An update on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa as of 10th August 2007

I prefer this program over the other singing contests on the other channels (Sony's Indian Idol and Star's Voice of India). Now that the last 9 singers are left, the quality of the singing is incredible. Many times I feel that if I were to listen to these on radio, they would sound no different from the other singers who are actually singing in films. This is also a measure of how much of these people would have trained to reach this level. The judges are not hostile, and it was particularly nice today when Musarrat Ababs, a wonderful singer from Pakistan forgot the words of the songs, the judges, particularly Ismail Darbar encouraged the viewers to forget about this mistake, and not to penalize him during the public voting. This was nice. At the same time, from the final 10 selected next time, the list had to be weeded down to 9, and hence this time Joy from Himesh's team made his exit. It got somewhat emotional for Joy, but he went out with the promise to become a music director.


Raja Hasan sings 'Teri Diwani', originally sung by Kailash Kher; superb singing and I really appreciated the song:





Amanat Ali from Subai sings 'Mitwa' from Kabhi Alvida Na Kahna. Great voice.



Poonam in a clip about her poor background, and about her mother



And the lady who brings in a fair amount of oomph to the contest, Mauli Dave. Typically she prefers singing songs that make excellent item numbers.



Mussarat from Pakistan has an incredible voice, singing 'Kyon Kise Ho' from 'Tere Naam'



Aneek Dhar is the winner of the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Bengali edition, and got an automatic entry upto a certain round, something that was soundly objected to by Ismail Darbar, but finally he accepted. This guy really sings well, and here he is singing the song 'Saathiya' from the same movie.



Sumedha is another contest with a great voice and singing style, here singing 'Raat Akeli Hain' from 'Jewel Thief'



Junaid Sheikh, another contestant from Pakistan sings 'O Haseensa Zulfo Waali' from 'Teesri Manzil'.



Harpreet Deol, along with Raja Hassan have left the contest once, but got a chance to return and have been doing fairly well ever since, although I have a sinking feeling that he will be leaving pretty soon.