I have nothing against the prolifiration of reality shows on Indian sattelite channels. After all, everyone will try to encash on a successful formula – and frankly, if people are watching, what’s wrong in it?

It’s the lack of creativity & innovation within this genre that gets on the nerves. When one channel starts a kid-hunt show, all of them round up tiny tots in different size & shapes to croon those essentially-adult numbers (admittedly, watching a barely into-teens youngster extolling about burnt beedis and raving about kajra-re eyes is a wee bit discomforting). Why can’t the channels sit together and time their shows differently – at least, the audience will get a wider variety, and perhaps, help the channels garner better TRP’s in the long run.

The current flavor is getting dadajis and dadajis and mummyjis and daddyjis to shake their collective left feet in a ‘family dance show’. Worse, the format & the judges’ comments & the scoring model (and then that urge to vote, vote and more vote) is typically the same in all such shows. I haven’t watched any. But I believe the one with Kajol and family is doing good. Strangely, Kajol (despite being one of my most favorite stars of the nineties generation and one who has starred in most of my favorite films) has the dubious distinction of acting in the most insipid, irksome and irritating advertisements. Perhaps the words on the cheques were much more interesting that what was written on the script!

Anyways, in the clutter of reality shows, one has finally managed to get my attention – Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar on Star Plus (shown every Fri & Sat night, but I generally watch the back-to-back rerun on Sunday mornings). It’s a challenge between winners of various reality shows (Abhijeet Sawant, Ishmeet, Rooprekha Bannerjee, et al) pitted against the runners-up from the same shows (Rahul Vaidya, Harshit, Vineet etc).

The show is sans any hyperbole. The production value is superb. The contestants have the basic singing ability. The judges are cool and give pithy comments (often ticking off the bad performances justfully)-Farah Khan has a very practical demeanor that helps the show. I like her. And both Vishal & Shekhar display the same grace & dignity that they did in their previous outing as judges on Zee Sare Ga Ma Pa (unlike certain other blabber-mouths in the same show).

Honestly, it is nice to hear Abhijeet Sawant’s voice again – and in the show he is doing pretty well, and I am rooting for him to win this one too. Rahul Vaidya is the second favorite – and his confidence & control should get him more playback offers (beyond the farcical God promise dil dola hai & O Madam I am your Adam numbers in the deservedly super-flop Shaadi No One).

Harshit had fallen from grace the day he was interviewed by channel on Lata Didi’s birthday and asked to hum a few lines of his favorite song from her vast ouvre. The man made the unforgiveable mistake of crooning O saathi re tere bina bhii kya jeena, which anyone who professes to be such a big ‘fan’ and studying music, should know is not a Lata Didi song!

If I overlook this terrible faux pas, he certainly has an ear-friendly and ‘playback material voice’ – sort of in-between Kumar Sanu & Babul Supriyo. And in his past two weeks’ performance, he has stunned the judges as well with his superb rendering of Phirta rahuun mai dar-ba-dar and Ruth aa gayi re ruth chha gayi re.

Once he sang a song that was pretty unknown. Farah Khan commented that he should choose songs that are more known. Somehow, I don’t agree with her at all. I always carried this grouse that singing songs of others is both easy and unfair – easy because the road map is already prepared by the original singer, and un-fair because comparisons can sometimes be odious. So, when one is judging a contestant, it should be done stand-alone and not with what the original singer did.

Since in these shows getting music composers (or judges) to compose fresh songs and evaluate their talent through that is not possible, the next best step is indeed to select not very popular songs & render them in your own individualistic style. Perhaps, Harshit too had that in mind. Unfortunately, he was reprimanded pretty badly for it, and lost points due to this. In any case, not knowing a particular song is a judge’s problem and not the contestants ( for example, last week too Farah repeated this ‘kaunsa gaana hai’ grumble at ‘Phirta raha hun’ number. Well, I had heard it pretty often, and if Farah Khan was busy shooting for Om Shanti Om when The Killer promos/film hit the marquee, it is entirely her issue, not Harshit’s. Mercifully, Vishal & Shekhar knew of the song and thankfully sense also prevailed on Farah to evaluate on the singing per se & grant Harshit full marks).

Ishmeet is the fourth contender I am rooting for. He has a very soft personality and love songs suit him rather than the mess he created with the Chak De number.

Amongst the ladies, I liked Priyani’s voice – it is the only one that is not throaty (read: Sunidhi Chauhan type). She sounds a bit like Sadhana Sargam, and did an immensely melodious job with Chhalka re kalsi ka paani and Nimbooda. But I fear she might not go too far off, since clearly the more favorites are those ‘item’ kind of voices.

And now for the ones that I can’t bear – Rooprekha Bannerjee tops the list. I am shocked she ever won any reality show. Her voice is exasperatingly nasal and annoying and her attitude is even more galling. She feels she has some superiority factor, and I fail to see any – either in her conduct (the only one to burst in copious tears when on verge of ouster but headstrong enough to pass nasty comments on every other co-participants) or her singing (she cooked an unpalatable mince-meat of Mere dholna from Bhool Bhulayya - breaking into a Bengali line at the end of the song, when the original audio version does not have that line (it is used only in the film in parts) – vote gathering tactics, eh?). Amit Tandon is another non-singer who should pack up soon.

Let’s see how the show unfolds and who actually gets some more fifteen minutes of fame and superstarr-dom!