Archive for the ‘General’ Category
IPL 2 in SA – A Bad Precedent
Posted on: April 10, 2009
IPL 2 is going to begin in a week’s time and it being held in South Africa has already been well documented in the media. There has been lots of stuff written about the positive and the negative effects of the shift. As for me the only positive thing about conducting IPL in SA is that the tournament will happen and the foreign players will not have any issues with the security. As far as the image of India goes it’s a huge set back.
We have big events like the Commonwealth games and the World Cup coming to the subcontinent in the next couple of years and the IPL shift has put both those events in jeopardy. I am not saying that these events cannot happen in India but people will raise concerns citing IPL as the example. In my previous article I had praised BCCI and Lalit Modi for getting the tournament underway albeit in a different location in a very short notice. Lalit Modi did what was best for the tournament to happen. You can’t blame him or the BCCI for wanting the tournament to go through without interruption.
Yeah they could have done some modifications to the tournament by cutting down the games and by juggling the venues here and there to suit the elections but still they needed support from the government. The Indian government is equally to be blamed on this move. I am sure it was a political decision to make sure that the event doesn’t happen during the general elections. The only way IPL could have happened in India was to postpone it to a later date and cutting the number of games to half as it has to end before the ICC World Twenty20 which starts in June. That would have been tough on the BCCI and most of the players have National commitments coming up in May before the world cup.
England will be playing WI in May, which would have made sure that they will not be able to participate in the IPL.
Having said that it would have been okay if few players did not make it this time around but would the BCCI have got the necessary support from the Indian Government? That’s a question only Government of India can answer. I guess it was the responsibility of both the parties to make sure that the tournament happened in India. I guess both the BCCI and the Indian government had to sit down and could have chalked out a plan which worked for both of them. Conducting a tournament of IPL’s magnitude would have gone a long way in clearing the security concerns in India.
Now with India unable to conduct and provide security for an Indian domestic tournament has left the WC 2011 in a big danger. Already there have been talks of the WC being taken away from the subcontinent after the recent attacks on the Srilankan players in Pakistan. International players do not want to go there and the ICC might have to shift the tournament elsewhere if the situation continues. India needs to be careful as they might isolate themselves from the rest of the world if they aren’t careful.
By moving IPL to SA the BCCI have set a wrong precedent and they cannot be blamed totally for that. There will be blame games with each of them pointing fingers at the other but the ultimate sufferers are the Indian fans. IPL not being held in India will be hard on us. Instead of watching Chennai SuperKings in MA Chidambaram stadium, I have to watch it on TV with them playing in Durban or Johannesburg and it will not be the same.
- In: Airtel Super Singer | Entertainment | General | Music | Reality Show | Television
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My prediction from last week came true as Raghini was eliminated yesterday by the judges to leave Ajeesh, Vijay, Ravi, Renu and Ranjani to battle in the Semi Finals. I knew it was coming in the last two weeks when Srinivas made comments about Raghini’s inability to sing normal heroine type melodies. Well she was tested on it yesterday alright and I felt she did a decent job.
Three singers sang yesterday with Harini as the chief guest and frankly Vijay was brilliant. I did not see the performance of Raghini yesterday but Ajeesh was so-so and finally the three were called on to the stage for the verdict. Harini said that all the three gave good performances and requested the judges to give them songs which they aren’t that comfortable with. Raghini was given the melody, Ajeesh a fast song and Vijay was left to decide his own genre. Well Ajeesh sang well, Vijay was brilliant and Raghini was not that bad.
Finally the judges decided to let Raghini go as they felt that she was the weak link. Well to be frank it will be hard not to agree with their decision yesterday as I felt that Ajeesh and Vijay sang better. But to think of it I am surprised why Vijay always ends up in the bottom half of the pack. He seems to be the only contestant who seems to experiment a lot and mostly pulls it off. Raghini was another contestant who experiments with her song choices. We have Ravi who if forced sings different, same in the case of Ranjani again sings different only when the round demands. Renu doesn’t experiment even if the round demands but the judges like her so it doesn’t matter what she sings. Ajeesh again like Ranjani and Ravi will sing different if the round demands.
