Rant - Music contests, a sham?

A girl fainted, a boy violently smashed his cell phone to the ground, a girl cajoled, and groveled with the judge and said she loved him, and above all, the judge, Adnan Sami wept. A mother tearfully says her daughter visited all temples to ask God to intervene and have her selected. She lost.

What is all this tamasha? You may ask. It is Channel V’s Super Singer music contest sponsored by Samsung. Read carefully the last three words, “Sponsored by Samsung,” the most important part of the contest, I guess.

From the roller coaster emotions, the frustration one sees on screen, one would tend to weep along with them, or, sit back and call it a sham.

Yes I am calling it a sham. Because why is there only one big prize when there are so many aspirants? Why aren’t there ten prizes for the best? Why is there only one judge when there should have been more? Why? Why? A lot of questions arise.

I think the youth of India is being misled by these contests. Consider the very basis of these questionable events. A jobless youth thinks he has singing talent (like we all do) and enters this contest. He/she waits in queue, he/she is nervous, he/she practices endlessly and ultimately rejected. He/she is distraught. His grief is endless because he/she had seen himself winning the jackpot and enjoying all the wealth and now he/she faces defeat.

How will he/she show his face to his friends, relatives, all those who know that he/she has entered the contest. He/she has been captured on television, crying, a loser, a loser they all would say. Imagine the frustration, the unspeakable torment in his/her mind.

The companies that sponsor these jamborees – Samsung in this case – do get the exposure in the media, the popularity. The channels get their television rating points. The celebrity judges – they were there for the publicity in the first place – get their place in the sun and exposure for their glamorous persona.

But what do those who faced defeat get? Frustration, anger, disillusionment, and just plain old defeat. I guess I will stop now because I have said enough.