Aamir Hafeez - Another Raja in the Making?
Honestly, I don’t keep track of Saregamapa Lil Champs. But when a friend of mine passed me a few links of Aamir Hafeez’s performances, I was pleasantly surprised.
I like this kid. I like his singing. And his “Saawan mein lag gayi aag” performance where he takes on Mika’s singing - was full of raw energy and wonderful enthusiasm. But its his husky, rustic voice that interests me the most. Somehow, I have a feeling that when he grows up, this kid from Bhopal, the voice would be pretty similar to the booming Raja Hasan’s voice.
And I am not the only one who is saying this. Reading people’s comments, it seems there are quite a few who somehow get reminded of Raja when they hear this kid sing.
And just as Raja, Aamir Hafeez has already got his big break. Vishal and Shekhar have already got him to record a song for Bhootnath - that is being picturised on Amitabh Bachchan himself. The song - “buddy suno zara’ is a rap kinda composition with Amitabh and a kid playing it out. Vishal and Shekhar have already been all praise for Aamir.
Check out a few videos of Aamir’s singing, if you haven’t heard him before. The kind of difficult songs he has been picked up - and does justice to - at this young age is truly amazing.
Sawan mein lag gayi aag
Sanwre
Teri deewani
Jiya dhadak dhadak
Tags: raja hasan, saregamapa, lil champs, aamir hafiz, zee tv, vishal shekhar, bhootnath, bollywood
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Right you are Manish.
Aamir is indeed our very own small Raja, with that unnameable something which draws you to him. I was also not into little champs until I heard this kid one of his songs can’t remember which one, teri diwani??? can’t remember. Was drawn to him, to his fantastic sufiana voice, effortless natural singing and incredible range.
Let me list out similarities with our Raja:
1. He is a Muslim
2. I don’t think Raja is from a poor family but Aamir is. His father is an autoriksha driver which is something that he hid for a very long time in the program.
3. Initially just like Raja forgot lyrics twice and since then has been tagged with aksar gaane ke shabd bhulane wale or some crazy stuff like that.
4. A natural just like Raja.
5. Does not like studying or going to school just like Raja.
6. Is obsessed with music just like Raja.
7. Likes Nusrat just like Raja.
8. Makes people dance just like our Raja.
9. Chooses songs that Raja chose most often.
10. A very original different kind of voice just like Raja.
11. handsome kid just like our very own most handsome Raja.
12. Has a winsome smile that can melt your heart and you feel like hugging him, holding him close to your heart and protecting him (does it ring a bell???)
13. Unlike other kids doesn’t have the luxury of having mom around or dad around or both around except for lovely brother who also sings beautifully (Raja hardly ever had any of his own around)
14. Can only speak hindi
15. Is the most appreciated (one can see that in the body language) by all the guests including unanimously by all music directors Vishaal Bharadwaj included.
16. Takes on tougher songs than the other kids.
17. never resorts to tamaasha, dramabaji, no histrionics, etc. Is restrained, noble, comes and sings and even asks for votes in a matter-of-fact manner.
18. has learnt music from his father.
19. is so so so so so so cute!!
20. Makes you cry listening to the magic of his voice.
14. Last but not the least, lately both suresh wadkar and sonu nigam have a constipated expression on their faces when aamir comes on and starts singing and their face just gets more or more constipated as he sings more and more effortlessly and when he finishes, they start picking on him and give him lower grades than to all the other kids who sing worse than him and make mistakes etc and he also gets scoldings in spite of being most respectful and obediant and just ten years old and guess what he takes it all in his stride. He runs the risk of being eliminated (I quite obviously have stopped voting etc and sadly cant help the kid as I have no trust in zee at all anymore what with raja’s bad experience for all of us as the whole thing is a gimmick in any case) because the judges are crafting the script to be so. (reminds you of Raja??)
and I can go on and on but am unable to remember the other similarities but there are many many more.
Got the point guys??
Padma very nice analysis.
My idea worked.Actually I was searching something on youtube as I do always and found a youtube member who has uploaded all the nice videos of Lil Champs and I heard Aamir singing Sawan mein Lag gayi aag and found it amazing.A kid singing like that.