Well so Raghini gets eliminated and two weeks in a row I lose my favorites in the competition. Last week it was Prassy and this week Rags. Well anyways someone has to go. Raghini took the decision very well and left gracefully much better than how she left last time around. She thanked the voice trainer Ananth Vaidyanathan for his help and support. Raghini since her return through the recall round had been brilliant and carried herself much better. She smiled more often on stage and took the judge’s comments much better than she did last time around. I feel that she has the potential to become a play back singer. Her voice is different and she has variety which clearly lacks in certain contestants in Top 5.
I wish best of luck to her in whatever she takes up in the future. I hope that she doesn’t give up singing and ends up as a playback singer.
I would like to hear thoughts from the readers and give their opinion on the current top 5 and who you think will win the Airtel Super singer. Please leave your comments. Thanks and that’s all for now, I will be back with my review of the Semi-finals next week.
Anoop goes through to Top 7
Posted on: April 9, 2009
- In: Airtel Super Singer | Entertainment | General | Music | Reality Show | Television
- 2 Comments
Anoop went through to top 7 last night and it was not without drama. When Anoop sang on Tuesday, I never thought that he would end up in the bottom three. The judges liked his performance and all of them gave him good comments. But it did not seem like America agreed with the judges.
Anoop was the first one in the bottom three. Anoop ended up with Scott as the final two on stage and was relieved when Ryan Seacrest announced that he was safe. Unfortunately Scott had to be eliminated as the judges decided not to use their one save for the entire season as they felt that there were better singers in the competition who might require it later.
Anyways it was a lucky escape for Anoop and he has to make sure that he turns in consistent performances in the coming weeks. He is a good talent and I think that he has to at least reach top 5. Good luck to him for the rest of the competition.
Airtel super singer this week
Posted on: April 6, 2009
Airtel super singer this week seems to be something to do with singing with a live orchestra. That’s what it seemed like looking at the promos. My interest in the show has gone down a little bit since the elimination of one of my favorites Prasanna but I will keep going as I am curious to know who eventually wins the competition.
This week is going to be easier for most of the people and I guess the elimination will be based upon minor mistakes here and there. I am mostly looking forward to the performances of Vijay, Ravi and Raghini as they are the last three of my favorites left in this competition. People reading my posts would have figured out by now that I hate Renu and Ranjani fares just better in comparison. Ajeesh is good but again seems to struggle when it comes to energy and openness in singing.
Let’s see how tonight’s show goes. I am thinking that Ravi and Vijay should go through and the elimination will be between the others. I also hope that the judges insist that Renu does some experimentation with her song choices as its getting irritating and monotonous with her one dimensional singing. Yeah she has great voice but so do the others.
Anyways the competition is not going to be the same in the absence of Prassy, but the show must go on. Let’s hope for a fairer judgment this week and the right candidate’s progress to the next round.
- In: Airtel Super Singer | Entertainment | General | Music | Reality Show | Television
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It was a sad day in Airtel super singer as Prasanna was eliminated in spite of giving good performances over the 3 days. It seemed like it was already decided what they were going to do. It was like he was being punished for not having classical training and them constantly testing him in that genre to make sure he is eliminated. It’s frustrating that the same sort of tests was never done on Renu and I am almost sure that the next elimination is going to be either Raghini or Vijay.
Renu it seems has to just show up and sing to get selected and the others have to constantly sing different genre of songs to impress the judges. It’s becoming more and more obvious in the last few rounds as to whom the judge’s favorite is. It was rather sad that Prasanna was eliminated from the competition and really hats off to him for the way he dealt with the result.
He bowed away in style by singing his signature “Kuthu” song and entertained the audience for one last time in Airtel super singer. Srinivas said that Prasanna needs to train himself but can still become a play back singer by singing Kuthu songs. It was I thought an insult to the most versatile singer in the competition. If Srinivas is trying to say that only classically trained singers can survive in the industry then he is wrong. Ask SPB about it. I guess if SPB as a youngster had participated in super singer he would have been eliminated too. Prasanna is a good performer in most of the Genre and probably with experience can learn to sing classical better and can also train and become better than even the judges.
