As I type this, the popular Malayalam Reality musical show, Idea Star Singer is underway. The show is extremely popular amongst Malayalees, across the globe. Starting off on a very modest scale back in 2006, the show returned the next year in a bigger format promising contestants a flat worth Rs. 1 crore. The next year the prize money was doubled to 2 crore each for one male and one female contestant.
Now to the facts as to why am I talking about this program here on my blog. To start off, I am a big fan of this show. The contestants are high quality singers and the judges are by far the best ones in the business. I have never found the judgement "biased" or anything like that. The judges go out of their way to point out mistakes and other issues with "sangathis" as they call it!
But when it comes to Hindi songs some contestants sing, I see lots of scope for improvement. Some of the contestants need more training to "shrug off" their Malayalmised Hindi accents. While some contestants do manage to shrug it off (Hats off to them! It's NOT an easy thing to do, mind you), some others need to do a lot more. Some songs sound outright ridiculous and embarrassing if you happen to watch it along with your North Indian friends.
I have no complaints against the show, but if there is one thing that needs to be done to improve the quality of the show, it should be ensured that the contestants should get their pronunciations right. It's not just about Hindi. If I sing a Marathi song, (I am a Malayalee), it may sound awesome to a Malayalee, but a Marathi manoos listening to it should not feel like kicking my butt off because I ruined his favorite song. I am a singer myself and I “know” how bad it sounds when you do not sing a song correctly (as in, with the correct pronunciation). The worst part is that performances like these are given high marks because the judges might have not heard the original song.
I am not against Malayalees (I am one too, after all and proud to be one!) or the mallu accent, but in some situations, the accent can do more harm than good. Additionally, in my experience, it is quite not an impossible task to work on your diction. You just need to listen to the original song very carefully and learn it. I would rather not sing a song at all, till I get the pronunciation right. And, this is not just limited to a Malayalee singing Hindi songs, the rule to get the pronunciations right can be extended to all languages.
Mistakes while singing is OK, but this is not! I don't know how many people agree with me on this here! Just my 50 cents worth. :)
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