We shifted to our new house a couple of months ago. Fortunately or unfortunately, there are a few Bengali families living in the same housing block. And when they got news that a new Bengali couple was moving in, as usual they were very excited. Though we did not share their excitement, we knew that sooner or later we would come across them. And in the few fleeting pleasantries that we had exchanged here and there, they had invited us more than once to their homes. Lest we got recognized as the most unsocial beings on this planet, we decided to give them a visit. They were quite nice. Easy going, friendly and helpful. But the aspect that struck us most was their desire for group formation. They told us which Bengali family lived in which apartment, the composition of their families, the nature of their kids, all kinds of information we had the least intention of acquiring. And with a negative bend of tone, they also told us about one family which was not so eager to mix with the other fellow Bengalis, making it very clear which side of the divide they belonged to.
India is a free country and everyone has the freedom to live as he wants. I am no one to pass a judgement on how people should or should not lead their lives. But I guess the same freedom gives me the right to voice my opinion about what I see and feel. And this “groupism” is something that I hate from the core of my heart. Being a Bengali, I have cited the example of a Bengali family. But similar sentiments are applicable to each and every linguistic or regionalistic group in the country. Take a Gujarati, Marathi, Mallu, Assamese, just about anybody and you will find the same thing. Let me make one thing very clear out here – Exceptions do exist and I am very proud and happy to say that throughout my life, I have been blessed with these exceptional people as my friends. Lets come back to the main topic. I don’t disagree to the fact that common language is the basis for many of our relations. I hail from Assam and here I am in Gujarat, two opposite vertexes of India. And when you hear someone out here speaking in Bengali or Assamese, the sense of belonging you feel is just about too hard to resist. So its nothing but natural if you want to know that person or strike up a conversation. You might have never known that person had he been a Joshi or Desai, but the fact that he is a Banerjee or a Barua acquaints you to him. But I guess the ball should stop rolling right there. I mean the ball of “groupism”. What happens between the two of you from then on should only be based on the kind of person you two are and your personal equations and interactions. Speaking the same language or belonging to the same caste or religion should have absolutely nothing to do with it. But it invariably does. People cling to each other not because they love the kind of person you are, but because you speak the same language or because your ancestors might have roamed the same piece of earth. Trying to cling to each other is still acceptable and it might have been ok if the buck stopped there. The problem is that they expect you to do the same.
Now let’s look at this thing from another point of view. Let me narrate an incident to arrive at this viewpoint. One day, having just come back from office, I was parking my bike in the parking space (the whole ground floor of our apartment). Now there are some yellow lines that have been made on the floor of the parking area. There is some kind of circular that everyone should park their vehicles inside those lines (I was not aware of this circular at that point of time). As usual, I parked my bike outside the line. As I was about to get inside the lift, the watchman approached me and told me that I should park my vehicle inside the line. I told him that I park my bike in the extreme corner and so it should not be anybody’s concern whether it is inside or outside the line. The watchman replied “you better park it inside or I am going to deflate your tyres”. I was enraged at this kind of a threat and made it clear that if he had the guts, he could go ahead and do what he wanted. I would keep my vehicle parked where it was. He told me that these were rules made by the housing committee and if I had any problem following them, then I should go and talk to the president of the committee who stays in flat no 305. I told him that if someone wanted to talk to me, he should come to my flat and not vice versa. With these words, I left the scene. Soon a bunch of people came knocking on my door. The “supposed president” from flat no 305 introduced himself and told me that I have to park the vehicle inside the lines as that was the rule; else my tyres would be deflated. I asked him who would actually go and take the action if I did not accept the rule. He replied - “I will”.
