Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li'l Champs-Review

Seen on:Friday - Saturday, 10 pm, Zee TV

First things first: I have never really followed any of the editions of Sa Re Ga Ma Li'l Champs. Maybe it was fatigue that made me tune it off completely from my TV viewing radar. And so when the latest season went on air, I decided to give the show and the channel (Zee) a rest for few weeks but as fate would have it, last weekend when I was channel surfing there they were - two tiny children Azmat Hussain and Rimsha Deb singing a Nusrat Fateh Ali number! After that there was no way I could switch over…

As the mahaguruian Alka Yagnik (the female equivalent of DID's grandmaster Mithun Chakraborty) later observed the kids were already singing like ustads with all the murkiyaan intact. Kailash Kher, one of the 'cool gurus' as they are called on the show (though I want to know what defines 'cool' after having one look at Adnan Sami, Kher and Javed Ali), commented the kids were embodiments of some gifted singers and it was their 'soul' that was singing. Absolutely!

The children who range from eight to probably 14 belie their age completely as they take to the mike as seasoned pros. They are divided into Kailash ke avadhoo, Adnan ke anokhe and Javed ke abhiroo (meaning fearless). I was particularly impressed by Barnali from Adnan's team who sang Megha re megha re (wrongly labelled as a song from the film Geet Gaata Chal) with her partner, Niladri. They sang effortlessly and the girl once again had everyone in thrall with her near-perfect rendition of a song from Ishqiya. Then there was the tiny Priyanshi who sang Mora piya from Rajneeti. The performance was full of sweet innocence.

The show has all the three mentors selecting two each from their teams for the challenge round and the weakest of them are eliminated by Yagnik. It's heartbreaking to see the young kids go through their share of tears.

The weakest link of the show is host Jay Soni who is seriously verbally challenged as he doesn't go beyond 'Superb', 'Mindblowing' and 'amazing'. It's a joke when he asks every guru to give their 'feedback'. My feedback to Jay: you are more suited to be a genda phool.

The judges meanwhile could go easy on the choice of words they use to describe their performance. They use heavy duty words like 'sukoon' and 'ruhaaniyat' which I am sure are Greek for the participants who more often than not are rubbing sleep from their eyes. Kailash Kher could also do with some curtailing of his emotions as he just doesn't let go of his mike…We love Adnan Sami for his measured response while Javed I think makes a better singer! Last but not the least, Alka Yagnik is calm and collected and knows to put a prickly point across with a velvet glove.

All said and done, watch it.

Verdict: ***

Hear them out, you won't regret.

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