A brilliantly choreographed performance by a group of boys drawn from daily wage laborers -- two of them stricken by polio -- all hailing from a small town in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, took top honors at the first ever show of India's Got Talent, the country's franchise of FremantleMedia's Got Talent   programs.

The Prince Dance Group, a favorite from the get-go, pipped 10 finalists and 45,000 contestants to walk away with Rupees 50 lakh (about US $100,000) in cash and a car.

In an extraordinary explosion of color and creativity, the group's unique recreation of Dasavataar, the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu, won over the judges and the country alike.

In a blog post after the show, film-maker Shekhar Kapur (Bandit Queen, Elizabeth, The Four Feathers, Mr. India ), who was one of the three judges, noted:

Many other acts came over time through the auditions and semi finals etc, that I grew to love. Some performed better in the semi finals and auditions, others outclassed themselves in the finals. But none were so visually stunning, so aesthetic, so zen like and transcendent.
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I think the Prince Dance group had won the hearts of the Indian people even before the finals. There was something so emotional and completely Indian about their acts, but on par with the best international traditions of modern group choreography that made us all proud to be Indian. And to know that some of the participants of this group were brick kiln labourers, who normally come to our attention more because we read stories about how this class is completely exploited by the Kiln owners, and earn bare subsistence wages.  

Whether influenced by their success or not, the Orissa state government has decided to set up an art institute to tap and groom local talent in the town that the group hails from. Barely four years into choreography with no formal training, Krishna Mohan Reddy, the group's leader wants to take his troupe international and build a dance academy. He deserves every bit of support he can get.

But Reddy and his boys had some decent acts to beat. The final line-up of 11 -- which included a salsa couple who danced to the now immortalized "Jai Ho" track from Slumdog..., among other tracks, many of them Hindi; a group that took yoga and balance to the next level, holding poses on ropes and poles; a hip-hop group;  a Rajasthani folk group singing traditional numbers that are now popular as Bollywood hits; and a student group called Illuminati, who put geekdom on a new platform with stage performance of the video game Super Mario (this one got some  international play, though many Indians may have never heard of Super Mario. I did not until now.) and Tom and Jerry -- was high-class entertainment.

I wish I could have watched these performances on television. But Internet jai ho, I can't stop looking at the videos. If the first year is anything to go by, this show will likely eclipse other television talent shows real fast.

There are two aspects to this show that makes it more attractive to me than any other. First, is its scope. India has several talent shows for singers and dancers, many of them highly popular and acclaimed, producing winners who go on to become top Bollywood sensations. But this multi-talent show is drawing out entertainment acts of different kinds from deep inside India, talents the rest of the country barely ever gets to see. I had never heard or seen the art of malkhamb, a traditional form of balancing act and gymnastics around a pole, so intricate  that one of the judges thought it should be an Olympic sport.

Second, the film industry is the epicenter of Indian entertainment. Want to have a good time? Head for the movies. If this show can draw out traditional talents that don't have to be showcased in a movie to make it big, we may be opening ourselves up a whole new world of entertainment outside Bollywood.

The show has promise: to find a variety of entertaining talent and give them a platform to perform and grow. The first year has given the channel Colors (part of a partnership between Viacom and Network18 Group) a whole new meaning. Will it deliver? Until next year...

For more coverage:

Priya Ramani on her Mint blog
Teen Tech Guru
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