10-year-old deemed favourite for Zee Li’l Masters finals today
Jeetumoni Kalita
Mumbai, Aug 8 : “
Paisa bhi milega?” That was little Jeetumoni Kalita’s wide-eyed reaction on being asked what he planned to do with the prize money if he wins tomorrow night.
The 10-year-old from Guwahati has made it to the finals of Dance India Dance Li’l Masters, the reality show on Zee TV, and is deemed a favourite. All he wants as prize is a trophy.
During a break from rehearsals in Mumbai, Jeetumoni hardly seemed to be feeling the jitters.
He was too busy chattering away in his “thoda thoda Hindi” with fellow-finalists Vaishnavi Patil, Manoj Rathod and Atul Banmoria, and counting the hours when his family would reach. “They should be on the train now,” he said.
His father works with the CISF and is posted in Jorhat.
Jeetumoni admits he is “thoda thoda” homesick. “I have not been home in four months,” he admits. That is why in an earlier episode he had broken down on seeing a video clip of his grandmother wishing him well and urging him to make Assam proud.
Not that there is any lack of love on the sets for him. Judge Farah Khan loves him so much that she wants to take him home.
“Grandmaster” Mithun Chakraborty has gifted him a carrom board. And the audience has showered him with support. He is the youngest of the four finalists, but has topped the voting charts for three weeks in a row.
His trainer Dharmesh is upbeat about his prospects.
“Give him a strong act, like with fire or in the air, and he will sizzle. Remember what he did with malkhamb?” he said, referring to Jeetumoni’s “kya baat” salute-earning performance using the form which is combination of traditional Indian gymnastics and martial arts.
A student of Class VI in Railway Higher Secondary School in Maligaon, Jeetumoni had come to the show armed only with break dance taught by his elder brother Manoj.
Now he has Indian folk, contemporary, popping and locking, Russian folk, cha cha cha and hip hop in his arsenal. “I don’t give up easily. If a step is difficult, I keep trying it out,” said the wafer-thin boy whose favourite food item, he confesses, is wafers. This grit has stood him in good stead.
“He keeps rehearsing even after others leave,” attested Dharmesh. That helps, given the little time the children get to pick up a new form. They rest on Sunday. On Monday the trainers decide on the song and on Tuesday, the choreography. “We have three days to learn the steps. Our rehearsals start from 6am and continue till 10am, sometimes noon. We are so tired on the way back to the guesthouse that we often fall asleep in the car.” The shoot takes place on Saturday.
This Saturday of course is the decider. At Chhatrapati Sports Complex, in Balewadi, Pune, seeing him perform live will be the star father-daughter duo of Anil and Sonam Kapoor. “Asom basi raij please mok aponaloke vote di kiney jikai diyok. Jai aai Asom,” he writes out an appeal to the readers of The Telegraph in his home state.
But irrespective of the results, the slip of a boy has his priorities clear. “I want to be a choreographer when I grow up, but now I want to go back to Assam and study.”
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment