Lakshmi Iyer
India Post News Service
FREMONT, CA: The third audition of FOG Idol took place on Saturday, July 28 at the Fremont Hindu Temple.
Team FOG was all on board. Alka Bhatnagar, one of Bay Area’s famous singers and a Hindustani vocal instructor, and Lakshmi Iyer (the author of this article) were the judges for this round. Anita Karwal was one of the facilitators.
This round saw quite a few talented singers from different age groups. The 9-11 age group category had three contestants: Kavya Patel, Soorya Ramaraju and Shohini Chakraborty.
Kavya Patel sang a classical number in raag Bhairavi to the accompaniment of the ‘tanpura’ sound on a device and an electric keyboard.
Soorya Ramaraju also went the classical route, singing a Carnatic classical Ganapathi bhajan and then the patriotic Telugu song, “Maitri Bhajate”.
Shohini Chakraborty, one of last year’s Idol winners, also performed a Hindustani classical melody and for her second number, she beautifully rendered the old Hindi song, “Aaja re…pardesi…”, that was originally sung by the legendary Lata Mangeshkar. With a mellifluous voice that has the flow of a fine silken thread, Shohini ascended the high notes with ease, and the other contestants, their parents and the judges and organizers all applauded.
Alka Bhatnagar gave a note of caution though. She advised Shohini’s father to protect his daughter’s fine voice as the voices of children and adolescents below 18 are quite fragile.
Sisters Anushka Banerjee in the 18+ years category and Akanksha Banerjee in the 12-17 years category, were both impressive. Anushka had everyone enthralled with the Celine Dion classic from the iconic film, “Titanic” – “My Heart Will Go On.”
When asked to sing another song with no karaoke in the background, she gave a lovely rendition of “Mere Piya”, an old Hindi film number that showed the young artiste’s versatility.
Her younger sister, Akanksha was shy in demeanor. However, her performance of the jazz/60s rock and roll like “Kaisi paheli hai zindagaani” to the accompaniment of karaoke, was delightfully to the point and struck all the right chords. For her second song with no accompanying music, she performed a Bengali number.
Another contestant in the 12-17 years age group was Spandana Joshi. She sang a very unique medley of patriotic songs from different eras and in different languages, Hindi and Telugu. For her second number, she picked “Main Kaun Hoon” from the recent film, “Secret Superstar”.
Kamalesh Aravind Kumar, a young boy in the 5-8 years’ age group, rounded up the auditions with a patriotic song, “Jayati Bharati” and a Tamil song, “Achcham Illai”.
The contest is definitely gaining traction and it would be interesting to see how many make it to the finals, scheduled for Parade Day on Sunday, August 19 in Fremont, California.
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