I have asked Manish to not to mention my name at any place becoz some people think name is important but for me its not.
Actually I would not have commented here but your long comment and nice analysis of Aamir made me do that.
Hope you are doing well.
Thanks Jugal.
You really should have your name mentioned because you deserve it.
I am doing OK. What about you?
My feelings were the same when I heard aamir singing and zee came on quite inadvertently when my son was channel surfing and aamir was singing and that very day I told my son that he reminded me of Raja. This was a long long time ago.
Thanks for having the same sensibilities as me Jugal.
Take care and pls be here always all the time just like before PLEASE and let all the ill wishers go to hell!!!!!
Padma sorry there are no ill wishers.Its just the persons thought that name is important that touched me.Please lets not wish anything bad for anybody.God keep everybody happy wherever they are.
Actually earlier my name was necessary to be mentioned on articles becoz I had to do the PR job for the site and forums.If people dint knew my name nobody would have passed on pics or videos, news and interviews about Raja to me.
Now I am a free man as I am no longer a moderator in the forums but still I do send all I find to Manish so that things stay updated and also new ideas to Manish.
Padma, I really enjoyed reading your comments on Aamir Hafeez. You are so right! This kid indeed is so cute and adorable and has such a disarming smile! Whenever I see him and Tanmay on TV, I feel like hugging them. And did you watch the recent Hangama videos of Raja with the kids? As soon as Raja comes, you can see Aamir’s face light up and he is grinning from ear to ear. He just cannot seem to contain his excitement. It is obvious that the kid just adores Raja. And even though Raja was not giving him much, or rather any special attention, Amir was constantly hovering around him, holding on to his arms, sometimes resting his arms affectionately around his shoulders. Boy, does this kid like Raja or what! I would like to wish this sweet and very talented child a very successful and happy future.
Yes Yasmin I fully second your thoughts on wishing aamir a very successful and happy future.
As for the first part of your comments I fully agree. I saw the video on this site about the hungama episode and I also noticed the same things and in fact I was not the least bit surprised about aamir’s reaction vis-a-vis Raja. In fact I feel and am almost convinced that Raja is Ammir’s role model. I wish Raja had paid him special attention too. I am sure Raja has understood Aamir and didnt want his votes to get affected and that’s why didnt pay him special attention. On the other hand he did appreciate aamir’s question the most and have a news breaking answer. hehe.
Love
Padma
Thanks for this article Manish and thanks to Jugal and padma too. Aamir’s selection of songs reminds me of Raja everytime. He has a unique voice just like Raja.
Manish,Padma,Yasmin.Sudha there is a sad news.Aamir has been eliminated this week and there was a lot of drama on the show.Aamirs parents staged a walk out.
Read it here:
http://news.indya.com/newsDetails.aspx?xfile=2008/February/News_20080213_116
Hmmm… I am not surprised at all. Imagine - here is a singer who gets to sing for a song to be picturised on Amitabh. And he’s been shown the door. Well Zee is getting a bit too predictable.
hmm.. he is good… but naa, RAJA IS UNIQUE!
I had a gut feeling that Aamir would be eliminated because that is the way it has been happening on these shows.
I thought every one made mistakes on last week’s episode and Tanmay would go. Aamir is a better singer thank Tanmay but used to loose concentration on many performances.
One more thing. If ZEE TV is really honest in counting these votes, they should let a third party observe the entire process and show the details of how they count it.
Feb 15th, 2008
Amir is out in today’s episode…..his people did lot of gundagardi….which is wrong.
A platform u r getting so much from….got so much of hype, got playback singing with big B, got so much of luv of judges and public….in the end u r insulting it….even if votes are rigged, he has achieved a lot.
In the end they should thank the channel for the recognition they got from it.
He is not as good as other singers are, he lacks ‘feel’ in his singing.
Aamir lacks “feel” because he does not concentrate in his singing. Many times I felt he sounded indifferent in his rendition. I think he should have been more motivated by his family. He is kid and need to pushed to his potential.
