Ajeesh and Airtel Super Singer
March 3, 2010 at 11:12 am | In Airtel Super Singer, Cricket, Entertainment, General, General Lunch Time talk, Movies, Music, Real Life, Reality Show, Star Vijay, Television | 2 CommentsTags: Sachin Tendulkar, Roger federer, Ajeesh, Airtel Super Singer, Goa
Ajeesh enjoys most viewership on my blog
I started blogging about 5 years back but not until I started writing about Airtel Super singer and Ajeesh did my blog receive overwhelming viewership. During my initial days of blogging my views were limited to sports and occasional write-ups about movies but when I started watching Airtel Super Singer in 2008 I decided to write about the same.
Only when I started posting my views on the show I realized that I was not the only one who loved Airtel Super Singer. It’s amazing to see the kind of fan following Ajeesh enjoys after his victory in Airtel super singer 2008. Even after one year since his victory, Ajeesh still enjoys the most viewership on my blog. Any posts related to Ajeesh still enjoy most comments and most views on my blog which is quite extraordinary. His first song in the movie Goa seems to have had a brilliant response by his fans.
I write about Sachin Tendulkar, Roger Federer, Rajinikanth etc, but none of them receive the same sort of response on my blog as Ajeesh does. I wish Ajeesh who happens to be my favorite as well a very bright future.
My Name is Khan is different
March 1, 2010 at 12:56 pm | In Bollywood, Entertainment, General, General Lunch Time talk, Languages and Politics, Movies, Music, Real Life, Television, Terrorism | Leave a CommentTags: Chicago, Dustin Hoffman, Jimmy Shergil, Kajol, Kal Ho Na ho, Karan Johar, MNIK, My Name is Khan, President, Rain Man, Shahrukh Khan, Swades, Tom Cruise, USA
My Name is Khan was a good effort from Karan Johar
After the hype generated for “My Name is Khan” by the Shiv-Sena threat and SRK himself after he got detained at the Chicago airport for questioning, I thought to myself what could be so different about a Karan Johar movie? But after watching the movie yesterday I was pleasantly surprised. I never liked Karan Johar type of movie making. His movies are monotonous and his hero worship of Shahrukh Khan often gets on my nerves.
This movie though was completely different from his other efforts in the past. The movie is heavily inspired by “The Rain man” where Dustin Hoffman had played the role of a person suffering from Autism brilliantly. Shahrukh has copied the mannerisms of Dustin Hoffman to perfection and also speaks and behaves exactly like Raymond (Name of the character Hoffman plays) of Rain Man. His repeating of some sentences, avoiding eye contact and also the way he walks are heavily inspired by Dustin Hoffman.
Even though MNIK (My Name is Khan) also has a Tom Cruise sort of brother for Shahrukh’s character, but the similarity ends there. This movie is mostly based on the 9/11 tragedy and one man’s endeavor to meet the president of United States to say “My Name is Khan and I am not a terrorist”. So this movie is about an Autistic Muslim man (Shahrukh Khan) who wants starts off in search of the president of USA after his step son’s death.
The movie on its own was very good and the lead actors performance was very nice. Jimmy Shergil as Shahrukh’s brother was absolutely wasted in a role which seems to have been created just to get the protagonist to US. Shahrukh as Rizwan Khan was absolutely brilliant and has carried off his role with élan. Kajol though doing a good job, has played a character which she has done before on numerous occasions in Karan Johar movies.
The others in the movie are just adequate and do their roles as required. Karan Johar as a movie maker has surely made me change my opinion about his capabilities and I hope that this marks a turning point in his career. Shahrukh also has gotten away from his stereotypes and has tried something different which he had not done since Swades. Overall MNIK is a great effort. Even though the movie suffers from certain clichés associated with Indian cinema, the overall message doesn’t get lost in the same.
I never thought I would ever say this about a Karan Johar movie but I definitely liked this one and I hope that this is his foray into meaningful cinema.
Ghost Hunters – Alcatraz
February 12, 2010 at 9:53 am | In Entertainment, General, Ghost Hunters, Reality Show, SciFi, Television | Leave a CommentTags: GH, Ghost Hunters, Grant Wilson, Haunting, Jason Hawes, Paranormal, SciFi, wikipedia
Ghost Hunters new season begins on March 3rd in Alcatraz
The new season of Ghost Hunters is all set to resume on the 3rd of March on SciFi channel with Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson along with their team explore the haunting in Alcatraz, San Francisco. Alcatraz was a federal prison until 1963 but currently is more of a tourist destination. Located on the San Francisco bay it’s a small island often called as “The Rock”.
Alcatraz obviously has a disturbing past as there have been many deaths as it was a prison before. I have myself been there on an audio tour and walked those halls just couple of years ago but did not have a clue that it was known for its haunting. So it’s going to be kind of interesting for me to watch this episode. This is probably the first location in Ghost Hunters that I have actually visited so it will be kind of cool.
