Long lines of people waiting for their tickets outside the venue showed the enthusiasm of music aficionados.
Dr Pilot’s original singer Kranti Ale started the concert with his famous track Sarkari Jagira followed by songs like Oye Ale, Chyangba Hoi Chyangba, Naachideu. Newly married pop heartthrob Ale demonstrated some of his dancing skills while the the audience sang to his tunes.
Breaking the monotony of Ale’s typical folksy-pop songs, Indian Idol second runner-up Torsha Sarkar took the stage. “Sabalai mero terfa bata namaskar”, Torsha said in her welcome note in difficult Nepali. Romantic song like Chalo Chale from the movie Jism made the audience dance. Then followed her preppy numbers like Nashila Nashila. In her fifth song, Golmaal, she got lost in her own lyrics and completely ruined the song.
An audience, who refused to disclose his name, left the venue after four songs saying he would have liked to hear singers perform live music rather than in musical tracks as the performers did.
Kapil Thapa, the first runner-up of Nepali origin transformed the ambience of the concert as he conversed with the audience in his funny dialect. The crowd reacted with a roar of laughter. Prema Rai in the audience told myrepublica.com that she liked Kapil talking about Nepal and "loved his Nepali accent."
Kapil even managed to make a special dedication for the girls with song like Bachna Ae Hasino. Other songs on his playlist included Sawariya, Koi Mil Gaya and Rock On.
Apart from usual hindi numbers, he sang two nepali songs - Gorkhali ko Choro, popularized by the third Indian Idol Prashant Tamang last year and Yo Mann Ta Mero Nepali Ho, of the 1974 AD fame. At the time when Nepali people are struggling to find their ethnic identity, maybe we needed to learn something from Kapil’s remark as he said,” We Nepalis are together due to our unity”.
Sourabhee Debbarma, the fourth Indian Idol, while taking the stage asked how the audience was doing with a much effort in Nepali. Dance numbers dominated her performance playlist. Her best performance showed when she sang a number from the movie Rock On. It was easy to understand why Sourabhee won the Indian Idol this year. She was in her best performance and outdid both Torsha and Kapil by miles. She was crowned the Idol winner on March 2 making her the first female to ever win the title.
Bijay Rai
Kapil and Kranti shared the stage in song like Sarkari Jagira where audience saw Kapil dance the traditional Nepali way. But Sourabhee, who in the show was the dancing diva didn’t show much of her moves as expected by the audience.
Besides the usual bad antics of the Nepali audience like throwing bottles, flying condoms and showing vulgar signs, one of the audiences even managed to throw a brick during Kapil’s first song. Nobody knows why.
Sajan Moktan, covering his mouth with a handkerchief to avoid the dusty ground, said, “The organizers should have done something about the dust which took the centre stage instead of the singers.”
The 4-hour long concert ended with all the three Idols and Kranti Ale singing popular hindi song, Hum Rahe Ya Naa Rahe Kal and disappeared in the clouds of dust.
