Carnatic Music Idols (2011)- JAYA TV Programme

kartik · Post by **kartik** » 28 Feb 2011, 18:00

Raghavendra was really good and I quite enjoyed Sangeetha's singing overall.

not sure if that Hameerkalyani was really good, sangeetha was ok-consistent, Aishwarya's Hamsanandi was also below par.

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 28 Feb 2011, 19:31

Overall the stage show has produced disappointing (below par) performances in all of them. Perhaps they are just nervous. I am also not fond of testing people in a group; not sure what skill this is meant to elicit. The judges are not as spontaneous, so the pace of the programme seems to have suffered.

I think (hope) things will improve once they are back to testing people individually.

Sabaash · Post by **Sabaash** » 28 Feb 2011, 20:33

Is anyone aware why the finals episode was not telecasted in the evening.
I was eagerly awaiting for it right from 5pm. Is there any change in the telecast timings?

venkatakailasam · Post by **venkatakailasam** » 28 Feb 2011, 20:38

Repeat telecast is supposed to be at 5.30pm IST

venkatakailasam

Sam Swaminathan · Post by **Sam Swaminathan** » 01 Mar 2011, 01:47

The presenter guy is a pain in the proverbial. VK sir has put up the episode 21 in three parts. This dude occupies most of the first part, essentially, saying what you already know! He must be in love with his own voice!

suma · Post by **suma** » 01 Mar 2011, 06:17

Raghavendra and Aishwarya did very well. Just finished watching, the hamir kalyani was complex and rendered very well, the hamsanandi was so devotional.

venkatakailasam · Post by **venkatakailasam** » 01 Mar 2011, 09:44

01-03-2011 is available in three parts.

Check with http://www.youtube.com/user/vkailasam

venkatakailasam

squims · Post by **squims** » 01 Mar 2011, 13:35

The presenter guy is a pain in the proverbial. VK sir has put up the episode 21 in three parts. This dude occupies most of the first part, essentially, saying what you already know! He must be in love with his own voice!

Hahaha, could not agree more! I try to just skip whatever portions he is talking in while watching.

pvs · Post by **pvs** » 01 Mar 2011, 18:08

[/quote] Hahaha, could not agree more! I try to just skip whatever portions he is talking in while watching.[/quote]

That guy betters himself every time! This time around, after the viruttam round he says something to the effect of "phew! at last I could hear some chaste Tamil!!". does he even think before he speaks every time - mishmash of Tamil and English words with no content......

Sabaash · Post by **Sabaash** » 01 Mar 2011, 20:14

Thanks a lot Venkatakailasam Sir for the uploads.

I think Jaya TV is not telecasting the programme in the evening anymore. I have missed it 2 days in a row now.
At 5 30 pm they telecast TV Shoppee. That's sad. Was just a matter of one more week!!

Here are my observations - Episode 1/3/11

Seshagolan Sir's speech was inspiring. Especially the reference he made to 'Bhayam-Dharyam'.

I thought both the groups(1/3/11) (male n female) were better than the previous groups(28/2/11).
But the second group ( consisting of Nandini, Kalpalathika and Anahita) got a tougher 'idam' ie 21 thalli n thisra nadai, when compared to the 1st group (8 thalli in khanda chappu). Same case in the viruttam round also.
My reasoning is that the sanskrit slokas were shorter and easier to memorise

Vishnudev - Was really good with his swarams. He was confident, affirmative and delivered with punch. but felt a bit let down by his sahana. Could have done a lot better.

Rahul Narayan - Pretty decent performance considering the fact that he was called up at the last moment as a replacement. Valid point made by Sasikiran

Ganesh Viswanathan - Great voice, but i thought he was struggling with his sruthi through out. Hindolam was just OK.

Anahita - Just wonderful. Nadanamakriya had an impact.

Kalpalathika - Had a problem with the difficult eduppu (21 thalli) and may be she was not that sure of the words given to her for viruttam. Added to that, she was in a tough group.

