Antakshari duo reunites

Television's popular show Antakshari, hosted by Durga Jasraj and Annu Kapoor, is back on Zee TV.

Before talent hunts became popular, Antakshari (1993- 2005), with its viewer-friendly format, caught the fancy of telly viewers. The show’s hosts Durga Jasraj and Annu Kapoor continued their association doing live shows of Antakshari and then started Jalsa — Music for the Soul in late 2008. Two years after successfully running the show on Doordarshan, the duo has managed to impress content heads at Zee, thereby getting a bigger platform for the show.

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The revamped format, co-host Kapoor says, is “not a conventional competition show like you see on a general entertainment channel or Doordarshan. It has no judges or winners.” He adds, “People need a break from the Munnis and Sheila’s. There is more to Indian music than raunchy item numbers.”

The show aims to introduce many forms of music to discerning as well as uninitiated audiences. Co-host of the show Jasraj says, “You can listen to different genres of music from sufi and qawali to fusion and Carnatic classical. It will also have Hindi film music from celebrated musicians as well as new talent.”

The first two episodes had Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma and Shankar Mahadevan performing. And this Sunday will see musician Hans Raj Hans, known for his folk and devotional songs in Punjabi and Sufiana style, perform. “The credentials of these artists are good enough to get good TRPs and it’s an honor to have them on the show.”

Jasraj adds, “When you go for a live performance, you listen to the music legends for an hour. But on the show, we have been able to showcase these performances in a crisp manner. They range between three-four minutes each.”

Music lovers can catch the show on Sunday mornings at 10:30 am and a repeat telecast on 11:30 pm on Zee.