Anyways keeping my frustrations aside yesterday’s competition followed a familiar pattern, Unni Menon came as the chief guest and the remaining 4 singers performed. Renu sang “Deivam Thanda poove” song and gave an ordinary performance. She struggled with the breath and the judges said that it was a difficult song. Renu almost did justice to the song. Well if “almost” can win you a competition then people don’t have to try at all. All the contestants can choose difficult songs and give okay performances. I am sure that if any other singer had given such a performance he wouldn’t have been praised as Renu. It seems like the judges just say few negative points to keep the audience happy.
Srinivas has already started an excuse that Raghini does not have a voice to sing normal heroine sort of songs. So we can expect her to get eliminated pretty soon with that as the reason. We saw the judges started complaining about Prasanna in the last round itself to set the tone for this week’s show. Anyways I did not delve too much regarding the performances this week as it wasn’t that important.
I just want to congratulate Prasanna for an impressive journey in this competition. After being eliminated and coming back in to the competition he hardly had a bad round. He gave the viewers around the world watching the super singer many memorable moments. He was the most liked contestant in the competition and will for surely be missed. Good luck to him and I hope that he succeeds in whatever he decides to do from this point. Airtel Super singer through its bias has lost a good singer and a great entertainer.
- In: Airtel Super Singer | Entertainment | General | Music | Reality Show | Television
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Airtel Super Singer began yesterday and I haven’t written anything about it as I did not follow it from the beginning. I missed Prasanna and Renu on the first day, so thought let me wait for the day 2 to complete. Well Day 2 completed yesterday and it was a good round.
All the singers were in their elements yesterday and the best performances came from Ravi, Ajeesh and Prasanna. The Uravugal round required the contestants to sing about friendship the first day and about Mother the second day. The first day saw Raghini immunized. She sang “Magic Journey” song from Anjali and gave a good performance. The rest of the performances were also good on day one. Vijay was very good with Veyil song and so was Ravi with his “Oh Nandalala” song.
The second day had 6 singers to perform and everyone did a good job. Ravi and Ajeesh were very good and Ravi was rightly immunized after yesterday’s Mother’s round. Again Vijay and Prasanna were good. Ranjani and Renu though gave ordinary performances as far as I am concerned. It seems like anything Renu does is fine for the judges. I keep hearing the same phrase every time from the judges that “Renu has a good voice”.
It’s getting boring now and it’s high time that she tries something different. She seems like a Sujatha type singer and the one who does not like to experiment too much. Most of the times you see her singing the same way without much improvisation but still the judges praise her like anything. Yesterday I can tell at least twice in her performance she had breathing issues but the judges completely ignored that in their comments.
For some reason even though Prasanna gave a good performance they were making some huge deal about his acting on stage. I thought it was a very unfair comment. Prasanna is one of the singers who are able to bring life and emotion to a song which is essential for a play back singer. Ask SPB he will say so. It’s not like Prasanna was all over the place with his singing but still the comments were not required yesterday. It seems like they are already finding a reason to eliminate him so that their favorite Renu can go all the way.
I call it biased but I am thinking that Prasanna is being punished for not learning music. Anyways that’s my opinion. Let’s waits and see how it goes today. Five singers still to perform one more time before the elimination happens. I will be back with the third day’s review tomorrow.
- In: Airtel Super Singer | Entertainment | General | Music | Reality Show | Television
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There wasn’t much to look forward in the western round day 3 for me as it was just Ajeesh to perform in the competition. I guess it was a total boredom tactics by Vijay TV last night as most of us already guessed that there will be no elimination. They made all the singers sing again and few of them to repeat what they already sang.
As I said in the preview article Anupama finally made it to the competition as the chief guest and I guess Vijay TV did not expect just to have one contestant not spot selected. Surprisingly they started with Ajeesh, who sang an English song which was decent and everyone liked it, praised him a little bit and the chief guest said that she wanted to hear everyone sing.
