Battles lines are drawn on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009

After a long time harnessing his somewhat quick temper, Himesh Reshammiya finally decided to unleash his inner Battle Droid - much as some of us had hoped for. He built some bridges, then burned them and then went ahead and half-heartedly tried to patch the charcoal. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

In the last few weeks - and I confess I have missed several episodes - fellow judge Shankar Mahadevan had effectively put Himesh in his place. This he did by not mincing his words whenever his opinion differed from Himesh. At the same time he back-slapped the other two judges - Pritam and Aadesh Srivastava - and cajoled them into providing somewhat veiled support.

Himesh, not doing himself any favors, gradually realized he was being pushed into one corner. And Mr. Roji Roti became Goody Two Shoes and the SRGMP show sputtered on in aman and shanti. Yes, that was me you heard snoring.

Thankfully the knife's edge was been restored on the show thanks to some rather silly disagreements - the best kind when it comes to judge jhagdas.

This week Himesh decided to announce that the judges would not dismiss a good singer over one bad performance . It might have helped to consult his fellow judges because as soon as he said that both Shankar and Aadesh jumped in to undermine him. Himesh, looking visibly troubled, trotted up on stage - perhaps not realizing that this grandstanding would piss people off even more. Finally to salvage it all, Himesh declared that Shankar and Aadesh were in one corner and Pritam and he were in another. Poor Pritam look a little shell-shocked if you ask me at this impromptu recruitement.

Later, Himesh announced his support for the girls on the show by stating that a girl should and will win SRGMP this year. But the taalis he was looking for instead came as a gaali. Somewhat inexplicably Aadesh referred to Himesh uncharitably as Chanakya. "I don't have any girls in my gharaana" he sniffed, implying that Himesh was shutting down Aadesh's house by throwing his lot in with the girls. Sa Re Ga Ma Kindergarten Pa.

On the second of the two shows this weekend, Imraan Khan and Minissha Lamba showed up to promote their new movie . The SRGMP producers manufactured a promo subplot of tremendously infectious silliness. This required Head to pretend that he had been kidnapped. Head freed himself and took the entire show to realize that Imraan had done it.

This brilliant bit of comedy showed that not satisfied with spanking the TRP covers of Voice of India and Indian Idol, SRGMP now had the kiddie shows squarely in its sights.

I enjoyed the presence of Imraan and Minissha quite a bit. Imraan seems to be of a new breed of actors - those who consciously try to act un-starry and strip any semblance of adaas from their body language. And Minissha - because she spoke articulately and didn't once try to "charm" us via unnecessary giggling - got major points from me.

All wasn't done yet. At one point Tarun Sagar delivered a rather lukewarm rendition of Gadar's mega hit Mein Nikla Gaddi Leke. Himesh immediately jumped to his defence by informing everyone that Tarun's throat was not in good shape. Yes, nodded Tarun sadly. Pritam issued an eye roll and warned Himesh not to play the galleries for sympathy. Himesh waved his middle finger around - supposedly unintentionally.

Aadesh, by now stewing over Himesh for some reason I can't explain, asked Tarun to prove it by singing the same song. Tarun croaked something out. "Beta" Aadesh shook his head "acting mat karo!" Tarun tried again - this time it sounded better. He got a hammering from both Aadesh and Himesh, who looked a little embarrassed.

But enough about the judges. Next week, I'll have to force myself to talk about the singing on the show.

Also:

• Shubhchintak is happy 
• Bella is underwhelmed by Imraan but loved the tattoo 
• dockaul is looking for a name for Aadesh 
• Something is wrong with Minisha says j, who is enjoying Pritam, Shankar and Aadesh on the show
• bee knows why Himesh is supporting the women now 
• Busy Bee shudders at the thought of a Drona related skit on the show 
• girlie girl can't believe Himesh was waving the middle finger around 
• j on Reva, Kaushik and Naina Saxena 
• m defends Shankar and bemoans the lack of a hottie on the show 
• Lin can't understand Asma's presence and the drama surrounding Sarah Raza
• Something is wrong with how Asma's Hindi is wrong thinks m 
• Lin empathizes with m on the loss of a loved one on Junoon 
• Nepali Head identifies two more redos on Indian Idol