I felt Raja lacked concentration a few times which cost him the title
Agrawal I fully agree with you, whatever the politics in their perception, but Amir family should not behave in this manner what they did in front of entire world, I dont know why I got badly hurt by their attitude, they must respect the Judgment, Sonu N. really put a great comments that (Jiss Thali mai Khate hoo usi mai Ched karte hain). Amir has more opportunities in future, but his family destroyed all in one time. It is hard to get back his recognition once they lost.
I really felt sorry for Amir. His family ruined his life. Someone has to loose to make other person win. Whoever looses will not will win in something later. These uneducated brother and family did not understand about Amir’s future. He is just a little and innocent kid. This really a dumb idea not sending Amir in grand finale program.
Hi! Everyone,
I just watched the episode where Aamir is eliminated and have not stopped crying. Here are my points of view:
1. Ever since I saw Aamir I immediately thought that he resembled Raja.
2. Even though I have no musical background or experience, I thought Aamir sounded terrific yet the judges were never fair to him. For the past few weeks no matter how well he sang he never once got a nice comment from the judges. In fact the judges seemed disappointed when he was in the number 1 position last week, they did not even congratulate him.
3. Sonu Nigam made a big deal about Aamir not paying attention to him for one second when he looked away from Sonu and towards his father whom he had not seen in several weeks. Aamir really put the poor kid down but both the judges did not do a thing a few weeks ago when Anamika staged this whole thing about wanting to quit.
4. I had a feeling Aamir would get eliminated because of exactly what happened to Raja. I along with millions of you Raja fans had the rug pulled out of under our feet when Aneek was crowned instead of Raja so I guess I was better prepared. Anamika I guess is their Aneek for this season.
5. I do not want to judge Aamir’s family because only they know what they are going through but Sonu Nigam had no right whatsoever to speak about them that way. I had lost most of my respect for both Sonu and Mr. Wadekar for always bringing down poor Aamir but today i lost all respect for Sonu. Who is he to talk about the family in that way? Who is he to say “Jis thali mein khaya usi mein chaid or whaterver”
6. My heart broke when poor Aamir was motioning towards his brother and family to not do anything but he is a kid and no one listened to him.
7. I have been reading on several sites where they are really bashing Aamir but how is it his fault? He did not do anything wrong? He told his family not to say anything but no one listened?
8. My heartfelt request to everyone is please do not punish Aamir for this. It is not his fault. Please, Please.
Thank you so much for reading.
Come on guys havent you all Gotten used to ZEE DRAMA and Controversy yet? Cant believe you all are surprised there was a TRP generating act / dramma/ controversy right when Sonu’s Album was going to be launched!! Yippy Yay!. Anyways GOod news is this week Friday as always things return back to normal. Aamir’s family apologized for their mis conduct and Aamir will be performing in the Grand Finale as well as the World Tour if they have one. Take care. I am sure Raja Fans and Aamir Hafeez fans WOULD love to see him sing again no matter what ZEE or his Parents did.
I occasionally watch reality shows such as sa re ga ma pa. I noticed that the system of selecting best talent based on voting is a good idea, it is a very bad idea of disclosing identity of the perspective talent. If Zee or people who are looking for a real talent, they should assigned a code to the participants. Absolutely there should not be diclosure of identity, background etc. etc. . Often we have seen that the voting is influenced by race, region, religion etc. etc. This should not happen if we are looking for a real talent. Having said that, I totally disagree with Sonu Nigam’s comment “jis thali me khate hain, usi mein ched dalthe hain”. Aamir has participated in a compettion and if he blessed with name, fame etc., this has to do with his efforts, nothing to do with Zee providing bread and butter. They are looking for a talent and he is one of them. I don’t think he is paid for participating in the competition.