Well not that I saw anything strange while I was there in Alcatraz but will be kind of interesting to see what the GH crew find out.
Information about Alcatraz source – Wikipedia
Another feather in the cap of A.R.Rahman
February 1, 2010 at 1:49 pm | In Entertainment, General, General Lunch Time talk, Music, Real Life, Television | 1 CommentTags: AR Rahman, ARR, Couple Retreat, Grammy, Mozart Of Madras, OSCAR, Slumdog Millionaire
AR Rahman bagged couple of Grammys yesterday for his scores in Slumdog Millionaire
A.R.Rahman made India proud again with yet another award in the US yesterday. Rahman bagged two Grammys yesterday at LA for his scores in Slumdog Millionaire. This award is in addition to the OSCAR’s he received last year and also several other awards like the Golden Globe, BAFTA etc. for the same movie.
This award comes in the wake of yet another nomination for Rahman in this year’s OSCAR’s for his score in “Couples Retreat”. The past one year has been brilliant for the musical genius and I hope that he continues his golden run this year too. It’s brilliant to see that the man who is affectionately called as the “Mozart of Madras” to have become one of the most popular Indian musician in the world. Congrats again to one of the most humble and talented Indian musician of our times Allah Rakha Rahman.
Ajeesh sings in Goa
February 1, 2010 at 10:09 am | In Airtel Super Singer, Entertainment, General, Music, Real Life, Reality Show, Television | 13 CommentsTags: Airtel Super Singer, Ajeesh, Andrea, Goa, Koffee with Anu, Unnikrishnan, Vijay TV, Yuvan Shankar raja
Ajeesh sings in Goa for Yuvan Shankar Raja
This article was a long time coming and for some reason it kept missing my radar. Well it has been more than 3 weeks since I listened to Ajeesh pairing up with Andrea for his first song in the movies “Idhuvarai illaadha unarvidhu”. The song was nice and aptly suites his voice. Yuvan seems to have chosen the right song to give Ajeesh the deserved break.
I think everyone by now knows that Ajeesh was the winner of the Airtel Super singer last year and it was promised that the winner would be singing for Yuvan Shankar Raja in his upcoming movie but I never expected it to be so soon. So it was a surprise for me when I heard his voice in the Goa soundtrack. I am happy for Ajeesh as he was in my top 3 favorites in the super singer 2008.
The song itself was very good and Ajeesh has done a brilliant job considering that this was his first in movies. He had little issues while hitting the top notes in the song which was repeatedly pointed out by the judges in the competition but that shouldn’t take anything away from the otherwise great rendering. The other observation I made was his style of singing resembled very much of the great Unnikrishnan (Airtel Super Singer judge), which might have crept in unknowingly. All it all a great beginning to his career behind the microphone and I hope that he scales greater heights in the years to come.
Vijay TV I think is doing a brilliant job in promoting their winners by giving them ample screen time. They have taken these singers to different cities in Tamil Nadu for concerts and have also invited them on their shows to perform like in “Koffee with Anu”. I hope that more singers from the super singer get to sing in movies and make a name in playback singing.
Airtel Super Singer Junior begins
June 30, 2009 at 8:32 am | In Airtel Super Singer, Entertainment, General, Music, Reality Show, Television | Leave a CommentTags: Airtel Super Singer, Airtel Super Singer Junior 2009, Ajeesh, Anitha, Mahathi, Malini, Raghini, Vijay TV, Yugendran
Airtel super singer junior’s season two began yesterday and the schedule in the USA seems to be in sync with India this time. This week it’s just a fun round with the last year’s junior contestants going against the best from 2008 Airtel super singer seniors.
It’s a great thing for the super singer fans that the junior version begins just 2-3 weeks after the 2008 competition ended. So this gives us nice filler and also a chance to see the kid talent of Tamil Nadu before the Airtel Super Singer 2009 begins again later this year.
From the next week onwards we are going to see the auditions starting first with Coimbatore. I will be watching it for sure as yesterday I got a glimpse of how the last year’s juniors were. The two kids who sang were brilliant and were really confident on stage. Mahati and Anitha were the judges and we had Ajeesh and Raghini competing yesterday with the two kids. The hosts were Malini and Yugendran as usual.
I am waiting for the main competition to begin as its going to be a fun few months with the best kid talent on view. Vijay TV talent shows are the best and it has become a trendsetter for the other channels to follow.
