Shamir Tandon is an interesting man. He doubles up as the CEO of Virgin records and also as an avant garde music composer. He specializes in resurrecting veterans. He coaxed Asha Bhonsle and Lata Mangeshkar to record over the internet for Page 3 and now has got octogenarian singer Manna Dey to sing after 14 years for Karan Razdan’s “Umar”.

When asked as to why he preferred to bring in semi retired singers past their prime, no matter what their past glory when so any contemporary singers are available , he bemoans the Indian idol variety of singers as contest icons with little commitment and no discipline. So he prefers to work with septuagenarians and octogenarians and particularly speaking of Lata Mangeshkar, he says that even at this age and after becoming a legend and having recorded more than 10,000 songs, she still seems nervous and fidgety like a teenager scared that her best may not be perfect.

Now I am not able to get to see too many TV shows and have seen only the final few episodes of Indian idol – II where Sandeep Acharya and N.C.Karunya were battling it out for the winner amidst a lot of media hype and Miss India type build up. I am no judge of music but on TV both sounded OK, albeit a bit flashy. But Shamir Tandon who not only composes music but also sells them under the Virgin Records label should know better he says that the older voices trained under decades of riyaz have no parallels and no instant idol can fast track a life time of devotion and commitment.

If Shamir Tandon is not able to find any genuine talent among today’s singers and has to rely on 70 and 80 plus singers to get the right voices for his compositions , that is worrisome for the state of our arts and art and music is one of the predominant forms through which we show case our culture. The transition is sad.

Shamir Tandon is an interesting man. He doubles up as the CEO of Virgin records and also as an avant garde music composer. He specializes in resurrecting veterans. He coaxed Asha Bhonsle and Lata Mangeshkar to record over the internet for Page 3 and now has got octogenarian singer Manna Dey to sing after 14 years for Karan Razdan’s “Umar”. When asked as to why he preferred to bring in semi retired singers past their prime, no matter what their past glory when so any contemporary singers are available , he bemoans the Indian idol variety of singers as contest icons with little commitment and no discipline. So he prefers to work with septuagenarians and octogenarians and particularly speaking of Lata Mangeshkar, he says that even at this age and after becoming a legend and having recorded more than 10,000 songs, she still seems nervous and fidgety like a teenager scared that her best may not be perfect.

Now I am not able to get to see too many TV shows and have seen only the final few episodes of Indian idol – II where Sandeep Acharya and N.C.Karunya were battling it out for the winner amidst a lot of media hype and Miss India type build up. I am no judge of music but on TV both sounded OK, albeit a bit flashy. But Shamir Tandon who not only composes music but also sells them under the Virgin Records label should know better he says that the older voices trained under decades of riyaz have no parallels and no instant idol can fast track a life time of devotion and commitment.

If Shamir Tandon is not able to find any genuine talent among today’s singers and has to rely on 70 and 80 plus singers to get the right voices for his compositions , that is worrisome for the state of our arts and art and music is one of the predominant forms through which we show case our culture.

The transition is sad. On one hand, we have people like Bismillah Khan and Allaudin Khan who never even composed for films believing that such a move might make them compromise their craft and then we have prospective idols hollering on the TV screen – “come on vote for me, SMS my name” as if the show were not really a talent hunt but a cheap election campaign gone awry. So as a music lover but no singer or composer , I wonder if the Indian idols we are e/selecting so shallow that they cannot even win the admiration of their peers and how and where lies the genuine talent , the genuine idol that surely must exist in a country of a billion plus ?