ASTRO VANAVIL SUPER STAR 2013

Astro Vaanavil Super Star 2013

Ok, the last i watched this event was in 2008. It was then cringeworthy with incompetent local judges and irritating hosts mouthing off scripts prepared probably by the same old team with the same old jokes. As for the contestants, no one was superstar material or even close to professional singer but the show had to go on and some sponsor had a lot of money to throw anyway. This nightmare of a show made me stop watching the crap for the next 4 years and we hoped it would die off like paadal thiran or talent quest.

So there i was on a Saturday evening last week, just surfing through the channels while waiting for the next Oggy and Cockroaches to keep the hyper 3 entertained and then i bumped on AVSS2013 or is it ASS2013 , the crap was still much alive!!! But being a fair person one should give everything a second chance for im all in for local shows and talents as long as we are not humiliating ourselves with delusions that we even the passion or commitment to create great local singers in the long term like how they do it in India. Their Super Singer is a year long event and lots of effort is put into it by their contestants who actually go for sangeetham carnatic classes for years before even trying to compete. And here we are trying to unearth some Super Star in a few month period out of toilet singers who can't even keep their breathe through a pitching. . 

But surprise of surprise this time around in 2013. The ultimate improvement was bless you, someone in ASS team FINALLY had the sense to string in professional playback singers from homeland India itself. I was like going 'WOW', maybe just maybe we had hope after all for a Malaysian Super Star. Maybe. 

After having cried over and over in overwhelming pride and euphoria watching the last Super Singer Junior 3 episodes and Grand Finale and my god, those miracle genius children like Ajeeth, Yazhini and Pragathi who can sing word for word note for note like any playback singer of any genre and that Gowtham fella who made even the musicians bawl with Ullathil Nalla Ullam...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIjYvSsckMA
 my hopes were high, damn high. Just maybe someone in Malaysia will rise to the occasion with James taking on the Himalayan challenge. 

2 episodes of ASS2013 later is all one needs to sum up the going ons. First the judges and mentor.  I think James have taken on almost impossible , hats off to him Gosh, it must be excruciatingly painful for him for putting up with mediocrity and telling the contestants to just pack up and go home. He persists though and we root for him. 

One thing about these professional judges from India, they never hurt participants feelings. They are respectful and encouraging. They put it very diplomatically even if you are croacking away like an ASS, not like our half baked local judges who thinks the hell of themselves giving high handed opinions and talk to participants like they are big Lord labakdas.  

Mano and TLM probably go back each time after an episode and detox their brains for the next one week after having put up with 3 hours of total disaster in shruti and bhavam or sangethis or uchiripus. They are either paid a damn lot to be hear to put up with this nightmare superstar crap or they are just doing some charity, no brainers. 

Speaking of getting paid, i think the next judge actually PAID astro a lot to even be up with those singing masters calling herself a judge. Super cringeworth, im irritated each time to hear her stupid comments i feel the need to slap someone, you know the feeling. 

While TLM is giving actual expert opinions in sangethis and uchiripus and Mano with his shrutis and bhavam, Shaila Nair (who the hell is she anyway, samy's DiL and with an ambition to be a SuperStar herself for probably her whole life and having failed that she went on to do the next best thing and wormed herself to the judges' table?)  I heard someone say Shaila mdm may think she is some shruti expert, or costume expert or showmanship expert but all she is, is a '*uthi expert or just plain *uthi (ok, i didnt say that and was actually sad to see a woman humiliate herself on national tv). Arent lawyers supposed to be articulate in the least?

I think like TLM said at one point, we all should know our own worth and be our best judge. Why humiliate yourself for a few hours of publicity, i remember that Datin M who was there judging in 2008, same story in all her latest kancheepuram silk sarees. While this trend of ball carrying and pussy footing still exist with Vaanavil talent shows, it remains a block for true creativity to bust forth. There are always blocks, because Vaanavil has to lower its standards to accommodate half past six role models because their show depends on the good will of these people who have the political connections or such. Such idiots are the ones who has always screwed up the creative scene in Malaysia right from amateur Kuala Ketil bands of those days who think the hell of themselves to the  so called self proclaimed local song masters. All mediocre. The other local judge in the next episode is nothing better. He was negative, condescending and with same delusions.  It is a waste of viewers' time and an insult to the REAL professional judges like Mano and TLM to have to sit next to these idiots at the judging table. 