Here started the total disaster for the day 3 episode. All the singers performed to make up the 45 minutes to complete the show and finally Anupama decided that Ajeesh is safe. Then there were some meaningless conversations between Srinivas and Anupama praising Ajeesh’s performance. Finally the show ended with Ajeesh joining the group again and yes there are 7 contestants left in the show for the third consecutive week.
This is just getting frustrating as after Aruna and Rohit there has been no elimination in the show. If you consider that Rohit was out only because he pulled out is even scarier. I am also getting irritated with the favoritism of the judges. It seems like Renu is one of them. The song which she sang yesterday was so bad and when we compare that performance to Raghini’s Tamil version the previous night the difference was even more visible. I am starting to wonder if Renu has to just turn up to get selected. She is monotonous, doesn’t experiment, Sings mostly P Susheela and Chitra songs and still keeps getting spot selected because the judges feel that her voice is good.
In spite of a legend like Chitra telling her to memorize the lyrics in a competition she still carries the lyrics in the hand. I think Raghini and Ranjani are far better singers than Renu at this moment. At least they try to experiment and sing different genre of songs. I have nothing against Renu but since I saw her first in the competition I would say she is the most unimproved singer of the pack.
Anyways let’s hope that at least next week we have some progress in the competition and there is some elimination. It’s almost going to be a year and we are not even close to identifying the top 3. I love the competition and hope that it goes for ever but it’s time to start the new season and finish 2008. Let’s hope the organizers get the point.
India look for a series win
Posted on: March 25, 2009
- In: Cricket | Cricket and Sports | General
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India leads 1-0 in the 3 test match series against New Zealand after the comprehensive win in Hamilton last week. India will take on the hosts again and this time in Napier for the second test of the series. Dhoni and Gary Kirsten would want to wrap up the series in Napier. If this happens, it will be a great achievement from the team India.
India have announced an unchanged team for the second test match and understandably so. The batting looked good in Hamilton and the bowling was persistent. Munaf Patel has for now sealed the third seamer position in the team and Harbajan with his 6 wicket haul has solved the spin problem for now. Batting for the Indians has not been a problem in this series. Daniel Vettori knows that they have to do something different in the second game to upset the Indian batting line up. Their bowling looked toothless in the first test and did not look like taking 20 wickets.
New Zealand batting also struggled against Harbajan on a flat batting track. It was a bad loss for the hosts and it seems like on a good wicket they are no match for the Indians. Vettori wanted Jacob Oram to be back for the second test but that isn’t a possibility right now. It seems for the Kiwis Jeetan Patel will be back in the squad. The Kiwis will also worry about the form of their No1 bowler Kyle Mills who has been largely ineffective in this series in all formats.
All in all this will be another interesting game and I guess the toss will be important again for the home team. Dhoni and India would want to get the series win here to cap off a wonderful series. Best of luck to the team and hopefully we will win the series in Napier.
- In: Cricket | Cricket and Sports | Entertainment | General | IPL | Languages and Politics
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Lalit Modi and BCCI chose South Africa as the venue for this years IPL
Yesterday BCCI announced that IPL will be moved to South Africa this year as the Indian Government failed to guarantee top security for the players in India. After the attack on the Srilankan team in Pakistan security has been a major concern for the foreign players in the subcontinent and with the General elections coinciding with the IPL the Govt said that they cannot offer security to the international players.
This was a great setback for IPL and BCCI as the tournament was a huge success in its first year and their negotiations with the Indian Police Department failed repeatedly. Finally Lalit Modi and BCCI decided to host this year’s edition in either England or South Africa.
After lots of deliberation SA was chosen as the venue over England due to logistics and weather being in the formers side. It’s rather unfortunate that the tournament has to be shifted to a different country as the electricity and the enthusiasm of the Indian crowd cannot be matched anywhere in the world. The players and the franchise owners are not that thrilled about this decision but they are left with no choice in the current scenario.
