This week in SaReGaMaPa L'il Champs, it was the Wild Cards Round, and the weekend saw the show actually turning into Masti-ki-Pathshala. Be it Sonu’s singing the duet song in both male and female voices or Aditya having non-stop fun with the kids or Alka Yagnik’s positive and encouraging comments, all added to the already positive atmosphere of the show. Aditya was exceptionally good as a host and the way he hosted this week in particular, he proved that he is now one of the best hosts. It was too humorous watching him mimic Barbie whenever he was interacting with her but while doing this, he got a taste of his own medicine when “Chimdi” Vaishali took over the hosting job and before Aditya could realize anything, she started mimicking him. This week’s best was the ever shy Sahil who not only gave the best performance but made a comeback in a new avatar. But what touched everyone was - Rohit informing with pride how all the kids helped Sahil to shed his inhibitions and get more outspoken, which was very much evident from his behaviour. Hats off these small kids who still have their innocence intact, and can rise above personal competitions and help one another out to bring out their best.

Alka as the guest was par excellence. She made sure to interact with all the contestants. Sureshji as an advisor is really good but while doing so, at times it seems he forgets that this is a kid’s show. If it’s Sureshji in L'il Champs, then it’s Pritam in Chhote Ustaad who seems bit out of place. His interaction with the contestants lack complete chemistry. In Chhote Ustaad, Abhaas this week was not up to the mark as he was last week. Maybe, this being the first eliminations week for him as a host, his body language suggested clearly that he was feeling quite uncomfortable. But the contestants did not disappoint the viewers and belted out some excellent performances.

After this week’s show, the format of Chhote Ustaad got a bit clearer to the viewers. Voice of India has kept up to their traditions of giving again a format that’s a complicated confusion package. But the most worrying part of the format is where the four danger zone contestants are made to sing songs on the choice of the judges for which they get just ten minutes to prepare and perform. This is definitely going to put lot of pressure and trauma on these small kids. As far as traditions of VOI go, they kept up to its changing formats by not eliminating any contestant in their very first eliminations episode. The judges did not deem fit to even inform the viewers the reasons behind it, especially when it was apparent that Alpansh Banerjee's performance was not at par with the other three danger zone contestant in the previous week.

Some more musical reality shows are going to hit prime channel houses very soon. There will be melody and competition galore. It is therefore more necessary that all these shows now have a well defined format to maintain each show's objectivity and uniqueness. To sustain the public interest, along with the presence of talented participants, the lucidity in the show format and its set rules will play a major role. The production houses should understand this point clearly and fast.

Author: Barnali

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