I saw Madhuri Dixit !!

I am not a fan of the surreality(sic) shows that dot the Indian TV programme guide. So when my friend Arijit offered that he had passes to the Voice of India - Grand Finale - I wasn't much enthused. But when he told me that Madhuri Dixit and Lata Mangeshkar will also grace the occasion - well .. that was interesting.

And it was an experience - not only to see the Empresses of Bollywood and Music, but also to witness how a Television Show is produced. The camera's hovering over my head and the bright lights that made it impossible to gaze skywards.

Andheri Sports complex looked magnificent on the live feed installed near the stage, it wasn't bad in reality also, but much quieter on the ground. For us, there was a man two rows before us who had a reflex to stand up at every cue - he was a real pain. As a compensation, some TV stars were sitting in the row before us - and some of them were quite pretty ;-)

The show had most of the quirks and histrionics of surreality - Madhuri was made to sing two lines of a song from her new movie. I was surprized when Lataji said to Shaan that she had sung songs composed by his father. This prompted me to check out Shaan's background on Wikipedia - only to discover that Shaan was born Shantanu Mukherji - truthfully, I didn't know this.

Overall - a good way to spend a Saturday evening!

Ah, yes - the results were disappointing - talent lost out to mass appeal! But, the judges did their due and gave away their award to the most deserving Abhas Joshi.