Hi,

Thanks for voting and do keep at it (by the way my best friend claims that most of the votes in so far have been by either his wife or himself)

I have been travelling all this week and so have been unable to sit down and blog even though i did manage to catch Saawariya and my review will follow shortly.

Meanwhile i did find a wonderfully caustic yet entertaining article about reality show judges and as usual i had to share it with you.

Enjoy.

Vish.


TTTT - Their Turn To Talk

A new species has established itself on our TV screens. This particular genus preens, struts, weeps, sulks and displays its hairy chest quite frequently. It is a diverse group but, cast as it is in this particular role, manages to behave with a degree of predictability. The judges of reality shows are a bona fide breed, having had enough time to grow in number and establish a pattern of behaviour.

The group today boasts of people as illustrious (and otherwise) as Javed Akhtar, Jeetendra, Himesh Reshammiya, Bappi Lahiri, Sonu Nigam, Abhijeet, Farah Khan, Shiamak Davar, Shekhar Suman, Alisha Chinai and Navjot Singh Sidhu, to name a few.

That list also includes Anu Maliik, who is one of a kind and needs separate mention. If not a major star from yesteryears, the celebrity judge is either a minor star in a major category (fringe actors such as Malaika Arora Khan, Isha Koppikar) or a major star in a minor one (singing, music direction, choreography, television).

Several subspecies have sprung up among the judges.

We have the “Chortling Cheerleader”, whose ranks include Archana Puran Singh and Sidhu.

Then there is the “Strutting Self-Promoter” who spends as much time glorifying himself as in pronouncing judgement. Maliik is the undisputed champion of this category, although Reshammiya might disagree and spend the next 15 minutes telling us why.

There is the “Passive Mutterer” led by Udit Narayan and the “Emotional Embracer” exemplified by Ismail Darbar and Abhijeet.

Nigam brings up the ranks of the “Always Agonized Expert”, Arora Khan spearheads the “Pouty Pandit” category, flashing eyes and legs at the audience, while Bappi plays the “Beached Whale in Bliss” (but then again he does this all the time).

Judging has two distinct elements—to judge contestants and for judges to project themselves as stars. The latter phenomenon produces a parallel reality show, where the judges put themselves on display, strutting about in resplendent plumage.

For, in reality, the reality talent show contains an arena within an arena. The judges watch the contestants and, in turn, are watched by a larger audience. There is a studio audience, but it is almost always one that has no will of its own and exists to wave banners and dance badly. The judges, in effect, become contestants and strive to outdo each other in terms of gaining audience attention. The stakes are high, being a judge catapults a Name into a Face; everyone today knows what Ismail Darbar or Abhijeet look like. In many ways, just as contestants are small-town dreamers waiting to be transported to a magical world of 70mm fantasy, the judges themselves are awaiting metamorphosis from being sort-of-somebodies to bona fide targets for autograph seekers.