Theatre round 2 i.e. a duet round begins with contestants being shown practicing…!!! This time round the contestants have to sing along with instruments…and the contestants are given some time to rehearse for it..!!!

A contestant shikha is shown really tensed as her partner shehnaz is not able to memorise lyrics and is not working hard on her weakness. On the other hand prashant is still not able to win over richa’s heart and she behaving the same as she was last time….but tis time the ‘tears’ accompany her…!!!

The first couple to come in is Emon and Shifa ….they both sing “Wheres the party tonite”. Good performance and they receive nice comments from the judges. Shifa also praises emon and says he is good singer and the rest of the decision depends on the judges…!!!

The contestants left no place to rehearse for their performance…not even ‘bathroom’…!!! Praleen, Abhishek, Maibam and a few otehrs are shown practising in the bathroom…[]

The 2nd couple/trio is Maibam, Mayank and Nilakshi sing “Tumhe jo maine dekha” from Main hoon na. The judges arent pleased with the performance as the went of the track from rythm many times…!!!

Next couple is Suhit and Charu….they are complimented as one of the most good-looking couple…!!! Thier performance is not shown but suhit comes out really angry and starts abusing and when mini tries to stop him he doesnt listen to hear and walks away….he den abuses charu to in front of the camera.

Again when Mini asks them they tell tht they messed up with the performance and both put the blame on each other…!!!

Then their performance is shown….and they sing “Ek nazar mein bhi pyaar hota hai…’ In between charu forgets sum lines and Suhit also sings a wrong word..!!! The judges are highly disappointed as they very expecting a lot from this couple…!!!
Anu malik says to them, “At the moment we have no clue wht is going to hapen to u both..”.

Next is another trio of Jiniya, Akshana and Abhishek…they sing “Aaj ki raat” from DON..!!! Again the judges aren’t pleased and anu malik asks them after all whts the reason for a good performance NOT cuming out from them…?? Udit jee says i think they got nervous…and says they cud hav been better…

Next couple in line is Saswata and Nandita….they also sing ‘Ek nazar mein bhi pyaar hota hai’…!!! While singing the guy stops and asks the musicians to stop to….he is abt to say sth but anu malik says ‘its over for u and there are no chances here and please dont give us any excuses’…!!! Alisha asks dem to at least finish the song but anu interrupts and says tht the rules dont allow this….so sorry theu cant even finish the song…!!! Javed jee also interrupts and says tht the guy forgot the lines den why shud the gal suffer…??? Suddenly saswata gets unconcious and is abt to fall but his partner holds him…and they leave..!!!

Next…meiyaannnnggggg… and ayesha….they also sing…’Ek nazar mein bhi pyaar hota hai’…!!! They are first shown practicing then meiyang is being interviwed and says sum poetic lines i.e. “Fanoos bankar jiski hifazat hawa kare…Woh shama kya bujhe jise roshan khuda kare”…
Udit jee is impressed and says this is the ebst performance so far….Javed jee is also pleased….and anu asks meiyang tht is he from china? Meiyang says tht his forfathers had cum from dere but he is an indian now…!!! Anus says, “this shows music has no language…its universal and u hav proved it”

Contestants chosen are…..

* Abhisehk and Akshana…..IN ….Xiniya OUT…!!!
* Emon and Shifa both are IN…!!!
* Suhit and Charu both are IN…!!!
* Nandita and Saswata both are IN…!!!
* Richa and Prashant both are IN…!!!
* Shehnaz and Shikha both are OUT…!!!
* Mayank and Nilakshi are IN and Maibam OUT…!!!

Tonight: Last round of theater from which top 24 will be chosen..

Technorati: Indian Idol 3, Episode Review

The episode starts off with showing all the different cities that were auditioned. Clips of a few chosen contestants were shown, some dancing, some drama, some tears. 123 contestants have been selected for the theatre round.

The 123 contestants come to Mumbai and make their way into the hotel. The contestants are given a Cruise party. Some contestants decide to stay back and reherse instead because they didnt want to regret later.

Jaaved Saab and Anuji are shown talking to eachother about the next round, and how it will be very difficult to say no.Hussain is shown talking to the contestants on the bus, saying out of 123, 77 are girls. He wishes everyone all the best

The theatre rounds will be held at the National Centre for Performing Art. Contestants wait for the theatre rounds to start. Some rehersing, some worried, some sleepy, some applying makeup. Anuji, Jaaved Saab, and Uditji are shown talking about how Alisha still has not arrived.

Hussain and Mini welcome all the contestants and open the doors for the Theatre Hall. All contestants walk in and are mesmerized by it.

Theatre rounds finally begin!

Each batch is of 10 contestants.

The first batch of girls go on stage to sing. Richa leading. Richa sings “Ek Radha, Ek Meera”. Other girls are shown singing. Jaaved Saab tells Richa Aneja, Rajasi Vaidya, Rani Hazarika to step forward. These 3 have been selected. The other 7 have to leave.

Next batch is of boys. Rehan Khan leading. He sings “Vada Raha Pyar Se Pyar Ka” and is selected. Sreeju is also selected. He celebrates with his mother

Next batch of girls, and a girl named Tia is out.

Next batch of girls agains. This batch only has 9 girls. Uma is missing, the latecomer. Anuji says shes already missing now, so shes not taking it seriously, that’s really sad! The other girls sing. Jiniya, Harshida, and a third girl are selected from this batch. Jiniya is surprised to see her husband there .

Next batch are boys. Suhit leading. He sings “Teri Yaadon Mein”. Shantanu sings “Omkara”. Shantanu is selected. Alisha asks Suhit to entertainer her once again. He starts his rock style and Alisha and Anuji join in . He is selected and does some acrobats stuff.

