Let me start out by congratulating Baradwaj Rangan, friend and classmate from BITS Pilani, who was awarded the “Best Critic” National Award in India recently. Baddy, as I recall, was always a jovial and good natured person. Yet, his journey to writer’s world is as stupendous as his writing. I’m sure, back then; this profession was the last thing on his mind. However he did answer his true calling and today he has been recognized as one of the best. This is truly a great honor and I congratulate him warmly along with the enormous number of his growing fans. His reviews can also be found at http://desipundit.com/baradwajrangan/On one hand, it is heartening to see deserving people being rewarded for their effo
rts by recognition and appreciation. On the other, it is shocking to see certain legends being repeatedly shunned by the powers-that-be for greater honors. The other day I was casually browsing the list of people who have been honored by the Indian government. I have nothing against any of the winners and I’m sure most of them deserved some sort of recognition. It’s interesting to see that the list of people who were awarded the Padma Shri (the last in the hierarchy of civilian awards) includes Mohan Babu, Balachandra Menon, Sania Mirza, Kavita krishnamurthi, Shahrukh Khan, Bharathiraja, Shekhar Kapur etc. One name conspicuously absent from this and any other government honors list is Ilaiyaraja. One of the greatest original composers from India continues to be eschewed from these lists and treated with utter disdain. Raaja’s achievements and contributions need no recounting to anyone even slightly knowledgeable about Indian music. This is surely a blight on India and its honor system.
On another note, it is also depressing to see Subramanian Bad
rinath being repeatedly snubbed by the Indian cricket selectors. He has been one of the most consistent batsmen the past two seasons and has often scored in big matches too proving he has the right temperament to go with the talent. In the ongoing Kenya trip by India A, he has already scored two centuries in two games but has been left out of the senior Indian squads. This could quickly turn out to be another familiar episode in the “falling by the wayside” soap opera of Indian cricket brought upon by politicized, shortsighted management.
Well, what can we do…other than wail?
2 comments:
I would agree with you on the uniqueness of this show. And probably wouldnt disagree completely with you about the quality of stuff being presented on the show, because I dont understand a lot of the musical nuances.
But frankly, I stopped watching this show after the first 2 weeks. And this for the below reasons-
1. Sunday 10 PM ET is too late for me (of course this is not the program's fault), unless the program is top notch.
2. The presentation of this show, include the claustrophobic set, terrible sound quality, pathetic presenters etc is almost straight out of a 80s Doordarshan program. Very shoddy production values for such an hyped program.
3. And now the main reason - I watch "Idea Star Singer" on Asianet every night (my favorite TV program now), and the Sun TV show pales badly in comparison to this show (understatement). If you check out the Idea star show just once, you will know what I am talking about. Just listening to M. G. Sreekumar, Sharath & Usha Uthup critiquing the contestants' performance is as much music to the viewers' ears as the performances themselves.
I agree with you completely on everything you said. The production values, the garish set etc leave a lot of room for disappointment. Even saregama on Zee was far better that way. I was trying to put aside these aspects and just give my view on the musical aspects alone. But I do agree...it could have been far better.
You can watch the previous episodes online at the link I provided...make sure you watch from Show 3 onwards since the first two merely introduced the program.
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