by Subhash K Jha

Himesh Reshammiya who whipped up such a frenzy of interest as a judge on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa will be back this week on the earlier music contest's new avatar Ek Main Aur Ek Tum.

"It was like a home-coming for him," said the disernibly excited show-director Gajendra Singh after the recording. "Himesh is as charged and revved-up on Ek Main Aur Ek Tu this week as he used to be on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. He encouraged the contestants by praising them profusely rather than being uneccesarily stingy with compliments."

It should be mentioned here that last week's star-judge Alka Yagnik seemed to be unnecessarily harsh in her judgement on all the female contestants on Ek Main...

Says Gajendra, "Himesh was a riot. He was so charged he enthused the participants."

Says Himesh, "I had a great time. To me being on Ek Main Aur Ek Tu seemed no different from Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. Some contestants were really good. I really enjoyed Twinkle-Biswas and Aishwarya-Ujjaini's performances."

Himesh even sings his Aap Ka Suroor tracks with these singing couples.

"To have them sing together in a compatible unit is not easy. I think the Sa Re Ga Ma participants who had to sing solo had it much easier. On Ek Main...the two singers have to match each other's scales and styles. That means they have to lose some of their singing identity to accommodate their partner. That isn't easy," explains Himesh.

One singing pair Raktima and Vishwanath gets eliminated this week. "Due to Vishwanath's misconduct last week they lost out on a lot of votes," says Gajendra Singh. "Our audiences aren't into vulgar antics."