Some contestants who were not selected are shown in tears. Then, Uma and Maya are called back in for their results. Both are selected.

Next batch of boys. Emon sings “Tanhayee”. Parleen sings “Tu Aasiqui Hai”. Meiyang sings “Tumse Yun Milenge”. All 3 are selected and go shouting outside. Emon gives his mother a big hug

Top 60 have been chosen. The judges tell them now they will have to sing duets. Male-Female, Male-Male, and Female-Female pairs are decided by the judges. Everyone gets together with the partner and reherse. Choice of song will be from judges.

All contestants are happy with their partners except Richa, who does not want Prashant as her partner. But Jaaved Saab and Alisha make her understand and she agrees. Many problems still occus between the 2, as they have no place to reherse, and Richa does not want to go to Prashant’s room. On the other side, another girl is having problems with her partner Amit Paul because he is sleeping when he should be rehersing. Richa and Prashant finally find a place to reherse. Jatin is going around everywhere looking for his partner, whoes name he does not remember.

Richa makes her way to Amit Sharma to reherse her song, leaving Prashant alone. Prashant tells Richa to reherse with him instead because they will be performing, but Richa says I’m only making Amit listen to my song because he is trained and he can help me. Prashant gives up on Richa and goes back to his bed.

Technorati: Indian Idol 3

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.

The show started off with the clippings from the previous seasons and inters to this years season by the hosts. Immediately the judges Anu Malik, Javed, Alisha and Udit were introduced. Watch first episode videos here..

Funny Anu Malik asks one of the guys waiting for audition “You know how am I isn’t it?!” Hmm … The Delhi, Amritsar and Jammu auditions were covered this week. The first contestant was Shubhangi, 21. Anu Malik immediately Okayed her. However, Javed objected saying her pronunciation is little weak and she sounds more western and the hindusthani touch is missing. Udit goes on to say the singing sounded artificial. Malik became sad that they missed a good voice and said Javed saab … Hadh kar di aapne.
Second in line is Prem Rajan from Kerala. Udit sang song in Malayalam (one of his Malayalam film songs). He sang Na Jaane Kabse (with some guitar) and later on Jab Koi Baat Bigad Jaaye w/o the guitar as requested by Anu. Like always we need some suspense during the break. Malik said before the break that his voice was imperfect. Wonder how these REALITY SHOWS are being shot with the breaks as well in mind. So much for reality. After the break, Malik says his imperfect is perfect enough for Mumbai. Sigh.
Some interlude and we heard a young lad from Punjab saying in typical punjabi accent … mera voice hard rock voice hai and I will rock TO anyone … funny !
Next Amit Sharma. MA Music and all of 21. He sang Mitwa (KANK). Pretty good. Except for the pronunciation of the word Dhadkan. Our Malik became creative here. Claiming this never happened before in II. He asked Javed to write coupla lines and he will tune it and the contestant will need to sing. Jave saab wrote ” Kuch bhi kahiye … Magar yun na khamoshi se dil naa todiye” … Anu, Javed liked the rendering. Udit said “shabd main maturity hai “… whatever that means. Alisha said thoda sur hata magar pick up achi hai.
Some clips of people acting like some beggars asking to be made Indian Idol. Bad taste.
I cant believe some people who dont deserve are put in front of the elite judges. Everyone shud know this. During the initial auditions held at various cities there is this first shortlist done by some Sony/BMG guys and only those who they think has the capability are given a chance to appear b4 the judges. It’s indeed irritating to see such characters that pass the initial screening just in the name of ENTERTAINMENT. Hope Sony doesn’t go too far else II3 will get Sanjayaed and Malakared. There was this guy who sand Tujhe dekha tho yeh jaana sanam. How pathetic. Huh … But likes what Udit said … Awaaz koi kela nahi jo mele ke thele main khareed sakte hai … LOL …
The we had Jaspreet whose inspiration were the unhappy security guards in his hostel who could not bear his singing all night and his friend who goaded him to dikha do security guards ko what he is made of … awww … need a break … less said the better …
Then the time of Ads being made part of the show … Fat lady walks into the audition room laughing like one mad cow … (Sony we know she is not a participant) and the ad below … what else … Hasso Tho Khul ke Haso from Colgate …
And this is a stretch … Mr. Samir walks in with abouquet, framed photograph of Alisha etc etc … and gets so emotional saying he waited for so many months to meet to Alisha. He said he was a fan since 85. And he didnt look OLD at all ?! Anyways after the Happy Birthday drama he was not selected at all.
Most promising. Richa Aneja. What a kiddo. Young, innocent and extremely talented. Watch her and she is going to take the show by storm. MARK THESE WORDS. She sang a old song and Beedi Jalaile with great display of the range she has. Anu just stood up and gave the Yellow slip to Mumbai. Cute when she asked kaunsa gaana yaad karke aana padega …
Next Surudee … (apologies if the name is spelled wrong). She sang More Piya … thought she rushed things a little bit … lengthy discussions … and she cudnt make it to Mumbai …
Ram Rustagi sang Jhanak Jhanak Tore … Rejected …He walks off and comes back in asking for a second chance. Sings well and judges are surprised. They ask him are you the same Ram … And our Ram walks in … Guy who came in after Ram and sang was Shyam … his twin brother … Ram’s feedback wasnt in sur … Shyam in Sur … and the questions … Sur main gaaya magar kyo nahi liya .. Hume kya pata Shyaam ! Golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai …
My thoughts … nothing new … except for the judges … looks like Javed and Anu have been asked to stage quite a few heated arguments … I am being optimistic here … hoping for better delivery of the program !

Review by Indian Idol 3