An evening of music and Madhuri

It is one of the oldest musical reality shows,but Sa Re Ga Ma Pa still manages to weave its magic on the viewers. Some of its episodes are “mindblowing” as reality show judges are wont to say. An episode that will go down in history as one of the best,at least for me,is the one in which songstress Richa Sharma came visiting. She was the celebrity judge last week and had everyone from the participants,viewers and judges eating out of her hands. She had them dancing to her fast Punjabi numbers and swaying to her soulful renditions. So much so that the usually-tough Vishal Dadlani got overtly emotional when she sang Main ki karaan,the prelude to Om Shanti Om’s popular number Jag soona soona. That Richa is versatile is a given. But not all singers can perform live effortlessly with such gusto. If she moved Vishal to tears,she had Daler Mehndi joining her on stage with her popular “item” number Maahive,which ended up with some impromptu jamming. It was a delight to watch the duo belting out old and new hit numbers with Daler leading the band. Later,they also indulged in a jugalbandi that started with Richa singing a Punjabi song. It is rare to get singers of such calibre to perform together,let alone individually and all this without any planning. Thank you,Richa for such a wonderful evening.

She came,she smiled and she conquered. I am talking about Madhuri Dixit in the opening episode of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 4. Add to it Govinda,who in a new slim-and-trim avatar,grooved to his popular tracks. He may be forty-plus but his moves can even today put youngsters to shame. He came to introduce his nephew Krushna Abhishek as a contestant. And so did Helen,Hema Malini,Esha Deol and Dharmendra,who introduced a contestant each. It was a novel idea but the proceedings were a tad too long. All the participants from Shekhar Suman,Renuka Shahane Rana (it was sweet to see her Hum Aapke Hai Koun…! co-star Mohnish Behl do the honours),Anushka Manchanda to Akhil Kumar and TV stars Ragini Khanna and Mahi Vij,not to forget love birds Sushant Singh Rajput and Ankita Lokhande do their little jig. Judges Remo D’Souza and Malaika Arora Khan danced too but it was Madhuri Dixit who stole the show,that too without shaking a leg. She made a graceful entry to the beat of Dola re dola from Devdas,just did one popular step in the song and eclipsed all the other performers. That’s star power.

chaya.unnikrishnan@expressindia.com