time to do amends. As yet Indian Idol is not selected and the matter is in the process so, organizers should call for more contestants from these southern states of Andhra, Tamilnadu, Karnatak and Kerala to join the competition. I also hope they will take cognizance of my other suggestions to improve quality of the contest to make it a truly Indian Idol competition.

Over all, I feel, at present situation the contest is not well arranged or may say, unprofessional and so the selection is not the true Indian Idol. Other things those bother me are that; were the young participants paid a stipend? They definitely performed well and they deserve some stipend to encourage them. Money always plays vital role in building talent. If not paid, the real talent does not gush out. Ill paid singers may not do well and also we should note that Sony is doing business of entertainment and these children were performing. They deserve a stipend. Every body else in the program gets fee; then why not the real performers? Will Sony and other organizers bother to tell this?



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