I have been exposed to too many threats and so called “Dadagiri” in my life to be frightened or even affected by this kind of an occurrence. But this highlighted something that was more than mere breach of a parking rule. This threat would not have been made had I been a “Patel” or a “Shah” instead of “Ghosh”. The people who had come to my flat that day knew this very well and that’s why they came and spoke to me in the manner they did. If I was a Gujarati, I am sure they would have expressed their discontent in a more refined and cultured manner. Of course, having stayed here for three years, a cultured and civil behaviour is something that I have not come to expect from the Gujarati people. I thus come back to the original thought that I was trying to convey: Maybe it is this kind of a behaviour that compels people to form a group. It makes people realize that as long as they are not alone, but part of a group, they are safe. Even if not safe, at least anybody and everybody cannot treat them in the way I was treated. They can fight back and raise their voice. Being alone, they stand no chance. In this context, the desire of my fellow Bengalis to stick together seems well justified. This was just to provide a possible explanation for the way some people try to form groups. It is not a justification and certainly not an endorsement. For that matter, a Gujarati couple trying to settle down in Calcutta might as well be subjected to the same treatment by the locals out there.
My first real brush with this vice was in engineering college. The first couple of months in college, glorified as the “Ragging period” was the time when I (as were the other freshers) was introduced to this wonderful (read as awful) concept of “Groups”. The first fifteen days of our college life, termed as the “general ragging period” had just got over and we were happy that we had somehow managed not to succumb to it. But we never knew that Hell awaited us. On the basis of the place from where we had come from and the language our family members spoke, we were divided into Groups. These groups were to become our only entity for the next 45 days (and to a great extent, it remained as one of our most important recognition throughout REC life). People from different parts of Assam having their mother tongue as Bengali were put into the Bengali Group, the Bengali people from in and around Silchar were in the Local Group, the Assamese speaking ones were in the Assamese Group. Most of the other states had their own separate groups. In some cases, where the number of students from certain states was very less, there was some kind of a coalition between some states with regards to the formation of their groups. Then there was the question of some disputed cases where it was a difficult to exactly pinpoint which group one should join (or more appropriately, allowed to join). For example, someone who had been born in Guwahati but whose schooling had been in Silchar, but whose family was actually from Delhi. These kinds of people were inspired and encouraged (tortured) by the seniors of the various group in contention to join them. Anyways, when all these trivialities got sorted out, then came the main part – the actual ragging. But let me not go into that in detail. But what I need to mention without fail are the main ideas that were transmitted to us during those days. I use the word transmitted and not communicated because we were more like machines obeying our masters than human beings. We were told that “the people of your group are your only friends in REC. You are free to mix with people from other groups but do remember that in times of trouble, it’s only your group people who are going to come to your help. For curricular as well as extra – curricular activities, only these people are going to assist you. As long as you are among these people, you are safe. The moment you alienate yourself from your group, the situation you will face is unimaginable”. These were just some of the things we were taught in those days. It was as if we were being tutored to become Jehadis and not engineers. Lest you think that it was only my group that was imparting this kind of bullshit, let me tell you that the same thing was being done in all the other groups and that too more brutally and inhumanly. Basically, what they did was that they created, of course in a very subtle manner, a lot of enmity among these fresh brains who had come from different corners of the country to stay together, study and enjoy the best four years of their lives. I had hated this concept from the core of my heart even then and to this day, I have this same hatred for people who follow this kind of groupism. And to put things in the proper perspective, let me tell you that it was a few seniors from my group who created all the trouble for me and had it not been for a bunch of wonderful seniors (mostly all of them from other groups), life would have become terrible for me. One of these seniors even went to the extent of apologizing in public on behalf of me to save me from some possible dire consequence. I have remained and will always remain indebted to these seniors for what they did for me. And when they passed out, it was my friends (again, nearly all of them from other groups) who supported me and were always there by my side whenever I got into any trouble. Actually, group was never a criterion for friendship in my case. And I guess the same is applicable to the majority of my batchmates, irrespective of the group they had to owe their allegiance to. In our batch, we saw a wonderful mix between the people from all groups and there were very very few instances of the harmony being eclipsed by group sentiments. The only time I actually witnessed a rivalry and hatred between people belonging to different groups was at the time of college elections. Of course, me and my friends took a very humorous approach to the whole issue of elections, but underneath a lot of really nasty things went on at that time. And that really soured the relationship between many people, some of them best of friends, for the remainder of REC life.