It is natural to be upset if somebody is systamatically is eliminated. I totally agree, the brother of Aamir should not have behaved the way he did. Thoses who have watched lil champs carefully will noticed that Aamir was systamatically eliminated by influencing the voters using discouraging comments. He is punished because he can sing better than others, whereas others were rewared because desptie their inability to sing certain type songs, they did relatively better. What kind of justice is this. In this world, descrimination exists in the best of the best democracies to some degree. There is no doubt about that. Sonu Nigam has forgotten that he is talking to a 10 year old child. Sonu behaviour is totally unacceptable. To millions, he may be a talented singer, in my opinion, he is not. He is nowhere close to Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh, Talat Mahmood, to name some. I don’t think, Sonu’s songs will be remembered for long. He is just a facial tissue paper.
Sonu treated Amir Hafeez like a slave through out the show from the begining and Suresh was only finding faults in Amir’s singing in the last three to four episodes in order to discourage Amir. Sonu has no decency and manners in dealing a kid.
How would he like if some one treat his son this way in the future? Zee T.V brought this wonderful kid, exploited by the three and dumped. I’m sure ZEE, Sonu and Suresh would have made a lot of money. This kid was the only one who kept the show alive. If this is USA, people like Sonu would never let behave this way. I don’t know who chose Sonu to perform in the University in USA? He looked stupid any way.
I’m sure many people in India and abroad will think twice to admire this two.
Thank you guys.
Mr Said,
You said it so right regarding Aamir. The poor child got such a bad deal from both the judges. As it is, I think Sonu is a very rude person from what I know in regards to recording for South Indian films. I know this first hand because of my connection with the films in the south. Any way, both of them were expecting Aamir to sing at higher level than other kids. Tanmay enterained, how ever he did not deserve to win 10 lakhs. Aamir was voted out only because of the judges. May be because they announced that he was going get help any way from some one in US, judges decided to get him out.
Amir’s Fan, Muqtar, Nasr, Subhadra..I totally agree with all that you guys have written in favor of Amir. Thank you so much for speaking up for the injustice done to this innocent young kid who always had such a big and sweet smile on his face. Those people who speak negatively about any little kid should be thouroughly ashamed of themselves!
I totally agree.
Amir was by far the best singer of the lot and zee and sonu nigam and suresh and aditya also for that matter were despicable in their behaviour towards this amazing kid with an amazing voice quality and range.
It’s just not fair.
I would really like to do everything possible to help this kid.
And the saddest part of it is that he is the only one who deserved to earn all those lakhs of prize money not only through sheer talent but also owing to his poor background.
They have been most unfair with him by using him only for their own benefit.
I stopped watching the program once amir was eliminated. He was the only one who made it more than worth one’s while and was so sweet and innocent to top it all.
Sonu will pay a heavy price for this I do hope.
These judges commented on some of the kids as if they are Sonu Nigam, Nusarat Fathe Ali Khan etc., Common, what were you doing at this age? The judges should have encouraged Aamir by pointing out good part of the song and encourage him to go to school and get educated. Lot of times, it reminded me of Himesh Reshammiya commenting on Raja Hassan especially when Musharat was out. Personnally(even though I know music), I cannot judge some one to that extent and I would rely on the comments and I think most of the voters vote based on that, the region etc., That is why only Northe East kids are winning these competitions because they vote for their region kids. Debojit, Aneek, Prashant, Sanchita now Anaamika. Anaamika improved a lot by the end. She was not that great singer either.
Dear All
Your just comments on the judges should give a lesson to the Zee organizers who can set some goals on how to behave with people specially with kids like Amir so that in future, they are not exploited. As you all know Amir and his entire family was blamed and made look bad to millions of watchers.
Imagine if it’s our loved ones in that situation. Just because they are economically challenged! If my son got that treatment, my god I would have not waited till the end I would him out in the begining. They kept saying Amir is not educated as if they are Phd’s. What education they have and what they did when they went to schools? Oh! boy I know what they did in the schools. It reminds me of the kids who were exploited in Shivakasi by the match factory barons. Thousands and thousands of them. My god, These poor kids have no one to go. I called this blood suckers the poverty makers. I’m only waiting and praying that some one come forward to sue them. These so called rich and famous in India are in fact want our millions and millions of Indians stay this way less informed and less privileged.
They use the country as well as the people to enrich themselves. As long as we don’t condemn this, our country would not become a powerful nation.
