Indian Idol 3 Auditions Episode 2 (May 5 2007)

The Baroda auditions started off with Shikha Jain. Shikha said she hasn’t lost any of the competitions that she went to previously and exuded confidence that she will get through. She sang “Bichde abhi tho hum … “. Udit ko bahut acha laga and Alisha agreed. Anu came up with the argument “Koi bhi sur main gaaya tho usse Mumbai le jaaye kya?! The voice need to rock “ … and said I am not very impressed … however she got the pass to Mumbai … Shikha said she was afraid seeing Anu and said “aisa dekh rahe the”.

Next came Alpesh Soni. He took rumaal from Udit and sang “Zamaane ne kaha toote hue” Pathetic. Got few sarcastic wah wah’s from Anu. Strong comments. Udit said “Circus ke liye bahut ache hai aap”. Alpesh ended his nightmare with how a dog would bark if it were Rajesh Khanna, Dev Anand, Shah Rukh and Sanjeev Kumar.

Vijay Patel sang “Yeh dil aashiquana”. Shook his leg quite a bit while singing. Anu said “Aapne aisa gaaya ki aapne sur ko hara diya”. LOL. The poor guy didn’t even understand the sarcasm and that he was infact master of the sur. Funny. Extra bits from not so mention worthy singers like Aakash Rathod, Jaimim Parekh, Sunil Parikh. That’s it. Anu and team then decided to go out tell all the participants to pull up the socks since all of the people who sang were below standard.  Then came the Teen Deviyan. Anu asked the contestant to wear the goggles she got with herself. Then Anu wore his and so did Alisha and Udit. With the scene set Devika, Usha and her other sister tried their vocal luck. Alisha sang the same Kajra re intro lines and clearly showed how the Sur and Expression was missing. After all this, the sister’s walked off thinking it was an unfair affair. God Bless em.

Sheena Raju is the one to watch. In trendy black dress, Sheena sang “Sajnaa aabhi jaa”. Anu was extremely happy that voice was resonating and Udit thought uski awaaz main kashish hai. Needless to say, welcome to Mumbai. Bhoomi Trivedi, Dhwani, Manali all came and went. The scene then shifted to Rajasthan where Mini get hold of one Dhannu Ram, makes him sing (and he sings it well … sounded like a Rajasthani folk) and gives him a pass. Poor chap. Maybe he didn’t get the way how these shows work. He landed up at the auditions shown later only to be rejected. What a waste of time and money. We always know II wouldn’t encourage such talent. Why call em!? Looks like Mini was roaming around the streets a lot to find talent in Rajasthan, land of Sandeep Acharya. She finally finds a guy singing for a band in what looked like shaadi ka baraat. Another pass to come to auditions. I have seen the auditions happening at Hyderabad. It made me angry how best of the singers were not even given the chance to appear before the final judges. And on the other hand we have bunch of jokers, in the name of entertainment, are out before the judges only to face their sarcasm and dejection. Sigh.
Best scene from the Jodhpur auditions was Mini in local attire and speaking the slang and taking off on an oonth. Reminded me of my Pilani days. Our friendly neighborhood Dhannu Ram landed at auditions and sang “Tum ne na jaana” from Chalte Chalte. Comments. Weak singing … hasne ka andaaz acha hai … Thank you very much. Poor guy. Looked happy anyways that he cud come until there. Kuldeep Ojha, 22. He sang More Saiya. Aalaap that he took sounded very good. Anu said awaaz kisi se milti nahi hai, Udit said Indian culture barkaraar rakh rahe ho, Alisha said unique awaaz, gamak hai awaaz main aur Rajasthan ki khushbu hai. Chalo Mumbai for Kuldeep. Anu was happy that they finished the auditions without a fight. We did notice that Anu. Was it because Javed wast there.