The issues highlighted above are of a personal nature and although it does leave a scar on the mind, they do not have earth shaking and far fetched implications. But the way regionalism is graining ground throughout our country, it is an issue that needs immediate attention. It is of course, a very sensitive issue and so has to be dealt with a lot of care. Otherwise, we may do more damage than has already been done. Today, this evil is raising its head in every nook and corner of the country. If the north - eastern regions of the country feel alienated from the Indian mainstream, the people in the southern states have forcefully created a mental block against the rest of India. Kashmiri people feel they have been cheated for decades. Same with the aboriginals of Sikkim and Darjeeling, who have been demanding a separate Gorkha land for years. Things have reached such a disgusting level that there have been demands in recent times for people like Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan to leave Mumbai since they are not Marathis. I am sure there is going to be a back lash against the Marathi people in the states from where SRK or AB hail from in retaliation to these. People from Bihar have been beaten up in Assam, and they have replied with equal vengeance. The list goes on and on. There is something going on in some part of the country. You pick up any newspaper on any given day, and you are certain to find some law and order situation in some state or the other because of regional tensions. Things are not helped by the law enforcing agencies, who are as biased as much unbiased they are supposed to be. Recently, I was stopped by a traffic police for skipping the signal. He cut a challan. Everything was written in Gujarati (basically all official things out here are written only in Gujarati. I can understand encouraging people to learn their own language but this kind of a measure seems quite extreme). I asked to at least write down the amount in English or Hindi so that I could know whether what I was paying him was actually what he had written. He refused to do so point blank. When I told him that Hindi is the national language and he cannot refuse to not do an official work in Hindi when requested, he replied that “this is Gujarat. Everything out here will be done only in Gujarati”. There was nothing more I could say. I paid up the 50 rupees he had demanded and left. At least in Assam, as much as I have seen, every official thing (any form or notice or challan) is written in English or Hindi along with the Assamese text. Out here, even the sign boards and addresses are written in Gujarati, making it virtually impossible for someone not knowing the language to get along.
I guess things are really getting out of hand. We have to make a concerted effort to bring back normalcy in these matters. We have to concentrate on becoming citizens of the country and not of pockets of lands defined my state borders. The tolerance that has been a hallmark of our culture has to be exercised to good effect. We don’t want to become a breeding ground for regional hatred and communal tussles. Diversity is there and we have to acknowledge that and simultaneously look for ways to unite people, not divide them. The British ruled us using this principle for centuries. Now the politicians are doing the same.
In the present scenario, it’s very difficult to love the people you have been or are being taught not to love. Its not only not “easier said than done”, it’s virtually impossible. But we can start by trying to at least not hate the people of other regions. Though a very humble beginning, it will be a beginning none the less. And I am sure we can build upon on this in the times to come and construct an India that will be free from this evil. Only then I think we can proudly and actually claim that “India is shining”
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Regionalism
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Reality..................shows
Mind blowing, fantastic, God bless…..what is the connection between these three words? It shouldn’t be of any issue for any regular viewer of television to answer this question. Or for that matter tell you the meaning of phrases like “Jai Mata Di, Lets Rock” or “Yalgaar Ho”. No matter how irrelevant or utterly meaningless these words sound, they are on everybody’s lips. Welcome to the world of musical talent hunts.