Ajeesh wins the Airtel super singer 2008
June 11, 2009 at 10:13 am | In Airtel Super Singer, Entertainment, General, Music, Reality Show, Television | 13 CommentsTags: Airtel Super Singer 2008, Ajeesh, Prasanna, Raghini, Ranjani, ravi, Renu, Rohit, Santosh, Vijay, Winner, Yuvan Shankar raja
Airtel Super Singer top 6 (Before the Recall round) Top (From the left): Ranjani, Prasanna and Renu; Bottom (From the left): Rohit, Ajeesh and ravi
Well at last the Airtel Super Singer winner was declared yesterday here in the US after almost a year of the competition. The week began with Prasanna being eliminated and the final three remaining were Renu, Ravi and Ajeesh to compete for the title. It was a really good run for Prasanna and he surely won many hearts with his entertaining performances.
Monday and Tuesday of the competition was basically a tribute to the top 22 contestants and awards were given to best performances in a particular genre. Ironically all the award winners were from the top 10, Santosh, Prasanna, Raghini, Vijay and Ranjani. Even though the others did not win any awards, it was nice to see all of them together in the Airtel super singer set for one last time.
Now coming to the actual finals which happened on Wednesday there were three contestants and it was good that the results were announced on the same day. I unfortunately was not aware of the change in timings and missed the entire performances of the contestants. I just saw the final song sung by Ravi which was from Dasavatharam.
Yuvan Shankar Raja was there along with other celebrity singers such as Chitra, Mahati, Karthik, Krish, Sunitha Sarathy and few others to grace the live event. Finally after few performances from the other super singer contestants the results were announced and Ajeesh was declared as the winner based on the viewer votes. Ravi came second and Renu ended up in the third position.
Personally I would have preferred Ravi to win the competition as he was a better all round singers but Ajeesh wasn’t too far behind. I am not that disappointed with the actual result as Ajeesh also has had a wonderful super singer 2008. Renu for me did not make the cut and I did not expect her to win the crown. I know that I have been really harsh on her in my previous articles but to be frank she did not possess the variety the other two brought to the table. She is a good singer but one dimensional but I think she will be successful in play back singing in the Sujatha mould.
Coming back to Ravi, he is a fantastic talent and has a great range. He has proven his caliber in western as well as folk and classical and would be very successful in the music industry. I wish him all success and hope to hear him sing in the movies.
So the Airtel Super singer 2008 winner was Ajeesh, a fantastic singer with a great voice. Had some issues with the open singing at the beginning of the competition but overcame the same with the help of the voice trainer Ananth I guess. Great future ahead as he is guaranteed a song in Yuvan’s music.
All in all it was an incredible journey which lasted for almost a year. I enjoyed watching the same and I hope that everyone following Airtel super singer had a blast too. I think next we have the super singer juniors and hope it’s also as entertaining as the senior version. Till then this is Giri signing off.
Airtel Super Singer Finals – Round 2 – Ranjani goes
June 2, 2009 at 7:57 am | In Airtel Super Singer, Entertainment, General, Music, Reality Show, Television | Leave a CommentTags: Airtel Super Singer, Ajeesh, Finals, Prasanna, Ranjani, ravi, Renu, Round 2
The first day of the round two began yesterday here in the US the show began with the elimination of one contestant who got the least votes after the round 1 of the finals. Surprisingly Ranjani was the one to receive the axe. Airtel super singer never ceases to amaze me. Ranjani is one of the best singers in Airtel super singer this year and I have told this numerous times that she is much better singer than Renu. In spite of that she got the lowest audience votes. I guess she isn’t a very popular singer among the viewers.
The fact that she received around 4 times less votes than the third placed Renu is hard to believe. Anyways the initial part of the show was a tribute to her and a much deserved one at that. All the other contestants spoke about her and Ranjani bowed off in style singing “Maiyya Maiyya” song from Guru. Good luck to Ranjani and I am sure that she will be singing in movies soon.
Prasanna was in the bottom two along with Ranjani and I heard that he is the one eliminated next week. Even though he is my favorite contestant, I don’t think that I can complain on his exit. Ranjani’s exit was more shocking than Prasanna’s. Well good luck to Prasanna as well as he was one of the most entertaining contestants in this show and won many hearts with his brilliant performances on stage. I am sure that he has a bright future in the music field as he has started learning music already.
Okay now coming back to yesterday’s competition, unfortunately I was just able to see the performances of Ajeesh and Ravi, the top two voted contestants from round 1. Both gave brilliant performances and especially Ravi’s performance was out of the world. He was able to get the entire audience involved and everyone enjoyed his performance. Ajeesh was also very good. He sang with an open voice and sounded very good.
I was not able to see both Prasanna and Renu’s performance yesterday as I had some issues with my internet but probably will try and catch the same on YouTube some time later. Anyways that ended the day one of the finals and it seems like the Airtel super singer will be crowned next week (This week in India). So that’s good news. At last the organizers have decided to end the competition. Best of luck to Ranjani who unfortunately got eliminated in round 2 and good luck to the other contestants.