Nandini - Fabulous Malayamarutham. Wish Soumya had let her finish off the viruttam.

Hats off to all the participants for taking up the challenge of performing in front of 20 odd stalwarts and this huge audience.
Now that's serious pressure..!!
( As Navjot Sidhu says.. Where there is pressure.. there is an opportunity my dear friend..!!)

Sabaash · Post by **Sabaash** » 01 Mar 2011, 21:45

Observations - Episode 28/2/2011

No doubt the candidates found it hard to handle their nerves, but NSG cooled them down well i thought.

Karthik Narayan - I thought the saveri was below par. May be the big occassion shook him up a bit. He had certainly given better performances in the previous rounds.

Ganesh Kartik - Once again proved that he is good at singing those flashes / 'brigas' (like his guru - Sri Trichy Ganesan). Khamas was good. Swaras could have been better (going by his talent)

Raghavendra - Stood out among the group in rendering swaras. Hamir Kalyani was excellent but i expect even better things from him. ( I felt his voice has a striking resemblence with a 22 year old TMK, escpecially in the middle and lower octaves)

Sangeetha - Was an OK performance in swarams. Kambhoji viruttam was her best effort till date in this competition.

Subhasree - Dhanyasi had some flashes of brilliance, but overall seemed to be inexperienced in singing slokams. Bit nervous and indecisive in swarams

Aishwarya - Swarams were not bad. Hamsanandhi was just fine. ( She should be appreciated for attempting this raga in front of the King - TNS )

Sabaash · Post by **Sabaash** » 01 Mar 2011, 21:49

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 01 Mar 2011, 23:22

Sabash. I agree with your grouping. In terms of talent, I would rank them the same. The order within each group might change as a function of many individual factors and specific strengths.

Raghavendra, Anahita and Vishnu have been the most consistent so far. I can see Nandini and Aishwarya's talent, but their performance shows a lot of variation between sessions.

I think the bottom six in your list will not make it to the final round, which will involve individual testing. I am looking forward to that part; I have found the group sessions to be very arbitrary.

squims · Post by **squims** » 02 Mar 2011, 00:30

I agree with most of Sabaash's rankings as well. Would definitely move Vishnu up the list though. So far, Raghavendra, Anahita and Vishnu are my favourites. Lets see what happens. The individual rounds would be questioning based on RTPs. Should be interesting.

mri_fan · Post by **mri_fan** » 02 Mar 2011, 02:04

http://www.youtube.com/user/sankarmrida ... h2KZjky4tM

It's a practice session with Raghavendra singing a nice Varali. Mridangam here is a little aggressive, but keep in mind its practice session.

Also, its from almost 4 years ago

Sabaash · Post by **Sabaash** » 02 Mar 2011, 05:36

I agree with mahavishnu and squims on the fact that Raghavendra, Anahita and Vishnudev have been the most consistent performers in this contest.

For that matter i would even place Vishnu ahead of Anahita as he has faced more challenging questions like the one in Kaanada Varnam, where as i cant remember any question which was any where near that standard to either Raghavendra or Anahita. And may be Nandini got a bit of rough decisions in the semis.

The rankings i gave are exclusively for this round only. (Lets call it round of 12 as it is not the real final as yet)
I have not considered previous round performances of any of these candidates.

The only reason why i placed Vishnu in the second tier was this -

For a guy of his calibre, i certainly do not think he did full justice to Sahana, which is one of the most apt raagas for viruttam. And considering the difficulty of Sahithyam given to the group consisting of Anahita and Nandini, i certainly think they did a better job ( It seems that they had to memorise and sing in 1 hour time - as announced by Mr.Vala Vala Balaji

)

And just having a look at the swarams -

Group 1 - Adi 13 thalli - paripalayam
Group 2 - Rupakam 10 thalli - mridanga thalamu
Group 3 - Khanda Chappu 8 thalli - thripura sundari
Group 4 - Adi Thisra Nada 21 thalli - sharanagatham krishna

Due to these factors i thought Anahita and Nandini deserved to be in the 1st tier ahead of Vishnudev.