It all began with “Sa Re Ga Ma” on Zee TV in 1995. But things were very very different at that time. You had to record a song in your voice and send the audio cassette (I hope people still remember that double faced rectangular piece of plastic with two holes in between and riveted together by small silver coloured nails) to Zee TV, where a panel would listen to your songs and decide whether you were good enough to be called on the show. Then there was our very own desi DD version – “Meri Aawaz Suno”, which began a year later in 1996. Channels apart, the inherent sentiment behind the shows was same – they were there to find out people who could sing well. Nothing else mattered. It was totally, absolutely, completely based on how you sang. It had nothing, nothing whatsoever to do with how you looked or what you could or couldn’t do on stage. But now the onus has shifted towards finding performers: people who can set the stage on fire, people who can bring in the crowds with their looks and hip shaking talents, people who can bring in the moolah for the television channels. The singing has been left far far behind. There is something called “necessary and sufficient condition”. Knowing how to sing is still necessary, but not the sufficient condition any more.
And the results speak for themselves. People who were associated with ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’ and ‘Meri Aawaz Suno’ are ruling the roost in Bollywood today. Sonu Nigam and Shaan (both hosted SRGM) are the top male singers in the country today. Shreya Ghosal and Sunidhi Chauhan were the winners of SRGM and MAS respectively. Kunal Ganjawala was a participant of SRGM in the year 1997 and 1998. But what is happening today? Why is the new breed of singing talent not able to make a mark? Let me put forward a simple calculation. Zee has ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa – Challenge’. Sony has its ‘Indian Idol’ and Star has its own ‘Voice of India’. Then there are about 20 – 25 regional channels broadcasting the regional formats of the same shows. So, at any point of time, there are about 30 shows on air trying to find the ‘next big name’ in Indian music. Now, one season of each of these shows lasts for about 6 months after which the same cycle starts all over again. With due respect to the winner, the top three participants in all of these shows are of the same caliber. That means every 6 months, we are getting 30 X 3 = 90 supposedly talented singers. 180 singers / year. If you want to consider only the winner also, the number comes out to 60. Is there place for so many people? The answer is a simple NO. But equally true is the fact that quantity can never overshadow quality. If there is a singer of real talent, he is going to shine and survive. So why is not a single singer able to hit the bull’s eye? Primarily because of the format of the shows. It starts from the start and continues till the end. In the auditions, the judges go about selecting people who are more presentable than being better in vocals. When the foundation itself is so weak, how can you expect to get good results. Even then, some good talent does sieve through this illogical procedure. But the real mockery starts once the participants go on air. Each week, the participants get eliminated one by one, not on the basis of what they have sung, but on the basis of the number of SMSs that have come in their name (or more appropriately on the basis of the SMSs that have not come in their name). This issue was raised by Mini Mathur in Indian Idol this year, trying to defend this awful method. Her exact words were – “Iska matlab kya ye hai ki janta galat hai?”, meaning “Does this mean that the masses are wrong?”, to which Javed Akhtar replied that “Yes, the masses are wrong. Many a times, the masses make the wrong decision. They choose the wrong leader. They vote criminals who become part of the government. So you can never say that people always make the right decision”. This silenced Mini and nobody uttered a single more word on this topic. This actually is the main reason why the shows are not able to extract real talent from the haystack. I think somebody needs to sit down and put in some thought into this so that this mindless game can be stopped. People all over India vote for these participants based on regional sentiments more than anything else. And at the end of the way, the only real winners are the television channels and the mobile service providers, raking in huge amounts of money. There have been reports of many organizations going from home to home urging people to vote for the participants from their cities, distributing free SIM cards, even threatening people with dire consequences if they did not vote. This is democracy at its worst. Things went to the extent of taking the shape of a law and order situation this time when there were some comments from various sections that the winner of this year’s Indian Idol was not a deserving candidate. Where is the question of regional sentiments being there when all you have to decide is whether a person is singing well or not? A Shah Rukh Khan film is a Shah Rukh Khan film no matter in which part of the country it is being shown. People will throng to fill up the seats if a Sonu Nigam is performing irrecpective of the geographical location. Kishore Kumar, Mohd. Rafi, Mukesh, Manna Dey, Lata Mangeshkar are icons of India’s rich vocal wealth. They have a myriad of songs to their names sung in all the major and minor languages of India. So how can something as beautiful as music become the source for regional conflict and communal friction? The answer again lies in the way the shows are being conducted.
