LAST PERFORMANCES

With the postponement of Indian Idol Finale to April 22nd, the Final Two – N.C. Karunya and Sandeep Acharya were asked to lock horns for one last battle! The only hitch though was the fact that both finalists had to carry an entire episode on their own accord!

I read in a newspaper daily here that N.C. Karunya was a bit upset with the postponement and I could certainly understand why! I will explain that later, but for now – let us address the postponement for a second or two!

Many have come up with the notion that since Sandeep was winning in Voting Battle, this was a drastic move made by Sony to ensure Karunya gets the needed votes!

Some others claimed that this was desperate move by Sony in order to milk the gullible Indian voters’ money!

I however believe that the reason for postponement was much more simpler, April 22nd is a Saturday – so the ratings would be high! Also, I think that in India nothing screams success, if there is no celebrity audience present at such shows!

Having said that I want the members here to prepare themselves for one of the two eventual points that this board would witness after the finale!

1) If Karunya Loses – be prepared to read statements akin to, “I Told You So!”
2) If Karunya Wins – be prepared to read statements akin to, “The Voting Was Rigged!”

Now, shall we move to N.C. Karunya Night?

Ok!

Now, I have too much spare time and hence, I keep on finding silly coincidences! The latest one takes the cake! When I created the Virtual Finale – I somehow changed the rankings and placed Karunya ahead of Sandeep – the last two episodes of Indian Idol also changed the ranking and placed Karunya ahead of Sandeep! No wonder, my friends in real life call me spooky!

Anyway, I must warn members who love Karunya to understand me, because what I am about to say might not sit well with them! I am often criticized that I favour Karunya by so called supporters of Sandeep, but I think if such individuals read the harsh words I had for Karunya in the past would not call me biased! Well, I am not posting anything to please anyone – I am posting what I see, hear, and feel! And frankly speaking Karunya Night was very under-whelming!

The show started with a stupid enacting of Hindi Movie or Western Movie cliché of sizing up the competition with voice-overs! Seriously, who comes up with such crappy clichés?

One half (Aman Verma) of the Gruesome Twosome AKA Aman Verma and Mini Mathur informed the audience that the Two Finalists were waging a final war and first move would be made by N.C. Karunya and on the next day, Sandeep would retaliate!

Aman Verma then introduced the resident judges –

Anu Malik, Farah Khan and Sonu Nigam!

Aman – Where did Mini go? As if we care! Ho-hum!

Aman Verma then introduced the Guest Judge, Javed Akhtar!

Javed Saab is a poetic genius and possibly one of the best writers in India!

Aman asked Javed Saab to say some encouraging words to the Final Two!

Javed Saab gave a cricket analogy! Now, let me stop for a minute and confess that I hate cricket! I find it extremely boring! I often say, “Cricket sounds like a very bad poetry by T.S. Eliot!”

Anyway, Javed Saab said that making ninety runs is difficult enough, but the ten runs required for a century are even tougher and it remains to be seen who makes the century now!

Ok, I will admit that Javed Saab can make a boring game sound real exciting with his words!

Oh yeah, he wished the best to both competitors!

The show started with Sandeep’s Challenge to Karunya! Oy!

Sandeep wanted Karunya to sing a soft ballet, originally sung by Sonu Nigam – “Ab Mujhe Raat Din”!

I will admit – technically, the song was rendered well, but I somehow just did not care for it! It was a boring song as far as I was concerned! I don’t know – I found the entire song, very mediocre and though I am sure Karunya must have done justice to it, I was not impressed!

Judging started with Sandeep Acharya, who said that Karunya performed better than he expected and when Aman asked him how Sandeep would rate the performance from 1 to 10 – he said 10! I think everything is a round figure as far as Sandeep is concerned! When Aman asked him who might do better justice to the given song, Sandeep said that he was more capable! Talk about innocence and simplicity!

Sonu Nigam stated that the song was rendered well, but Karunya did not enunciate some words correctly! He stated that to be a great singer Karunya must learn enunciation as soon as possible!

Anu Malik said that Karunya’s tension was quite evident and he needs to lighten up or his tension might work negatively for him!

Farah Khan said that Karunya could not grab her attention and her eyes wondered to the dancers (who were terrible – mind you!) who were dancing around him! She also asked him about his health! Ok, call me insensitive, but at this stage I don’t want any warrior to come with excuses – so you have a cold – fine! I don’t want to hear about it! To me what matters most is how one sings – I am in no mood to listen to sob stories! Sorry! Although, I do realize that Farah brought it up – I still think it was unnecessary!

Javed Saab said there were merits and demerits to be the last person to say something! Merit was, how much one can delete, and demerit was thinking of something new to say! He did not waste words and simply said that he agreed with Sonu Nigam regarding the enunciation as he too was disturbed by the “Kh” sound!

Aman reminded that Karunya was well received in Hyderabad and Karunya said that his home-state treated him so grandly that he was humbled! Then they showed a clip of him visiting his mum’s office where he spent his early childhood in childcare! He introduced the two ladies who were his nannies!

The second theme was Indi-Pop – after Virtual Finale – don’t you think I should be hired by Idol people?

Ok, I will say this – I give an award to Karunya for taking on the Great Sufi Maestro Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Saab with “Afreen Afreen” penned by Javed Saab!

It was a brave attempt! However, in my opinion this song was way way bigger than Karunya! Look, I am an ardent fan of the Ustad and in that vein; I found numerous flaws in the presentation! The Sargams itself can kill any good singer! Yes, Karunya managed to rework the Sargams well to suit himself, but at this stage, such a risky move is almost akin to suicide as far as my thinking goes! Look, don’t get me wrong – he gets props for trying, but at the end of it all – it was just that – a trying effort!

Javed Saab confessed that the song brought back memories of the great Ustad as the album was released just before the Ustad passed away prematurely!

Anu Malik said that Karunya came back with a bang as Karunya knew that this was his forte, he came with great confidence and that he did not care for the critique as he knew he would perform well!

Farah Khan said that forget the dancers even if Lisa Ray was performing next to Karunya – her eyes would just feast on Karunya!

Sonu Nigam said – it was a good performance, but unlike Farah, his eyes would feast on Lisa Ray, while he listened to Karunya!

Aman asked Karunya about his trip to Kolkata and the audience saw him having a jam session with the first lady of Indi-Pop, Usha Uthup! I love; no make that I am in love with Usha Uthup! I strongly suggest to all the members to catch her act at least once in your life! She is so effortless that I am rather amazed that she is not that big with the masses! Oh yeah, he managed to get a great response from the people of Bengal as well! One gal said that Karunya was the best and Karunya confessed that the gal is question screamed in Telugu that she loved him!

The Third Theme was Patriotic Song! Ok, so we missed this segment in first two finales, but Venkat mentioned it in nick of time!

“Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyon”! This was a brilliant presentation! I have nothing negative to say about this performance! It had soul and it was touching and it had the pain that anyone with a sense of patriotism can feel!

Anu Malik said that it was a brilliant performance and rendered poetry (if you can call it that) for Karunya – which almost killed me!

Farah Khan said she loved the performance or something like that!

Javed Saab said that any artiste – be it writer, singer, painter can be judged on two things – his presentation skills and his soul – spirit! He said he knew that Karunya had the presentation skills, but this song proved that he had the required soul – spirit!

Sonu Nigam said this song brought Karunya back! It was his favourite performance, but he said that Karunya missed great moments of Rafi Saab and suggested that Karunya should listen to the song again and realize what he missed!

Javed Saab said it was unfair to ask a newcomer to be Rafi Saab! As an upcoming star, Karunya gave a great performance!

Aman asked Karunya how was he patriotic! And Karunya said that he hated people who criticized anything Indian – he hated people using patriotic songs as ring-tones on their mobile! Sonu interrupted him and asked him why can’t people use patriotic songs for ring-tones? Why was it wrong? Karunya said that these people halted the tune midway to answer the phone! Visibly Sonu was stumped!

They showed both Karunya and Sandeep working with Lalit of Jatin – Lalit fame on a Fanaa song – “Subhaan Allah”! Which they would perform on the D-Day! Lalit wished them best luck!

The last theme was Folk Oriented Film Song! We had that in our Virtual Finale!

Karunya performed “Prem Jaal” adequately and although I hated the choice – he performed it rather well!

Farah Khan stated that this performance proved one thing that Karunya was extremely versatile!

Sonu Nigam stated that he loved Karunya’s performance!

Anu Malik asked Karunya, what he wanted to be, a Singer or Indian Idol? Karunya honestly replied Indian Idol, thus provoking Anu Malik to render yet another poetry!

Javed Saab just said that it was a brilliant performance!

When Aman asked Javed Saab to finally comment – I had no idea whether Aman was asking him to recite poetry or what!

Javed Saab finally said that if whatever Anu Malik recited had a meter or rhythm, it would be poetry! Unfortunately, his so-called poetry missed both! Ouch, BURN!

Sonu Nigam stated that he loved Karunya’s answer to Anu Malik’s question – saying it reminded him of the dedication Arjun had when he could see nothing but the eye of the sparrow!

Then they showed a clip of Sandeep and Karunya roaming the streets of Mumbai gathering votes! It was rather stupid – if you ask me!

Last – Sandeep and Karunya performed a medley in a face off situation! Nothing great to write home about!

After that Sonu said that he was given love notes everywhere he went addressing Karunya and said I hope that these gals just did not send love-notes – I hope they are voting for Karunya as well!

Javed Saab was asked to join the Final Two on the stage and Javed Saab handed Karunya the note given to him by Sonu stating, “This was the first time, I am asked to deliver a love-note that I never wrote!”

Javed Saab said that one should take inspiration from Bhagwat Gita and be like a leaf floating in water stream, which has half side drenched in water and other half dry! He said one should know how much should one attach to something and how much detached should one be!

Javed Saab also stated something that most should consider and what I am screaming from the get go! He said no one should send in votes, because they sympathize, because if one promotes a person who is not really able – they are not doing him any favour! The higher you put a person, the greater the fall and if he is not a talented individual – he would surely fall!

Please take Anuj Sharma’s example – he reached Final Three and walked away without any contracts, while people like Monali Thakur, Meenal Jain, Antara Mitra and Amey Date walked away with at least a promise of better tomorrow!

The Top Two sang “Sandeshe Aate Hai” bringing back memories of Monali! Sonu Nigam joined in and Anu was desperate to join him, but as soon as Anu started singing – the song came to an abrupt end! Again, Karunya drowned Sandeep!

Javed Saab said it was rather interesting that while it was a fact that he wrote the song – the music director, the singer and the choreographer were all present on the judging table!

All on all, I thought Karunya Night did not deliver as much as I hoped it would! True, Karunya did not suck that badly, but considering his winning streak, this was a step behind and that rather troubled me!

I can now understand why Karunya did not favour the postponement, but if I know Sandeep and I think I do, he carrying the entire night is something so dreadful that I am already cringing! Let’s hope that Sandeep proves me wrong!

I know many individuals are not going to like my opinion on this show, but I always report what I feel! Sue me!

Let the discussion begin!

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