I am a keen admirer of Sri Vishnudev's abilities, but i just felt a bit let down by his performance in this round
Still i think he along with Raghavendra are the frontrunners for the title, follwed by Anahita and Nandini

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 02 Mar 2011, 06:37

'vaLa vaLa vALAji'?

suma · Post by **suma** » 02 Mar 2011, 07:57

anahita stood out in today's telecast.

Sam Swaminathan · Post by **Sam Swaminathan** » 02 Mar 2011, 08:01

Ragavendra, the guy from Kerala ( sorry, I cannot connect his name to the face ), Anahita and Nandini.....that is my choice. Ganesh Viswanathan....he seems to project a bit of over confidence which will be his undoing....and most importantly, Mr ValaVala Valaji gets the wooden spoon !!

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 02 Mar 2011, 08:05

mri_fan: interesting you bring up that video.
We discussed Raghavendra on this forum a few years ago; in fact it was Punarvasu who asked about him and I posted this video link then. See thread: http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... &view=next (also see post 41 in this thread).

I imagine that he will be talked about even more after this contest!

To follow Sam's point, it is a bit sad to see Ganesh Viswanathan struggling in this round. He was having some shruti issues in his hindolam. I doubt if he will be in the final six.

Punarvasu: I like the name valavala Valaji. Very apt!

kunthalavarali · Post by **kunthalavarali** » 02 Mar 2011, 08:50

The final 6 in descending order:
6. Aiswarya
5. Nandini
4. Ganesh Karthik
3. Anahita
2. Vishnu dev
1. Ragavendra (said to have won by a big margin of 20 points)

squims · Post by **squims** » 02 Mar 2011, 09:35

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!! You just outed the results!!!!!! Nooooooo!

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 02 Mar 2011, 10:01

Squims: I thought that too. Just saw the March 2, 2011 episode. Thankfully, what kunthalavarali posted is just the results of round 1 of the finals (has been posted by Sri Kailasam abt an hour ago). So, we are (I am) still blissfully unaware of the final results!

They also announced that Raghavendra won the award for the best concert list. I wish they would announce the songlist as well. I'm curious to see what an award winning list would be like.

In today's show, Vishnu got tripped quite a bit on the talam questions while singing Dharini telusukonti. This might cost him the title. I wonder how much of it is due to non-native language issues and confusing instructions. However, Vishnu's Saraswati alapanai was very nice.

Nandhini held her ground quite well! Now the competition has really "soodu piduchu-fied".

squims · Post by **squims** » 02 Mar 2011, 10:16

Ah ok... have to watch today's episode still. Have to rush now. Will watch it tonight.

venkatakailasam · Post by **venkatakailasam** » 02 Mar 2011, 10:19

"Dharini telusukonti"

You can listen to this rendered by MMI at

my blog 'e'-swara at http://myblogkumara.blogspot.com/ carnatic music

02-03-2011 episode is available in two parts.

Check with http://www.youtube.com/user/vkailasam

venkatakailasam

pvs · Post by **pvs** » 02 Mar 2011, 10:29

the judges are not well prepared it seems. its a free for all between them - someone says something, their neighbour overrules it, the third person cuts it short. also, the questions are arbitrary and are not equally weighted. Vishnu's stumbling is a case in point...his Saraswati was excellent but the confusion between the judges and him was not too exciting.
why cant everyone be tested along the same questions, maybe in different ragams...?
also asking him to follow the mridangam was kinda silly...(my opinion)

also the 'concert list' is a funny prize! is the planning of a concert or the execution that pleases the audience?
I enjoy this show but too many guffaws...

(My thanks to vkailasam - I am up at 1230 or 100 am to watch the uploads before retiring...)

