In a photo finish of a musical race that had to be played in slow motion to decide the winner, Rinu Razak inched ahead by a hairbreadth to snatch the famed title in the Grand Finale of Amrita TV’s Super Star Junior-3 , held on the evening of September 12.

Rinu returned to Manjeri  loaded with the spoils of  a well deserved victory  which consisted of the coveted prize that she received from Chief Guest Khusboo, whose charm is undimished by age  ; a hefty purse of Rs.5 lakhs and a gilt edged certificate which conferred  high profile celebrity hood to a talent that had been buried in a small town.

Lekshmi Pradeep, who had  booked a sure berth in the finals with a chain of amazing melodies in the previous rounds, missed the crown by a whisker to take the second spot but became richer by the prize money of 3 lakhs in the bargain; Malini,the Lilliputian finalist with the big heart  came in third  to win a cash prize of Rs 2 lakhs.

The Grand Finale, the final conclusive forum for settling the months long competition consisted of 3 rounds: the Challenging Round in which the competitors had to render pure Carnatic classics; the Performance Round  where the emphasis shifted to their ability to perform impressively on stage and the Combined Round in which they sang successive  lines of the same song in turn.

Rinu inaugurated the lyrical   evening appropriately with ‘Omkara Naathana’ which she sang with breathtaking precision to take an early edge ; Lekshmi drew level with a riveting number in her forte  the Performance round, to leave the game even in the final  round that facilitated  immediate comparisons of classical mastery between the three.

The Jury Panel of Anuradha Sriram, Madhu Balakrishnan and Bijibal  who had witnessed the unfolding of these wunderkids through different genres and styles  found it difficult to cast their votes.

The competitive rounds were interspersed with foot tapping numbers from Franco; dazzling dancing medleys from Roma and the TV actress Archana, with the judges Madhu Balakrishnan and Anuradha Sriram also pitching in with classical melodies to make the evening  engrossing.