People in India are basically very tolerant. But at the same time, their minds are also very easily effected. One can easily motivate or demotivate the masses and channelise their positive energy to further some ulterior means. So that something like this doesn’t happen and deserving participants do end up winning these shows, something needs to be done. A judge in one of these shows had recommended a very novel way of doing this. He had suggested a very simple method – do not allow public voting in the initial stages of any show. The elimination should only be on the basis of the judges’ judgement. What this will do is that it will ensure that the best three or five participants do reach the final stages of the competition (we have to assume that atleast the judges collectively are going to make the right choice). And then when we are down to the last three or five, we can start the public voting. There is very little difference as far as singing talent goes between these remaining participants and no matter whom the public eventually chooses, we can be assured that it will be a deserving one. What this will also do is that it is going to lessen the association the people develop towards a certain participant. When you start voting for a participant from the initial stages of a show, you become more emotionally involved with the participant than being an admirer of his or her singing acumen. As a result, your voting becomes biased. But when the voting is allowed only in the final stages, you are more likely to use your grey cells and vote for the person who is singing well and not for the person who hails from a certain community or region. Another thing that needs to be done is to give the judges the freedom to express their views in the way they want to. Their opinions and observations should not be dictated by the TRP ratings or the interests of the channel that is airing the show. The judges have become so busy in promoting the show that they judge that they have even forgotten the real purpose of their being there. You can hear Himesh Reshammiya shouting atleast ten times in every episode how the blessings of the Almighty has always been with “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa” and how they bring out the best talents every year. Of course people like Aadesh Shrivastava, who till recently were part of Star “Voice of India” cut a very sorry figure sitting next to Himesh when he claims SRGMP being the best talent hunt in the whole world and so on and so forth.
All these notwithstanding, there are some positives to be taken away as well. These shows are providing the youth with a never-had-before opportunity to showcase their talents. When previously they had to come to Mumbai and then slog for years, running from pillar to post to even get near a composer, they are now directly being picked up from their home towns and launched on into the limelight. Cutting an album was like the most difficult thing you could have thought about. But now, you have to win a show and there you are with your own album. And it doesn’t end with one show. If you are not able to make a mark in one, there are many other shows waiting for you. So the initial pick-up you get is awesome. Your talent gets an opening that you couldn’t even dream of about five years ago. The only question that you need to answer is whether you really have the talent? But more than the participants, I think the biggest beneficiary of these talent hunts have been some of the judges. People like Aadesh Shrivastava, Anu Malik, Bappi Lahiri, Ismail Darbar (its very hard to find these names even in the remotest corner of our memories) are getting a chance to play a second innings. And the funniest part of it all is when these people make tall claims that they are going to use this and that participant as a playback singer in their next movie. Where do these people have any movie? They have not scored a decent soundtrack for years and are not going to do so for years to come. There is even a slight hint of a sarcastic smile on the face of the participants when these announcements are made (and there are about two or three announcements like this every episode), but they know better than to make their thoughts become too evident. Whatever be the case, right now, these people, coming to the show all decked up in their ten kilogram jewellery, sunglasses (I can never understand why a sunglass is required at night), designer hair cuts, body hugging t-shirts, blaring out comments like “the antra was this, the mukhda was that”, “the high notes are not pitching well”, are having a grand time.
All said and done, music talent hunts are here to stay and if everyone concerned does his job to the best of his ability and in a more “common sense” manner, we can certainly hope to see some real churning of the great musical depth and genius that is omni prevalent in this country and the subsequent emergence of singers who will enthrall and mesmerize us for decades to come.