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 02 Mar 2011, 11:23

You are quite right..
It is too many cooks who spoil the broth..
..and confusion worse confounded
No student can field too many judges simultaneously, especially when one judge asks a question and another starts explaining it...
Feel sorry for Nandini who bravely faced them...

rahm221 · Post by **rahm221** » 02 Mar 2011, 13:49

Thanks a lot, Sri Venkatakailasam. Your tireless effort is very well appreciated.

squims · Post by **squims** » 02 Mar 2011, 13:56

I felt the questions to Vishnu were a bit confusing. He looked totally lost.

But very impressed with Nandini in this round. Very nicely sung.

suma · Post by **suma** » 02 Mar 2011, 19:07

Nandini was good this round. questions for vishnu were complicated. i think luck is what matters as the contestants get different types of questions and vishnu had to face a difficult round. he was ok given the tough challenge

suma · Post by **suma** » 02 Mar 2011, 19:09

the 6 finalists were selected very well and deserve to be in the finals. good job judges

kartik · Post by **kartik** » 03 Mar 2011, 00:04

TNS asking Nandini to try Abhogi in the Shanmukhapriya pallavi tested the manodharma aspect very well, but I think Nandini picked up well. Why was Anahita fourth in the last 6, she perhaps deserved to be higher?

squims · Post by **squims** » 03 Mar 2011, 00:57

She was third, right after Raghavendra and Vishnudev. I think that is quite appropriate.

Sam Swaminathan · Post by **Sam Swaminathan** » 03 Mar 2011, 05:40

I have problems with the approach of the judges. It appears to me that they themselves are not sure of what they are asking or plan to ask the contestents. They should talk to themselves first, make up their mind as to their questions, have some consistency in proposing the questions to the contestents...well, may be next year...

What exactly is the culture of ( some of the judges ) addressing the contestents as "Va', "nee', "paddu", etc. Surely, the contestents are not judges' nephews or nieces! They are individuals with identity of their own and deserve some respect while being addressed or directed to do this or that. These people need to learn from Sri Lankan Tamils for giving respect even to their own children.

Do the judges know that Sri Vishnu is from Kerala and hence he is not proficient in Tamil? That was very evident from his replies to judges' questions. Even after seeing that he is struggling to respond properly in tamil, the judges just carried on, regardless. Extremely insensitive. On the top of it, our Valavala Valaji, sounded as if he is obliging Sri Vishnu because he is from Kerala and not for his performance in the contest!

thanjavooran · Post by **thanjavooran** » 03 Mar 2011, 06:15

I expected Sowmya will come to his rescue by explaining in Malayalam. She too shattered our hopes. In fact Namboodhiri cut a sorrow figure.
....well, may be next year....
Thanjavooran 02 03 2011

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 03 Mar 2011, 06:40

The contestants really needed to have advanced knowledge of pallavi singing. Unfortunately there is a lot of terminology related to pallavi singing and the various terms (pratiloma, Anulomam, singing in the 'kizhai kAlam' and then finishing on the arudhi) are not clearly understood. Also, in practice the various techniques are not always dislplayed on the concert stage because of time constraints.

smala · Post by **smala** » 03 Mar 2011, 07:06

Sam. I already pointed out the bias against non-Tamilians when Vishnu appeared in the prelims. The Valavala was high and mighty as he interviewed him with bare civility and respect. That idiot is not qualified to be called a MC or compere, much less a host with his inhospitable attitude, questions and statements. The judges - their insensitivity and attitude bordering on tamil chauvinism, is unacceptable. In Kerala programs, they are so courteous to all participants.

Mahavishnu on this forum has stated his rapport with Sri Sashikiran - perhaps he could convey this as a serious note? Without watching the finals, my gut feeling was they are geared to give Raghavendra the idol cap & gown. Sri Vishnu is given a token of a chance, his talent holding him, but the general manner of the judges seems to be to try dislodge him with a volley of Tamil intricacies which he obviously cannot answer with the language difficulty! A shame!