Airtel Super Singer – Finals week1 – day 3
May 29, 2009 at 7:52 am | In Airtel Super Singer, Entertainment, General, Music, Reality Show, Television | 1 CommentTags: Airtel Super Singer, Ajeesh, Prasanna, Ranjani, ravi, Renu, Srinivas, Sudha Ragunathan
The week 1 of the finals completed here on Wednesday and the third day was very impressive. It was a round where the contestants had to sing classical compositions in movies. The two contestants who I was very interested in were Renu and Prasanna as they were the least trained in classical music.
It was a brilliant night with Sudha Ragunathan as the chief guest. Ravi was brilliant in this round as expected. This is his forte and he did not disappoint. The judges were all praise for him and Sudha Ragunathan said that he has a bright future in music.
Ajeesh was also brilliant. I would say that this was better than the new song round on day 2. Even though the judges were over the top and praising Ajeesh on day two, I thought that it was a okay performance. But in the classical round he was brilliant. He was rightly appreciated by the judges and the chief guest.
Ranjani was good too. Ranjani is a versatile singer and is a trained classical singer like Ravi and Ajeesh. She gave a good performance too. Sudha Ragunathan called is great and so did the judges.
Okay now for the interesting part. Before the round began I knew that the above mentioned three singers will not have any issues in this round as they are all classically trained but Renu and Prasanna were not. I was very interested to see how they would perform.
The first one to perform was Renu. She sang pretty well. Sudha Ragunathan said that her voice was sweet but she had some issues with the classical part of it. She felt that all the Sangadhi’s did not come out well. The judges too felt the same but they kept on saying that her good voice masked the errors. I have never heard more absurd comment in a talent show. The judges are there to judge a singer in comparison with the other singers in the competition. Yeah it was a commendable effort from Renu considering her little training in Classical music but that does not mean that the judges find excuses for her.
I am fed up of Srinivas saying that Renu has a good voice. I think we have heard that thousand times and I am basically fed up of that line. Anyways it was a good performance by Renu.
Next came Prasanna, who like Renu has limited classical training and he sang a not so classical song. The judges rightly criticized him but said that he is a good entertainer. Srinivas also said that it’s not easy to dramatize a song in front of an audience as Prasanna does so successfully. This time I totally agree with the judges and the chief guest that considering how the other singers performed, Prasanna’s song choice was little bit off. Anyways that ended the week 1 of the finals.
I saw few rushes of the performances from the week 2 and the notable absentee is Ranjani. It seems like the contestants are going to be paired with a playback singer. Karthik, Harini, Tippu and Mahati seemed to be the play back singers. Anyways the rushes seemed brilliant and I am really looking forward to week 2 and I hope that the competition crowns the super singer pretty soon as I think that we are nearing 1 year since the 2008 auditions began.
Airtel Super singer – Finals – Day 2
May 27, 2009 at 9:48 am | In Airtel Super Singer, Entertainment, General, Music, Reality Show, Television | Leave a CommentTags: Airtel Super Singer, Ajeesh, Ananth, Prasanna, Ranjani, ravi, Renu, Srinivas, Sujatha, Unnikrishnan
Well at last I got to see the finals and it was the “New Songs” round and what a great night it was. 5 finalists performed with professionals providing music around them and it was absolutely brilliant. Especially Stephen on Piano was unbelievable.
Coming back to the competition itself, the first singer of the night was Ravi and he started off with “Uyirile” (Movie Vellithirai I guess) and he was brilliant. It was one of his best for me. Expressions were so good and the way he carried the entire song was awesome. Overall it was a mind blowing performance and the judges were all praise for him.
The second singer was Ranjani who sang “Ulundhu Vithakkaiyilae” from Mudhalvan. She gave a good performance. The judges liked her performance and called it brilliant.
The third singer of the night was Ajeesh and he sang “Poi Solla” from Run and gave a good performance. I for once thought that it was okay and nothing extraordinary but the judges though gave him a standing ovation. Well I would say that in comparison to Ravi, Ajeesh’s performance was just okay. But that’s my opinion.
The next singer was Renu and her performance was ordinary last night. I don’t even remember what song she chose. She had severe breathing issues and it was very obvious that she was nervous and it did not sound that nice to me. Srinivas was honest in stating that this was not one of Renu’s best performances.
The final singer of the night was Prasanna and he sang “Piraye” (I don’t know the movie) song and gave a soulful performance. The judges were all praise for him and Sujatha took a cheap shot at him saying that he could have avoided the humming at the start. Unni though said that he liked the performance overall and Srinivas said that he could feel Prasanna’s sincerity towards music in this performance.
All in all it was a brilliant night with some great performances. I would say that Ravi’s was the best performance of the night and Renu’s was the worst. All in all looking forward to the day 3 of the finals as Ananth said that it’s going to be better.
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