The Grand Finale of Vodafone Thakadhimi!

I have never been a fan of reality shows, in fact I have hated them all the while and have even written on this same blog about how much I hate them. I had always thought that they were completely stage managed. Not that I think any different now especially when I look at the reality shows on Hindi channels. But a reality show finally did come which caught my fancy like anything and that was "Vodafone Thakadhimi" telecast during weekends on Asianet. I would not say that I have seen the show without missing even a single episode. In fact, there have been very few episodes that I have seen at full length. Dance, as a form of art had always interested me and that was a strong reason for me to give Thakadhimi a try. From the first episode itself, I fell for Gopika Varma. I had not heard about her before and the always over made up lady in her bright and striking synthetic sarees used to act out like a true mohiniyattam artiste when she was commenting on the performances of the contestants. Vineeth's long hair and that idiotic hairband used to irritate me (thank god, he cut his hair short soon after); the male anchor (I have never really cared to know his name!) was a non entity, but the pretty Aishwarya and the classy Lakshmy Gopalaswamy (her broken Malayalam notwithstanding) made it to the top of my list of favorites... And thus it continued and as the show progressed from one weekend to the other, I started paying keen attention to Gopika's comments. Once the contestant starts performing, Gopika would have her entire concenteration so strongly fixed on each and every nuance of his/ her performance and in the end, would come up with a suggestion on something as minute as the pattern of raising a brow or how the fingers should be placed while enacting a mudra- that is when I understood how complete a dancer she was! My strong hatred for Gopika turned into stronger respect! The extent of hardwork that the contestants put in coupled with fair and equitable judgement on the part of the judges only served to improve the quality of the show. And it went on and on and on and finally after 9 long months, the final episodes were telecast this weekend. Vineeth in a royal sherwani, Lakshmi in her trademark designer sari, Celebrity judge Brinda in black western formals and Celebrity guest Jayaprada glowing in her salwar were all seated there to judge Akhila, Gayathri, Jobin and Sharath. A host of spirited performances later, Gayathri has been crowned the winner with Akhila, Jobin and Sharath bagging the 1st, 2nd and 3rd runners up prizes respectively. There would not be anymore Thakadhimis from next weekend onwards, but I surely will miss Gopika and Lakshmy, for that was the kind of influence the ladies had on me :-) It really was a good platform for budding talents to showcase their dancing skills- from classical to cinematic to contemporary to fusion- it explored all forms of dance- themes drawn from all spheres imaginable to mankind- this one was a "real" reality show in all its splendor! I would like to congratulate Asianet, Vodafone and Confident Group (sponsors of the first prize of 45 lakhs cash or a limo) for having come up with such a great concept and doing a good job out of it! Hope the encouraging responses from the viewers make the channel think in the direction of introducing a sequel! I will not complain...