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 03 Mar 2011, 07:33

The prejudice against non-tamil is not new

pvs · Post by **pvs** » 03 Mar 2011, 07:46

couldn't agree more with Shyama-Priya and Sam. valavala's comment about Ganesh-Karthik's sherwani was downright cheap. Why should he care? does he even contemplate what goes into the performance and the years of training behind that? and here he is appearing on TV with nothing but a loudmouth and rags the poor guy!
I am not much for conspiracy theories (not always at least) but it appears a done deal that Raghavendra was the pick from day one...just the way they announced that he is leading by 20 points will demoralize the others - especially in a crowd that is shaking singing in front of this audience.

Couldn't the judges ask someone to relay the question in Malayalam to Vishnu? Trichur Ramachandran and so many others in the show are fluent in both the language and musical terminology...
Our berating aside, I think we expect too much from this crowd. This is just a reflection of the society at large and we know that the musicians are not all Saints like Thyagaraja or seeking elevation via music.

Imagine a non Madrasi winning the show! would have shown the mecca of Carnatic Music in different light...

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 03 Mar 2011, 09:31

Like Sri Thanjavooran, I too was expecting Sowmya to bail out Vishnu in chaste malayalam. Pity it didn't happen. She would have had a good chance to show her prowess in Malayalam to the mylapore crowd. They could have switched to English at least!

A few caveats. I honestly don't think there are any conspiracies or prejudices, just possible insensitivity and oversight due to language issues.
The first question on singing the neraval in Dharini tripura sundari in a pattern of six fives or six sevens was a very legitimate question. Vishnu could have asked for clarification of what that meant; he thought that the kanakku expected of him was a sequence of 3 fives. While he was stumped, making puns on "Orange" and "Araainju" by NSG and his erstwhile guru did not help matters. I thought that joke was actually in poor taste.

Following this, he was asked to do a misra koraippu for swarams at Tripurasundari. This is also a very reasonable question. Before he got his rhythm going, Kumaresh asked him to repeat the mridangam's patterns which was quite bizarre and not standard at all. Following this NSG's question on the pallavi completely went over his head. The language-related confusion following this was unfortunate and could certainly have been avoided. The inherent unfairness in that is not acceptable.

Terminology such as arudhi, anulomam, pratilomam, trikalam are standard and all the contestants were trained by experts on these specifically before the finals, even on possible questions that might be asked. If you go to the pallavi competitions at the Music Academy or any other equivalent location in the carnatic music world, questions of this nature are extremely standard. One could say that they are part of the basic carnatic "syllabus". I would refer you to my earlier post where Sri Shashikiran mentioned pallavi contests with people like TRS, Chenglepet Ranganathan and TMT quizzzing the contestants. You can get an impresssion of how demanding some of these contests are from old posts on Sanjay Subhrahmanyan's blog as well. I just wish that the judges, for their own sake, would maintain uniformity in expecting the right level of rigour from each participant.

Sam makes another important point. Using "Maryidai panmai" is a basic civic exercise and the use of "neenga, padungo etc" should be used without discrimination, no matter what the age of the contestant. Sashikiran and GV are consistently polite. Sowmya and NSG go both ways. Ganesh-Kumaresh not so much.

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 03 Mar 2011, 10:06

mahavishnu wrote:Using "Maryidai panmai" is a basic civic exercise...

Not really around here. Even "da" is pretty much allowed... Am sure you would have that in those worn out tapes somewhere!

venkatakailasam · Post by **venkatakailasam** » 03 Mar 2011, 10:45

03-03-2011 episode is available in two parts.