I think the decision was very practical by the BCCI and now the competition can go on without any security concerns. Even though this is basically an Indian tournament the involvement of International stars makes this event marketable anywhere in the world. South African cricket board seems to have been really thrilled to have got this opportunity and also their players and media seem to be really enjoying the same.
I personally did not want this series to go to England for two reasons. First is the weather and pitch conditions and second English supporters do not care about IPL or Twenty20. I am a part of a British cricket forum and I can see that they don’t give a damn about Twenty20 or IPL. So I guess it was a good decision to take it to SA who successfully staged a World Twenty20 just a year ago. Its really sad for Indian cricket that their premier tournament has to be shifted to another country and watching my team “Chennai SuperKings” play in Durban will not be the same as watching them in MA Chidambaram stadium.
But the silver lining is that the tournament at least will happen this year. This will also give players to get a good practice for the World Twenty20 which will follow the IPL. I hope that this year’s competition is as big as the previous year. I am sure that the SACB will do all in their ability to make this event a grand success. But I just hope that IPL is back next year to India where it proudly belongs. I will be back later with the profile of my team Chennai SuperKings next month.
- In: Airtel Super Singer | Entertainment | General | Music | Reality Show | Television
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The Airtel Super Singer day 1 was impressive with all the three contestants getting spot selected. Day 2 had four contestants to perform and it was an interesting prospect with Renu and Ajeesh not being that comfortable with this genre. I wasn’t that bothered about Prasanna and Raghini as I thought that they will be very comfortable with this round.
The first performer of the evening was Ajeesh and he sang “Girlfriend” song from Boys and sounded horrible. I am not sure if he had any issues with his voice or something but it sounded horrible. He did not have any energy or enthusiasm to carry a song which was beautifully sung by Karthik in the original. It was a bad performance and the judges felt the same. He was rightly not spot selected.
The second singer of the night was Renu. She chose “Mudhal Naal Indru” song from Unnale Unnale. She gave a decent performance but I did not like the choice of song. The judges felt that Renu had chosen a safe option and a clever one. In the western round they were hoping for something different and peppy but were disappointed in that regard. Even though the song choice did not impress the judges at least Srinivas and Unni, Renu was spot selected.
To be frank I am just fed up with Renu and the bias the judges have towards her. I understand that she has the best voice among the female contestants but still her song selections have been one dimensional. She does not take any risks and overall I would rate her below Raghini. Anyways that’s my opinion. I was hoping that the judges would anyways make her sing on the final day so that she can actually sing a proper western song. The only time in this competition she sang something different was “Vaa Vaa pakkam Vaa” song.
The third contestant of the night was Prasanna. He chose “Something Something” song from “Something Something Unakkum Ennakum” movie. He did a fantastic job. There was lots of energy and spirit in his performance and the judges liked his performance. It was a great effort by Prasanna after being in the verge of elimination last round. He was rightly spot selected.
The final contestant of the day was Raghini. She sang “Unakenna Naan” song from Kadhalil Vizhundaen movie. It was a brilliant performance I thought. It was fantastic and she did a great job. I am growing to like this smiling version of Raghini. She is been performing brilliantly since her return. She is smiling more these days and has been giving stunning performances in the last few rounds. She was spot selected too. It’s funny that every time Srinivas has to say something good about Raghini he looks in total disbelief. Unni though seems to like Raghini and called her “Rags” yesterday after her performance. He was the one who called Prasanna “Prassi”.
So finally 7 contestants perform and just one of them not spot selected. It was unfortunate for Ajeesh. Before this round began I had singled out him and Renu to struggle and it became right in his case. I am not sure what the judges have in mind for the final day as there is no competitor to Ajeesh. He is all alone on the final day and I am sure unless he turns in a brilliant performance he will for sure get eliminated. I hope he gives a better performance tonight.
It seems like recently Malini Yugendran isn’t speaking that much in super singer. Yugendran seems to be talking a lot more. Probably due to some feedbacks received. Whatever may be the reason it happened for good. Anyways I will be back with the review of Day 3 tomorrow.
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