Next the hosts. Im not sure about others, but i think this Dinesh is a classic dickhead and shouldnt even be allowed in front of the camera. Totally tasteless.  Personally i never liked his sarcastic demeanour and rude comments. He made some insulting remarks about his wife i think in the last episode and serves him right if his wife divorces him for that. The idiot is plain rude, who despite years of hosting trainings still lacks the basic sensitivity to audience and participants all good host possess. You dont have to make funny stupid jokes all the time to be a good host, some of their so called in the face jokes are even insulting to the judges. Try being respectful and professional and if you want to make jokes, make jokes about yourself instead (like Vadivelu  ), instead of commenting on people's weight, height or wives... there is a fine line between being a joke and mockery. The test is whether people laugh heartily at jokes and they cringe and then give a nervous laugh. Even the India professionals are subjected to this sarcasm and mockery which is shameful for the Astro as a host. Fortunately, they are true professionals who instead choose to ignore it and react with some positive comments, but you can see it in their expressions how unimpressed they are. Im just waiting for one of them to give it back to this idiot Dinesh one of these days like how Ashutosh Gowriker put Sajid Khan into place when the latter thought he was making great jokes by mocking movie makings.  Dinesh needs a wake up call really bad!! Like hey, snap out if ok, you are not that great as you think!

And please oh pleassssssssssssssssssssssssse do away also with that Dinesh crap exclusive thing with the final elimination session which he turns it into some huge TORTURE session. WTF, is the guy trying to give them mental breakdown??? Totally HUMILIATING, INSULTING and UNNECESSARY. He should be sued for that session. To be stepping on the fragile nerves of unexperienced contestants and see them quiver and shake under all those pressure is mean and shameful for national tv. One needs to put Dinesh up in that situation so that he understands how ugly it feels to be treated that way. That is not creating suspense, that is just plain stupid irritation. Everything you do tha Dinesh, remember, they are people directing hate to you and that is not good. Take some off Dinesh, and go watch how REAL professionals do it in India, there is an atmosphere of excitement and anxiety at the revealing time but there is also overall sense of enjoyment from audience and contestants and judges, a feel good and feel good goes a long way. It is like those NLP thingy, people associate more with good emotions. Everytime they see Dinesh, Dinesh makes people feel bad, and people generally dont like to feel bad unless they are bipolar or something like that.

Kumaresan, you know you always look good, you know your best angles,  you recite the script well but you lack spontaneity dude, yes you are right on in rehearsed spots but that is it, you are afraid to step out. Too controlled. There are just too many people to please and your career would be at stake with a few wrong moves, na. We can see that rigidity, it gets passed on to us audience. We would have preferred Anantha but even Anantha is getting to look a bit jaded these days and is starting to hold back. Arent there any new hosts at all ???

But lets concentrate on the wannabe superstars now eh.

Gosh, where do these people come from. Did they grow up singing in front of the mirror all their lives and decide, hey, i can be a super star?? Like one looks at himself and say, i can be a doctor, or an engineer???

Nope, you gotta work at it people, work at it. Practice practice practice like that KJ Yesudass kept reciting last year hoping it would get into our maremande heads. It is NOT ENOUGH that you have a good voice to compete. If you are singing Indian songs, it IS all about the shrutis, bhavas, ucheripus..the whole lot. If you cannot, you should NOT even be there.

Go do sangeetham, carnatics or some vocal training, learn to breathe while you sing, control your pitch, all you ladies sing with your nose it is giving us migraines. Don't humiliate yourselves and dont insult Tamil song industry, those people spent a lifetime to end up singing the way they do which brings tears to our eyes. Even that 10 year old Ajeeth Super Singer Junior does like 300x better than you people, shame on you. A child who has almost no experience about adult emotions and expressions, he learnt it up to express it as professionally as the original playback singer who sang it. Now that is aspiration. That is a SUPERSTAR attitude. Go, go learn someone, make us proud, like probably Alinda did last year, though we cant really take too much of her killi tone singing, but what made all the difference was she learnt it up, people. And that's a long way from her Talent quest controversy, if she can do that so can you. Some of you can even do better than her. Even the Ajeeth boy got eliminated a few times but he came back with an IMPROVED version and bowled everyone over, he had limitations with his unbroken voice, but he made up for it with his grindings and perfect placements and expressions. Learn, future Vaanavil SuperStars, LEARN!!!! And mind you, finally you have a great orchestra to back you up after decades of having to put up with 3rd rate musicians, and that is the greatest gift you can get when you are ready to REALLY SING like a professional. YOU CAN SING ANY SONG WITH A GOOD VOICE BUT YOU CANNOT SING INDIAN SONGS WITHOUT PROPER SHRUTIS, SANGETHIS, BHAVAS AND UCHERIPUS BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT THAT MAKES EVERY TAMIL SONG A MASTERPIECE. Go figure!