Check with http://www.youtube.com/user/vkailasam

venkatakailasam

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 03 Mar 2011, 11:19

I also do not subscribe to any theory of 'rigging' or partiality. But I cannot avoid feeling that the judges are somewhat more lenient with Raghavendra. Of course he is very talented; and hence he should have been grilled harder. Even Kumaresh who is usually aggressive appears to have quietened down. For example Raghavendra starts pallavi in Sankarabharanam even without being asked and Kumaresh simply agrees with him. Even TNS is remarkably quiet with no quips. The anandabhairavi was just mediocre but was appreciated. Comparing this to the grilling of the other candidates like Vishnu or Aishvarya it appears that there is a premeditated agreement as to who should be the winner especially due to the fawning shown by the vaLa vaLa ...

Perhaps we are not seeing everything or perhaps there were deliberations behind the scenes before the winner is crowned...

shankarabharanam · Post by **shankarabharanam** » 03 Mar 2011, 11:32

Just to add if you see last years finals Bharat Sundar too wasn't grilled. So this does send wrong signals to viewers. Personally I think they judges had already decided that Raghavendra is the one who should get it. When Ganesh Karthik started singing there was no need for Kumaresh to interrupt. At least wait for the participant to settle down. Of all the judges, he seems to to be the most irritating.

venkatakailasam · Post by **venkatakailasam** » 03 Mar 2011, 11:47

Exhibitionism!!

venkatakailasam

Rasika911 · Post by **Rasika911** » 03 Mar 2011, 11:57

Conspiracy theories? Surely the Rasikas.org community is better than this.

Last year Bharat Sundar was asked to sing the chittaiswaram of an ata tala varnam in mishram, a concept many on the forum were unable to comprehend at that time if i remember correctly. He was also asked to sing tanam with a khandam base in thodi. I feel that some assessments of the difficulty level of the questions is influenced by the manner in which the participants respond to it.

I too have noticed an inconsistency in difficulty level of th questions being asked and most of it has come from neyveli santhanagopalan. Some of his questions have just been bizzare: - Telling some girl to sing a-grade, b grade, c grade panthuvarali. - telling one girl to sing whie shaking her both her hands - sing a few pharses of rakthi ragams. If I was the Sydney Krishna I would feel dissapointed to not get a question like those mentioned rather than the question on korraipu he got.

From what I have noticed all of the contestants seem to be weak in kannaku. Finishing with 3*7 or 3*5 is not too difficult and for contestants expecting a career head-start in CM this should be bread and butter. Regarding Vishnu, he is a wonderful singer with great potential but he is competing for a career in music. This involves general communication skills too. At some point he will have to communicate with a sabha secretary or somebody in the US in a language other than his mother toungue. If he didn't understand the question all he had to do was say so. Most of the popular carnatic musicians today like sanjay subrahmanyan, sudha raghunathan, tmk ect. all have very competent communication skills.

When watching these jaya tv episodes keep in mind that they are edited and that we don't see all of what happens.

smala · Post by **smala** » 03 Mar 2011, 12:02

....I also do not subscribe to any theory of 'rigging' or partiality. But I cannot avoid feeling that the judges are somewhat more lenient with Raghavendra.....

Two contradictory statements. The reasons why a viewer like me feels Raghavendra was pre-determined to win the idol cap is precisely because of your second statement! He - alone - is let off lightly and allowed to sing without too many interruptions. Barring a couple or so people here who seem to be in denial, the kid glove treatment for one is a tell-all. There lies the "partiality"! Don't hold your breath to be "surprised" as you watch the episodes "waiting" till the final.

If this gig is all about an "idol" the judges know who the contestants are, probably prior to the show. Once the prelims are done, their leanings towards the "one" is felt and probably discussed already at that stage. Even when a larger group of judges come in at the end - they are not like a "jury" sequestered over the course of the event with a gag order against discussion or seeing the print media etc. In this sense, the show seems to be sham. I, for one, feel quite let down.

Edited or not, the aired segments don't matter.

Rasika911 · Post by **Rasika911** » 03 Mar 2011, 12:44

That is why I said NSG is the main offender. Although many feel he is charming I'm once again not too happy with his consistency as a judge BUT i'm not accusing him of cheating. I think he is above that sort of stuff as a person as are the other judges. I think all of them have too much integrity to even pass a second thought for that sort of conduct.

