Why Alisha kept on asking Smitha Adhikari to work on her presence? Was she suggesting Smitha to go for some ‘miracle therapy’ so that she could improve her looks within a week? Why Prashant despite giving a wonderful performance came in bottom four. Aren’t his colleagues in State police voting for him?

 

While hosting the show on Friday when Mini Mathur said that Prashant was interviewed by a news channel ‘yesterday’, it put the audience in bewilderment because the interview was taken on Wednesday. So, audience was confused that whether they were watching reality or a one-day-stale show.

 

But, despite all such confusions, the piano round of Indian Idol 3 remained successful in keeping the audience interest intact. Before the show enters the next level, ‘gala round’, take a look at the highlights of the past one-week.

 

It would not be an exaggeration if one says that season 3’s piano round in terms of quality was much better than couple of final rounds of the last two seasons. Everyone in the top ten seems to be full of talent. All of them outshine each other in their own unique ways.

 

Scene 1: The judges could not stop themselves from using the adjectives like “Superb”, “Very good”, “Perfect”, “Rocking” etc. after most of the performances.

Scene 2: After listening to Chang, Udit Narayan said, “Even I can’t sing the same song better than him.”

Scene 3: On Harshida’s performance, Mini and Alisha exclaimed, “Wow! You look gorgeous. Is it Harshida or Parveen Babi?”

Scene 4: Smita Adhikari’s “Zuby Zuby” performance makes Javed Akhtar stand up and give her a standing ovation.

As Jolly Das, the contestant who had to leave the second season due her bad health, will join the team in the gala round, Javed Akhtar said, “Within a few days, you will feel sorry about leaving the second season as this time the competition is much tougher."

 

Suhit Gosain: Alisha’s favorite boy could not reach the gala round. Though he had been enjoying the attention of the audience from day one, courtesy his ‘heavy metal rocker’ looks. But some average performances couldn’t save him. The ‘rock star’ was finally eliminated from the show.

 

Ankita Misra: “I am proud of doing something that perhaps no other contestant will be able to do” were her last words while leaving the show. Though Ankita was not the best of singers, she made Udit Narayan and Javed Akhtar dance with her on the stage.

 

Rehan Khan: The name is Khan, Rehan Khan—that’s how Mini used to introduce this boy from Lucknow. Rehan was a talented singer but not a trained one. Perhaps that is why he could not match up with the performances of his fellow competitors.

 

Bhavin: Just when the judges started seeing him as the as the strongest contender of the contest, Bhavin was eliminated to everybody’s shock. He was perhaps the only contestant to have given a flawless performance every time. But votes were not cast in favour of him. In case the readers remember, I have already forecasted such things happening in my last review. The question is, why was Bhavin never shown in the preliminary rounds? Why was the face completely new to the audience, when he walked into the final round? The audience has already formed their list of favourite contestants by all the background drama shown on screen. When talents are so competitively close to each other, these will be the things that will prove to be crucial for a contestant.

 

The others in the list were Aisha, Vartika, Harshida, Amit, Padmanav and Shantanu.

 

Of course, I missed Anu Malek who could not attend the piano round due to his ill health. Though he tried to be in touch through video conferencing, audience must have missed his terse comments. I always maintained that his comments add spice to the show. On first day it seemed that rest of the three judges were only left for praising the contestants. Then Anu Malek sent a video message to the judges and asked them to be strict. After that we see judgments going awry. The judges start having diplomatic fights amongst themselves over their verdict on every performance.

 

For example:

On Puja Chatterjee’sperformance

Javed Akhtar felt, “It was her worst performance.”

Alisha argued, “It was her best performance.”

 

And this was not the only incidence. Singing is surely a tough thing. If professionals like Javed Akhtar, Alisha Chinoy and Udit Narayan have entirely different opinion about a performance, the Indian audience is bound to get confused and votes surely would be guided by the editors of the show.

 

Alisha Chinoy: The pop diva’s judgment could not match up to her singing talent. In most of the cases, it was full of partial viewpoints, which even she failed to justify.

Here are some of her comments to prove the point:

 

To Suhit Gosain after a performance, “Ohh! So at last you proved, you can sing!” One should ask Alisha that if he had not proved in the previous rounds, how could he reach the piano round?

 

On Puja Chatterjee’s performance she said, “It was a great performance. Thora sur missing tha!" Great performance without ‘sur’?

 

Despite of lack of maturity in Richa’s voice, Alisha tried to save her. However Smitha Adhikari, who always gave fabulous performances, was asked to improve her presence. Such judgments proved that Alisha failed to reach the bar set by her predecessor Farah Khan.

 

Udit Narayan: In an interview with merinews, Udit Narayan mentioned that he tries to be polite with the contestants. It seems that these days though Narayan is the most polite and sober gentleman on the show, he fails to critically analyze the contestants and keeps commenting on their good personality.

 

Javed Akhtar: His witty comments and his impartial in-depth analysis of every contestant make him the best judge so far.

 

1. Puja
2. Richa
3. Smita
4. Charu
5. Deepali
6. Emon
7. Chang
8. Prashant
9. Parleen
10. Abhishek

Jolly Das will join them in the gala round. And in the coming week six eliminated contestants will fight for two wild card entry seats.

 

So in the coming rounds thirteen contestants will fight for the coveted Indian Idol 3 title.