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Vijay TV's Super Singer-3 Finals Live at the Chennai Trade Centre complex on September 23 night was a spectacular event by all counts. As usual, Vijay TV’s leaders and crew pulled all stops to establish the channel’s credentials as a leader in events.
After a long evening/night which left performers and the audience exhausted and dehydrated in a claustrophobic environment sans air-conditioning, it was past midnight that the channel sought to announce the winner - Saicharan. It was a foregone conclusion since there were Saicharan’s posters all over the state and pre-event SMS from the singer or someone on his behalf containing appeals to vote for him. With such hype and organised PR/marketing skills behind Saicharan, the other contestants perhaps had little chance to overtake the talented singer, although they performed equally well.
Santhosh was the first runner-up, followed by Satyaprakash and Pooja. Satyaprakash was, in fact, rated as the best performer of the evening by music director G V Prakash. There was little doubt that Satyaprakash is a spontaneous, effortless singer with a wide range and a strong classical base. He is sure to go places even if he didn’t bag the title.
Santhosh came across as a modern singer with all the attributes that the film world will demand of a young singer. With a deep voice backed by a high range, he could be sought after by young music directors who throng Kollywood.
Pooja's effort in ‘Mannavan Vandhaanadi’ (Thiruvarutchelvar) was brilliant since she managed to do the konnakol and the P Susheela bits alternately. The Susheela version alone is challenging for any singer. To do both simultaneously, required enormous guts and talent.
To match her, Saicharan and Satyaprakash had to rely on strong songs with a heavy classical base and opportunity for rapid sangatis. It was obvious that they would have to choose K V Mahadevan's ‘Thiruvilaiyaadal’ for the purpose. ‘Paattum Naane’ by Saicharan and ‘Oru Naal Pothumaa’ by Satyaprakash blanked out Pooja’s strong performance.
Satyaprakash was quite innovative and reeled off the swaras effortlessly - the hallmark of a good singer in the making.
Santhosh came across as a vibrant singer but his song selection should have been better. He could have picked one of Rahman's high-pitched, high-octave songs like from ‘Uyire’.
Saicharan’s second song – ‘Mazhaithuli’ from ‘Sangamam’ - served its purpose. By choosing a popular song, Sai showed why song selection is important.
Vijay TV could perhaps think of instituting a Jury Award too. It might be difficult for judges to select the winner considering that the judges and performers travel together over a period of time. However, this practice is followed even in film awards where the jury might have a different perception from the popular vote.
Also, a point to note is the need to maintain a difference between the previous rounds and the finals. The last runner-up (Pooja), should not get the same prize money (Rs 1 lakh) as a person knocked out earlier, however, justified it might be to reward a young singer like Srinivasan as a consolation prize.
The orchestra was brilliant though the tabla player had to try hard to keep pace with the swaras and sangatis - especially for Nithyashree Mahadevan. Baba Sehgal, Alphonse (VTV) and Isha Sherwani (dance) stole the show with some stellar performances.
Vijay TV's team should do a re-think about the way these evenings are structured. It would be better for the performers to begin and conclude their events from say 6.30 to 8.00 or by 8.30 p.m., and the online voting could then go on till about 9.30 p.m.. Between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., the other events and performances could go on, while the results are being tabulated. The announcement of the results could go live around 10 p.m. or latest by 10.30 p.m. As it is, most of the guests invited for the show had left by 10 p.m., and when the results were announced – by actor Dhanush - in the complex by about 12.30 p.m., the hall was only half-full or half-empty depending upon which way one wants to look at it.
It was heart-warming to see the judges - Sujatha, Unnikrishnan and Srinivas - throw their weight behind the participants and also encourage the other singers of the earlier seasons like Alka and Parvathi. Gen-Next featuring Uthara (daughter of Unnikrishnan), Sharanya (d/o Srinivas) and Shweta (d/o Sujatha) showed that there is a lot of talent around, and music directors need not worry as to where the new voices would come from.
Vijay TV deserves appreciation for the efforts put in to unearth new talent. The launch of Junior Singer 3 was spectacular too. The live promo would generate interest among the kids for sure. The Vijay TV think-tank, led by general manager K. Sriram and Pradeep, head of programming, do know how to create hype, sustain it and build on it as well.
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