Scene Kanpur. Usual routine of some people doing/attempting mimicry. People like Rajendar Tripathi did merciless killing of Dhoom title song (how the hell did he get to that stage). Liked the comment though. Udit said “besurapan sasta ho gaya”. Kailash Kher was dumbfounded and said “pehli baar aisa ajooba dekha hai”. Funny. Time for Ankita mishra, 17. She sang “Koi mil gaya”. She had the energy and the confidence. She also sang “Tu sirf mere mehboob meri mehbooba” and said to Anu she became a big fan of him after hearing this song. Interesting (there was a cut there) … when Udit was speaking she was kinda saying aap point pe aa jaayiye . Restless for the result eh. And she got the Yellow card.
Malik and co is so happy they get into a impromptu jamming session to make an Indian Idol song with lyric that goes like “Ladka banega and Ladki banegi etc “… Apologies. Dont rememeber more than that. Customary Colgate Hasso Tho Khul Ke Haso. Time for Sunil Bhatia, 23 to create some laughs. Shiva Roshan Varma claimed he is classically trained from a Guru Mr. LK Pandit (apologies if the name is wrong) who is close friend of Kailash. He murdered the durbari and claimed on top of it yeh unke (judges) samajh se oopar hai … yeh kya hai hamaare saamne. Concluding part had a mother who is extremely angry that Anu Malik is not fair and spews vengence saying Anu singer bhi nahi hai … kaise judge karengey.

Thats it. Next week for more. Please share your comments. Once again, apologies for any errors and omissions.

“I have to tell you he really, really impressed me,” Jennifer Lopez on Sanjaya

Indian American teenage singer Sanjaya Malakar took another step towards the coveted ‘American Idol’ title as he made to the top five, to not too great a surprise of his growing legion of fans and critics alike. Malakar, who in the words of The Washington Post’s TV columnist has completely taken over the ‘American Idol’ singing competition, was among the five declared ’safe’ in Wednesday night’s results round that left seven in the fray. Even before he sang one note Tuesday night, Malakar, the focus of YouTube parodies and the site Votefortheworst.com, got a rave review from megastar Jennifer Lopez and then a rare if reluctant compliment from judge Simon Cowell. Sprouting Marc Anthonyesque facial hair in honour of J Lo’s appearance as guest ‘mentor’, he left her utterly smitten. “He chose a beautiful Spanish song and I have to tell you, he really impressed me!” J Lo gushed to the camera after rehearsing ‘Besame Mucho’ with Sanjaya. “I love Sanjaya!” she giggled, adding, “I think Simon might be impressed.” “I have to tell you he really, really impressed me,” said Lopez as his ballad, sung in Spanish, hushed the excited crowd.  “I couldn’t understand a word of it, you sang like a 14-year-old and – I’m going to hate myself for this – it wasn’t horrible,” judge Cowell, usually very harsh on Sanjaya’s singing aspirations, confessed. “You are one of the smartest contestants we’ve ever had,” a mesmerised Randy Jackson told Sanjaya. “Smooth. It was nice – very, very nice,” said Paula Abdul. As America watched transfixed by his singing and his hair in yet another news-making week, Malakar’s pastor and choir director in his Seattle hometown said, “I hope people know I’m so proud of this young man.” “He’s a perfect example of what our young people are made of these days,” added Pat Wright with a piece of advice for him, “My thing to Sanjaya is to take it all with a grain of salt and laugh all the way to the bank.” Malakar’s folks said they’re not surprised at how far he’s gone with cousin Camila Recchi saying, “He was comfortable, really outgoing, always a performer, bouncing off the walls, singing and dancing.” His aunt Christi Recchi said all the attention had not changed her nephew, and she had a message for the critics.”There are better ways to spend your time and energy [besides] bashing some 17-year-old kid who has been swept up in this whole thing.” Describing Malakar as “The one and only Sanjaya!” MTV’s Jim Cantiello said, “Oh, Sanjaya. Not since Culture Club’s prominence has an androgynous singer captured the hearts of young girls – and Jennifer Lopez – which is why I consider Sanjaya to be the Boy George of American Idol’,”

For more: http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1090369