Aneek, Raja and Amanat perform to the song Hare Ram Hare Ram from Bhool Bhulaiyaa;

Aneek Dhar, the winner of the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge with Akshay Kumar

On Saturday the 13th, Himesh Reshammiya was a tense man. The mentor of the Rock Gharana had an able contender in Aneek Dhar, but the 18-year-old was running second in the finals. “Calcutta ko bolo vote karne,” is all that he would say at mid-day. Pipped to the post in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005 by Debojit Saha’s Northeast votebank, he was staring at another miss, this time to Bikaner boy Raja Hasan. Aneek himself wore a deflated look from rehearsals the evening before. So it was pretty much a foregone conclusion when the crowd trooped into Andheri Sports Complex carrying posters of Raja, as emcee Aditya Narayan kept upping the tempo for the final three hours of musical face-off among Aneek, Raja and Pakistan’s Amanat Ali.

Raja started out celebrating, with Yaara dhol bajake. Aneek’s opener was much more introspective — Kya mujhe pyar hai (Woh Lamhe). With the mentors taking the stage the spotlight shifted in the middle overs. After Ismail Darbar and Bappi Lahiri’s solo and Vishal-Shekhar’s duet medley, there was a near stampede as Himesh walked in asking for kids in the audience to come up and dance with him. The mood was boisterous from then on. The ceetees hit a high note as Mouli Dave, the Mayya Mayya girl from Houston, sizzled on stage. She got a prize for the Best Performer from Udit Narayan, a judge on a rival channel’s talent hunt, who made his maiden appearance on his son’s show. To make up for lack of female faces among the finalists, next up was Poonam Yadav. Poonam, a PCO booth operator who had moved rail minister Lalu Prasad into offering her a job in an earlier round, was handed the keys to a Chevrolet Spark, being adjudged the Spark of the Show.

But the real spark was reserved for the last few minutes. Akshay Kumar kept the audience interested with his first stage performance as singer, with songs from his Friday release Bhool Bhulaiyaa. Back in the studio, the last round of votes was being counted. At last the decisive chit was slipped into the actor’s hand.

“Raja, Raja,” the crowd chanted. “Aneek,” Akshay responded, as the ticker tapes went flying in a burst of colour and the Lake Gardens lad sank to his knees. He rose only to embrace his mentor. Himesh was yelling into the mike: Jai mata di, a contract with Universal Music, Rs 50 lakh...

Aneek Dhar was and is the Sangeet ka Vishwavijeta.