Vijay TV’s Super Singer was a mess-up this week.

– The show organisers formed three groups, Chennai, Kovai and Madurai. Each had five participants.

– On Friday, one from each group was eliminated except for the Chennai group.

– Harish, one of the best singers in the whole competition, from the Chennai team, walked out of the contest for personal reasons. It’s probably the same with Archana Iyer too.

– The groups were askd to perform two songs. One to show their harmony strengths. Two for the creativity.

– Chennai team performed Pachai Niramey and Madapura[Pathiban Kanavu]. Gowtham Bharadhwaj making those romantic twists, in the beginning of Madapura, seemed silly. Gowtham is a fantastic singer except that he is super artificial when he talks. And I think, he believes that he is probably the only good looking guy in the contest.

– Kovai team did a fantastic job of performing Kurukku Chirthavaley and Sorgam Enbathu Namakku. The Sorgam song rocked given the fact that they were dancing and singing it. Swathi of Kovai team is one helluva singer.

– Madurai team also did a good job. They sang Pani Vizhum Iravu and Kaatril Varum Geethamey. Rajini and Anitha are probably the best singers of this team.

– Vani Jayaram, who was chief guest for this week’s show, didn’t enjoy the dancing and singing of Kovai team. She voted Madurai team as the best group singing team. And I think that wasn’t right in my opinion. Kovai was the best. One could see that from the reactions of Anuradha Sriram and Sreenivas.

– After all this, the lousy thing happened. As a part of their elimination strategy, each contestant was asked to vote-out one of their group members. This was only for the Chennai and Kovai as they lost out to Madurai Team. The results are to be announced next week.

If only Chinmayee, who is MCing the show, could shout a little less especially the bramandamaana kural thedal bit, a little bit, it might seem much better. Gayathri Jayaram on the other hand, in hosting the Vijay TV’s Grand Master show shouts her soul out. Shouting seems to be an essential quality for becoming a TV host in Tamil media.

Yet another show on the American Idol format. First it was Indian Idol and now it’s Vijay TV’s Airtel Super Singer contest. The winner of this super singer contest will get a chance to sing for Harris Jayaraj. The show runs from 8 pm every friday and saturday on Vijay TV.

Believe me this show is good. Just damn good. Not because this show is about music but the tamil touch to this international format is just exciting. And we have some super dooper singers amongst us.

The other day, a participant named Gowtham sang, Rahman / Hariharan’s Malargale song. I haven’t heard such an amazing control like that from an amateur singer. Nice balance and amazing sangathis. If one was watching this from the first week, they would understand how many singers we have in the country. Though the first round participants included many weirdos, atleast half of the crowd was nice stuff. As of now, the contest is on the fourth round with 20 or 24 contestants. And as it moves forward, its going to be more interesting.

In the initial rounds, the judges included SP Sailaja, Sreenivas, Maalathy and many others. After prelims it’s Anuradha Sriram, Sreenivas and Unni Krishnan. While its a nice trio, Anuradha seems to be too bossy and wouldn’t allow the other two to do the talking. I’m sure someone would let her know as the show moves on.

Instead of a screwed up film review or a kadi serial, I prefer to spend two hours a week for some nice music contest. Worth the time spent. With such shows, Vijay TV is slowly becoming the best channel for true entertainment. Two years from now, I would expect Vijay TV not to top prime time TRP ratings but to a gather a loyal viewer base.