Finally a new season of some innovative dancing and great judging
Dance India Dance 5 has finally on air and the season is looking very interesting and full of surprises. After seeing Geeta Tandon, Terence Lewis and Remo D’souza judge these show for so many seasons it’s finally time to bring in some new talent.
The Good
The season started off with auditions in Delhi. The show has three new masters -Punit Pathak, Gaiti Siddiqui and Mudassar Khan. Punit was the child of Dance India Dance 2, he did movies, choreographed on Jhalak and now he comes back to where it all started DID as a judge. And he does a brilliant job. No clichéd lines and hand gestures so far – Thank God! Gaiti from the group Uma Gaiti is a mentor on the show with a background in jazz and ballet. She’s has a sharp eye and is a good judge of good dancers. Lastly, Mudassar has judged a season before and his claim to fame is choreographing Salman Khan. Well he has trained others to dance as well but we’ll just go with this one. The audition round in Delhi seemed to go brilliantly until a participant ordered the three mentors to hand him the ‘takdeer ki topi’. Of course Punit lost it when he began threatening with words like, “Aapko pata hai mera baap kaun hai” (Do you know who my father is?) Just when it was about to get serious, Mudassar breaks into laughter and declares that he was just trying to pull fast one on Punit.
The contestants who did ballet and contemporary were outstanding. It was just pure poetry to see them perform. The contestant with a handicap almost bought a tear to our eye with his words but when he danced – boy was it stunning. There were a few who tried to introduce Punit’s signature dance but no one does it like him. Seems like a great collection of dancers from Delhi. All in all – a great first episode!
The Bad
Frankly, there’s really nothing bad about the show. Then again how much can you pick from the first round of auditions. Maybe, just maybe Mudassar could get rid of his hand gestures when he likes a contestant – not very cool. Jay was not seen in the first episode, we just got a glimpse of Karan Wahi. They should do something more.
The Verdict
Audition rounds are just the beginning of the fun. The round two and three of Dance India Dance promises to bring in something really exciting. The judges this season are a talented bunch and we are sure every episode will continue to amaze.
What to do
You’ve seen the first episode, make sure to catch the next one too ‘coz the fun has just begun. Beat that!
Reviewed by Letty Mariam Abraham
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