Given that the paricipants had sessions with the suguna mamis and mannargudi eswaran, i feel the participants should at least know the terminology used for pallavi like purvangam, uttarangam, arudi, arudi karvai, trikalam, anulomam, partilomam ect. If these participants had listened to a sanjay subrahmanyan or a tns pallavi they would know exactly what it means to sing tisram and finishing the arudi on the dhuritam.

Watching the finals it's a little disappointing that the participants are sometimes not understanding simple things, then again it could be the pressure of the situation. For all the media hype and the prizes at stake i feel the level of the participants could somehow be a little higher. I feel that there are competitions being held elsewhere maybe AIR/academy where the standard is higher than what we are seeing. Reading Sanjay's blog, i would have loved to see the competitions where the participants were sowmya, shashikiran, unnikrishnan, anuradha sriram, ect.

Personally I would only pay to watch Raghavendra and Anahitha from what I have seen so far. Stand out performances being their harikamboji and thodi respectively. If either of these two end up winning I think they'd be worthy given the sort of guidance they have avalible to them. I fear the others might not make such an impact after jaya tv's contracts are over and will fade away.

arunsri · Post by **arunsri** » 03 Mar 2011, 12:47

In today's episode, Raghavendra was tested very very lightly.

tishram in natakuranji varnam chitta swara
anandahairavi raga alapana

These two questions are of the level of elimination round... others got far difficult questions! Honestly, these were questions that one would pose to a student of music who has learnt for 4-5 years. I felt TNS should have spoken at thsi point and made the playing field even.

Third was a shocker - Neraval in mAvara suguNalaya of O rAjivAksha (Arabhi)

When the focus is on neraval, the words should be correct!! Raghavendra repeatedly sang

mA vara suguNau
mA vara sannuta

where as the correct split is

mA vara suguNa umA vara sannuta.

The meaning is [from http://thyagaraja-vaibhavam.blogspot.co ... -raga.html]
O Consort (vara) of lakshmI (mA)! O Virtuous One (suguNa)! O Lord well-praised (sannuta) by Lord Siva – the Consort (vara) of pArvatI (umA)! O My Lord (dEvara)! Won’t (rAdA) You kindly (daya cEsi) protect (brOvaga) me?

Raghavendra 's singing totally changed the meaning! Probably he does not care, but the judges SHOULD HAVE pointed this out. I do not think anyone noticed. It was quite shocking.

Lastly the pallavi was without any "pallu" (teeth), It was a khaNDa tripuTa tALa pallavi, which is the basic tALam taken by anyone attempting to sing a RTP first time. The only beautiful thing about it was the swarAskhara which was pointed out by TNS. Raghavendra's original setting did not have that swaraksharam too. Not to brag, I am not a trained vocalist. But I have sung the same pallavi in shankarabharanam at a house program on shivaratri day a few years ago in tishra tripuTa (khanDa naDai), I too did trikAlam and swara prasthara, which was far more challenging than what raghavendra did.

Overall, Ragahvendra's presentation and questions did not elicit the WOW that one would expect from a topper. It was plain mediocre and substandard.

I am not sure what is shown is what was tested? If more was tested, then the difficult things (for Raghavendra) should have been telecast, not the trivial part. Also, for others, where the difficult part was showcased, the easy part should be shown to the viewers. Else, It can send out wrong signals about the fairness of the programme and the judging.]

If crap programmes like AIRTEL SUPER SINGER can go on for months together, with all stages being shown in detail, why should this programme get only such a limited air time?

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 03 Mar 2011, 16:12

I agree with the previous posts and thought the level of questions that Raghavendra was asked (or at least that were televised) were not of the same level of difficulty as what others got. He was also asked by NS to sing neraval in the Arabhi piece in the place where he is familiar instead of something new.

Unfortunately, such competitions are inherently subjective and not everyone is running on the same playing field.