Age of Innocence

Sunidhi Chauhan....the name sounded vaguely familiar when I came across an article about her in the paper recently. Halfway through the first paragraph, realization dawned.
Meri Awaaz Suno......Annu Kapoor.....Lata Mangeshkar....and a small girl in a frock and a bob-cut - Sunidhi Chauhan.

'Meri Awaaz Suno' was one of the first ever 'talent shows' on Indian television, and one of the few I ever paid any attention to. And that was largely due to this one participant. There's something fascinating for a 14-year old boy to watch a girl younger than him making it big on TV, to hear her break into song and wonder how her voice sounded twice as mature as any of the other contestants, everyone of whom were more than twice her age. Her voice and her talent were captivating, but more so was her youth. I remember her ernest, slightly nervous demeanour as she would walk up to the dais to sing her number. I remember looking forward to see her break into a smile at the end of her performance and feeling elated when it happened. I remember thinking what a cute girl she was and what a pretty woman she would, someday, grow into.


Well, she is pretty, alright. But she's also been involved in an elopement, enstranged relations with her parents and a divorce. I guess that isn't surprising for a child prodigy thrown into the spotlight too soon, but the news did leave a bad taste in my mouth. I believe she is now known in the trade for her competence in singing 'item-songs' in Hindi films. Now I really don't know what kind of vocal expertise is required for that, but it definitely wasn't the future I thought she'd have when she recieved the 'Best Singer' award from Lata Mangeshkar all those years back.

Where is the uniqueness that was her defining characteristic earlier? Why is she just one among the crowd now? I guess her USP was her youth and now that she doesn't have it, she's lost among the hordes. Which is sad....the loss of innocence,....so fragile a quality that it's virtually impossible to be 'handled with care'. People grow up, people get hurt, people become wiser but permanently scarred in the process. Yep, even that one-in-a-thousand child genius can be reduced to a competitor running hard to stay in the same place.

I hear that Sunidhi Chauhan is coming up with her own music album soon, which is good news. But I can only hope that we get to hear a 11-year old girl singing in it, and not an 'item song' specialist.