MUMBAI: If you remember having ‘Mohabbatein Lutaunga’ on your mixed tape back in the time when cassettes used to be the in-thing, you definitely found yourself in front of the television at 9pm from Mondays to Thursdays. Yes ‘Indian Idol 1’ was a cult in itself. With the then modern concept of reality singing competition, Abhijeet Sawant found himself at the top of the ladder by not only winning the contest but also by winning the hearts of millions of Indians with his boyish charm, unmatched publicity and lastly a voice. If you were an ardent follower you would probably remember the runner up Amit Sana who was technically a better singer but Sawant’s raging popularity amongst women and youngsters got him the crown.

This was probably when his career was at its peak and it’s taken a downslide ever since, despite lending his voice to songs like ‘Pungi’ from ‘Tees Mar Khan’ and ‘Sau Tarah Ke’ from the 2016 movie ‘Dishoom’, he could not make much of an impact on the audience. He has worked with the likes of Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy but only to generate club hits like ‘Sau Tarah ke.’ The finale gave huge hopes of a new singing sensation but that died shortly after two albums. Sawant will always be the first ‘Indian Idol’ but sadly that’s all he could get from the show that promises stars and the moons to these aspiring singers but nonetheless his fan following has not changed much over the years. His jazzy rendition of the all time classic ‘Chalte Chalte’ has a whooping one million views on YouTube.

Given all of that, passion finds a small corner in these darkest of rooms and sometimes with a fit of adrenaline can just surpass all of the shortcomings and gleam with glory. This however may not entirely be Sawant’s case but with King Khan’s ‘Raees’ hitting the market, he displayed similar emotions with his very mellow acoustic cover of the song ‘Zalima.’ Without all the glitter and glamour of modern day music production, Sawant will remind you that at the end of it all music is a feeling. Cut it down to its raw basic structure and still make people smile, you have music right there. However it was a bold move on his part to cover a soft number by Arjit Singh, who is known for making people sob with his husky voice. Thus, it’s obvious that people are going to make unjustified comparisons between the two but the fact he chose a song, covered it and put it up for people to hear shows he hasn’t really given up on his musical aspirations. Not that one has had a lot of opportunity to follow this artist but surely you can tell he has come a long way as singer from his ‘Indian Idol’ days.

Sawant started the New Year on a very soft but powerful note making all the right noises. We would love to see the once heartthrob of the nation make a glorious comeback with his voice that made him who he is. A new Bollywood number by the bloke who’s been on the block for quite sometime now would be worth a listen.

Check the track here -