Indian Idol

<non-astrology-rant>

Last week, I happened to watch the Indian Idol on Sony. I saw almost all the episodes last time, but have not been following this season's shows at all. I was puzzled by the behavior of two of the three judges - Annu Malik and Farah Khan. The comments that they kept on making against the Indian public and television viewers were simply apalling.

Annu and Farah, I have a piece of advice for you - if you have agreed to the rules of the programme that these rounds are going to be decided on the basis of viewer votes, then understand the fact that a normal Indian television viewer does not understand classical singing, ragas, rhythm and what you call X-factor. (S)he goes more by whether the song was sung properly or not. Here, the choice of song itself is very important. So, you need to stop making comments like - "how can the Indian viewership keep such a talented singer like you at the bottom of the chart". Are you kidding yourself or are always that arrogant? Everyone who makes it to that level is not just good, he or she is probably one the best. Someone among them has to be at the bottom, right?

And if you keep making fun of people like me, I will have to remind you -- Annu, you are just a copier of songs and very few of your original compositions are really worth listening. Farah, the less we speak of your understanding of music, the better. If you guys think that the singers are really that great, give them chances in your songs and films. I am sure that you are not prepared to do.

I have a piece of advice for Sony Television too. Reign in these two and stop calling them judges. Technically and theoritically, they cannot influence the result. They just sit there, get free money and say whatever they like. The Indian public is the real judge. It is we who are actually pay money to vote (remember, every phone call and SMS costs 6 Rupees) and on top of it, get insulted!!

If the Indian public is capable of deciding which Tom, Dick or Harry can rule the country, then this is just a music competition. Are you going to decide the next finance minister of India based on the result?

Out of the three judges - I really respect Sonu Nigam. He is indeed talented as a singer, and even as a person, he is simply brilliant. His comments are crisp, clear and always to the point. He does not mince words and at the same time is never disparaging. The other two have a long way to go before they can match up to him.

</non-astrology-rant>