As far I am concerned, ZEE should not let the judges criticize the participents that harshly like they did Aamir or any one for that matter. I don’t know how much education Sonu or ever Suresh Wadkar have.
ZEE should set up some kind of standard for judjing these commentators only in positive and encouraging way. I know this can be done because my job used to bring the low performers (not music) to a higher level performance without offending them. ZEE should send these people to some class regarding how to communicate diplomatically. This judging position goes to their head too much and TV Stations let them talk any different ways.
I don’t agree!!! Amir sang only 2-3 songs very well but Anamika was giving giving good performances start from the begning. Amir has a telant but he has to improve a lot.
Raja has got harsh coments too!!!! But His fly. members did’t do such kind of drama on the stage. what ever Amir’s brother and father did was wrong!!!!!there are many good way’s to show your disappointment. Amir has got femous because of ZEE one should not forget that. Why his father was taking Raja’s name? Raja is not even complaining about anybody. why they are spoiling his name?
I agree with you Muqtar!!!!
Does anyone know how to get in touch with this kid and his family? I’ve made up a plan about a sponsorship to help this talented kid.
Let’s forget the past. Let’s not roll the ball again and again on same issues. We shared our views. There is no pint in blaming his dad or brother any more. People do get emotional and act. Let’s wish that Amir’s talent does not go waste. We should try to get Amir’s contact
and do something from our side for him to stay with his love for Music as Zee says, some one find a way to get hold of him.
Thank you
Nasr
M3 what you are forgettinh while comparing Raja’s parents and family and amir’s is a crucial point. Amir is a kid!!! a ten year old kid.
Raja is a full grown married man who ran away from home. Why do you think that the parents and family of a grown man would need to intervene on his behalf??
Whereas in amir’s case that would be most natural. If he had been my kid I would have acted similarly but since I am educated and articulate and logical and express myself in english, i am sure even if I had said the same thing it would have sounded “civilized” to hypocritical ears. Ours is a country where a bollywood masala film is derided by so-called intellectuals whereas a stupid english film which is no less masalaish will go down well in their jaundiced eyes!!
As for their talking about Raja, they just did what a huge section of the Indian population did and is still doing and that includes me!!
And by the way their comments were used by zee to get a scoop and to vindicate their judges who were going down in popularity due to their uncalled for behaviour with amir in previous episodes and also to hike up their trp ratings as the clip was used for promotional purposes for people to watch the show!!! and dont forget that the camera actually followed them outside when technically speaking they are out of the on-the-record space. How do you know for sure that other kids’ parents didn’t say anything unsavoury about zee or the judges outside of the shooting zone????
Pls stop being so gullible.
We must help this kid out because he has been victimized and witch-hunted.
Padma is right injustice to a talent should be stopped no matter who does. Imagine if Amir Hafeez was to be a son of a famous actor, director or a music composer, he does not have to come on stage and go thru’ all this to get there at where is right now. To day, what you know is not they need, who you know and who you are that matters.
What will happen to the hard work and talent, my god, in spite of all the hard work, people like Amir have to keep falling on the feet of the famous. This has to be stopped.
i dont know what to say or where to start but is anyone know were i can contact this lil kid..i heard that his family r poor n he dont go to school…im gona make sure i sent him whatever i can…soo please people contact me if u know were to find him..thanks
by the way im in the STATES u.s.a
my email add is salma66q@hotmail.com
CONTACT ME ASAP
Child and children sounds much better..please use the word child instead of kid.
Thanks
KID-A young goat; Of a goat, the state of being pregnant: in kid; Kidskin; A young antelope
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kid
a young goat; its first year of life
www.grazinganimalsproject.org.uk/glossary.html
Teri Deewani - 3:36
Enough said.
it is easy to find out of amir’s address by ZEE Tv Presenters. because this prgm runs by them and they have all childrens data so just go head and find out …i also want him to see success in his life on he same if i found his add.i will mentioned in this coloum… sure i will do it for you great people who is really shown your sympathy on amir hafiz… and let us see what next gambling will take place for 2009.