“If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr
It all began with “Sa Re Ga Ma” on Zee TV in 1995. But things were very very different at that time. You had to record a song in your voice and send the audio cassette (I hope people still remember that double faced rectangular piece of plastic with two holes in between and riveted together by small silver coloured nails) to Zee TV, where a panel would listen to your songs and decide whether you were good enough to be called on the show. Then there was our very own desi DD version – “Meri Aawaz Suno”, which began a year later in 1996. Channels apart, the inherent sentiment behind the shows was same – they were there to find out people who could sing well. Nothing else mattered. It was totally, absolutely, completely based on how you sang. It had nothing, nothing whatsoever to do with how you looked or what you could or couldn’t do on stage. But now the onus has shifted towards finding performers: people who can set the stage on fire, people who can bring in the crowds with their looks and hip shaking talents, people who can bring in the moolah for the television channels. The singing has been left far far behind. There is something called “necessary and sufficient condition”. Knowing how to sing is still necessary, but not the sufficient condition any more.
And the results speak for themselves. People who were associated with ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’ and ‘Meri Aawaz Suno’ are ruling the roost in Bollywood today. Sonu Nigam and Shaan (both hosted SRGM) are the top male singers in the country today. Shreya Ghosal and Sunidhi Chauhan were the winners of SRGM and MAS respectively. Kunal Ganjawala was a participant of SRGM in the year 1997 and 1998. But what is happening today? Why is the new breed of singing talent not able to make a mark? Let me put forward a simple calculation. Zee has ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa – Challenge’. Sony has its ‘Indian Idol’ and Star has its own ‘Voice of India’. Then there are about 20 – 25 regional channels broadcasting the regional formats of the same shows. So, at any point of time, there are about 30 shows on air trying to find the ‘next big name’ in Indian music. Now, one season of each of these shows lasts for about 6 months after which the same cycle starts all over again. With due respect to the winner, the top three participants in all of these shows are of the same caliber. That means every 6 months, we are getting 30 X 3 = 90 supposedly talented singers. 180 singers / year. If you want to consider only the winner also, the number comes out to 60. Is there place for so many people? The answer is a simple NO. But equally true is the fact that quantity can never overshadow quality. If there is a singer of real talent, he is going to shine and survive. So why is not a single singer able to hit the bull’s eye? Primarily because of the format of the shows. It starts from the start and continues till the end. In the auditions, the judges go about selecting people who are more presentable than being better in vocals. When the foundation itself is so weak, how can you expect to get good results. Even then, some good talent does sieve through this illogical procedure. But the real mockery starts once the participants go on air. Each week, the participants get eliminated one by one, not on the basis of what they have sung, but on the basis of the number of SMSs that have come in their name (or more appropriately on the basis of the SMSs that have not come in their name). This issue was raised by Mini Mathur in Indian Idol this year, trying to defend this awful method. Her exact words were – “Iska matlab kya ye hai ki janta galat hai?”, meaning “Does this mean that the masses are wrong?”, to which Javed Akhtar replied that “Yes, the masses are wrong. Many a times, the masses make the wrong decision. They choose the wrong leader. They vote criminals who become part of the government. So you can never say that people always make the right decision”. This silenced Mini and nobody uttered a single more word on this topic. This actually is the main reason why the shows are not able to extract real talent from the haystack. I think somebody needs to sit down and put in some thought into this so that this mindless game can be stopped. People all over India vote for these participants based on regional sentiments more than anything else. And at the end of the way, the only real winners are the television channels and the mobile service providers, raking in huge amounts of money. There have been reports of many organizations going from home to home urging people to vote for the participants from their cities, distributing free SIM cards, even threatening people with dire consequences if they did not vote. This is democracy at its worst. Things went to the extent of taking the shape of a law and order situation this time when there were some comments from various sections that the winner of this year’s Indian Idol was not a deserving candidate. Where is the question of regional sentiments being there when all you have to decide is whether a person is singing well or not? A Shah Rukh Khan film is a Shah Rukh Khan film no matter in which part of the country it is being shown. People will throng to fill up the seats if a Sonu Nigam is performing irrecpective of the geographical location. Kishore Kumar, Mohd. Rafi, Mukesh, Manna Dey, Lata Mangeshkar are icons of India’s rich vocal wealth. They have a myriad of songs to their names sung in all the major and minor languages of India. So how can something as beautiful as music become the source for regional conflict and communal friction? The answer again lies in the way the shows are being conducted.
