The Winner Takes It All

Take the talent shows – so much in vogue in India.
First you invite the industry pundits to join the panel of judges. You make them do the sweaty work of scraping the dirt, trying to find raw gemstones. And when they have fairly narrowed the selection based on their years of experience, you completely disregard their skills as judges and leave it to the fanatical masses instead.

The masses which cannot differentiate Do from Re and Mi from Fa. The judges are not completely useless at this point though. They still make great window displays. You put them on high-backed chairs, whisper in their ears not to utter any disparaging remarks about the candidates, but cause a controversy every fortnight so that the TRPs can be raised higher and higher.

I am the type who enjoys watching a good grilling and through this blog; attempt to do the same. Disappointed as I am, I haven’t seen quality roasting from any of the judges in the recent times. Even Sonu Nigam, who clearly demonstrated his knowledge of music during the first season of ‘Indian Idol’; chose to utter a few plain-boring remarks about the candidates; who even to my untrained ears, were mediocre at best.

Some members of the adulating public, chose to send hate-sms to the judges of the ‘Voice of India’ show. The judges clearly un-nerved; reacted more violently than they would have if the ‘D’ company had send the messages. They requested the concerned candidate (Ishmit from Punjab) to appeal to the public at large to maintain communal harmony and peace.

Then clearly came the biggest downfall of the show/s. Within 15 minutes of each other, the show ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’ and ‘Voice of India’ dismissed yet another candidate from their ranks. Everyone agreed that it was so unfair and so on and muttered in sympathetic undertones ‘life goes on … you will shine … keep up the hard work’ etc.

So here we have 12 fairly talented youngsters at ‘Voice of India’, who have displayed a panache for singing. They have agreed to put their respective lives on hold and stay at Mumbai months altogether in an attempt to catch the ‘big fish’. Week after week, one of them is told to go back to whichever little town they came from, while their comrades look on in mute dismay.

The candidate returns home to his folks – a minor celebrity (or maybe major, depending on his town), but little or no monetary incentive. No hard cash. No record deals. No trophy/medal. Nothing.

If the winner ends up receiving a fantastic dole of cash and year long contract with a record company, why is it that the No. 2 or 3 or 12 for that matter, should just fade from the scene without getting paid a penny for their efforts?

Since when did Bronze and Silver devalue so much that we stopped issuing them altogether?