abhijeet sawant - indian idol

so its over.. the indian idol has been chosen and it is abhijeet sawant, the 'nice humble middle class boy from mumbai'.. the boy can sing and looks ultra cute..

on tv we saw his balcony on the black stained apartment, him practicing dancing with a friend of his, him taking a ride on an old scooter down streets with chawls on both sides..

reality tv is quite something else.. these used to be moments and spaces that were always present but rarely represented in the public sphere.. the kind of, i don't know, heroic nature that the tv screen brings to these spaces, i find weird.. even these seem to have become commodity, u think?

the rags to riches story, the charming simplicity, the iconic nature he seems to have acheived over night.. these are to become his defining characteristics.. at the age of 21 he is already a 'thing'.. pretty and marketable, but soon to be irrelevant - unless he can rise above and drive culture forward he might end up like the previous winners of reality talent competitions- grotesque representations of the corruption of sudden fame.. think 'viva' or 'aasma' or 'jugal hansraj'.. the poor boy..

but lets leave that for later.. we can now follow his life, his switzerland holiday, his new car.. i hope for all our sakes.. he can survive this.. he seems too much like the 'nice humble middle class boy from mumbai' for us to survive the devastation of that rather likeable stereotype..



billboards across the city before the final announcement..



that nice humble miccle class boy



and his mother