People in India are basically very tolerant. But at the same time, their minds are also very easily effected. One can easily motivate or demotivate the masses and channelise their positive energy to further some ulterior means. So that something like this doesn’t happen and deserving participants do end up winning these shows, something needs to be done. A judge in one of these shows had recommended a very novel way of doing this. He had suggested a very simple method – do not allow public voting in the initial stages of any show. The elimination should only be on the basis of the judges’ judgement. What this will do is that it will ensure that the best three or five participants do reach the final stages of the competition (we have to assume that atleast the judges collectively are going to make the right choice). And then when we are down to the last three or five, we can start the public voting. There is very little difference as far as singing talent goes between these remaining participants and no matter whom the public eventually chooses, we can be assured that it will be a deserving one. What this will also do is that it is going to lessen the association the people develop towards a certain participant. When you start voting for a participant from the initial stages of a show, you become more emotionally involved with the participant than being an admirer of his or her singing acumen. As a result, your voting becomes biased. But when the voting is allowed only in the final stages, you are more likely to use your grey cells and vote for the person who is singing well and not for the person who hails from a certain community or region. Another thing that needs to be done is to give the judges the freedom to express their views in the way they want to. Their opinions and observations should not be dictated by the TRP ratings or the interests of the channel that is airing the show. The judges have become so busy in promoting the show that they judge that they have even forgotten the real purpose of their being there. You can hear Himesh Reshammiya shouting atleast ten times in every episode how the blessings of the Almighty has always been with “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa” and how they bring out the best talents every year. Of course people like Aadesh Shrivastava, who till recently were part of Star “Voice of India” cut a very sorry figure sitting next to Himesh when he claims SRGMP being the best talent hunt in the whole world and so on and so forth.
All these notwithstanding, there are some positives to be taken away as well. These shows are providing the youth with a never-had-before opportunity to showcase their talents. When previously they had to come to Mumbai and then slog for years, running from pillar to post to even get near a composer, they are now directly being picked up from their home towns and launched on into the limelight. Cutting an album was like the most difficult thing you could have thought about. But now, you have to win a show and there you are with your own album. And it doesn’t end with one show. If you are not able to make a mark in one, there are many other shows waiting for you. So the initial pick-up you get is awesome. Your talent gets an opening that you couldn’t even dream of about five years ago. The only question that you need to answer is whether you really have the talent? But more than the participants, I think the biggest beneficiary of these talent hunts have been some of the judges. People like Aadesh Shrivastava, Anu Malik, Bappi Lahiri, Ismail Darbar (its very hard to find these names even in the remotest corner of our memories) are getting a chance to play a second innings. And the funniest part of it all is when these people make tall claims that they are going to use this and that participant as a playback singer in their next movie. Where do these people have any movie? They have not scored a decent soundtrack for years and are not going to do so for years to come. There is even a slight hint of a sarcastic smile on the face of the participants when these announcements are made (and there are about two or three announcements like this every episode), but they know better than to make their thoughts become too evident. Whatever be the case, right now, these people, coming to the show all decked up in their ten kilogram jewellery, sunglasses (I can never understand why a sunglass is required at night), designer hair cuts, body hugging t-shirts, blaring out comments like “the antra was this, the mukhda was that”, “the high notes are not pitching well”, are having a grand time.
All said and done, music talent hunts are here to stay and if everyone concerned does his job to the best of his ability and in a more “common sense” manner, we can certainly hope to see some real churning of the great musical depth and genius that is omni prevalent in this country and the subsequent emergence of singers who will enthrall and mesmerize us for decades to come.
“If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr
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