Ismail Darbar (right) with Himesh Reshammiya at the City Centre show. Picture by Sudeshna Banerjee

Baki sab mar rahe the yahaan aane ke liye,? Ismail Darbar had beamed as if half the battle was won by cornering Calcutta for his Yalgaar Gharana. But the standard of the performers who had turned up at the city selections of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005 had left him disappointed with ?Kishore Kumar-Shreya Ghoshal?s city?.

Yet, on Friday, when the battlelines will be drawn at the Andheri Sports Complex for the crown of the ?voice of India? on the Zee TV reality show, the spotlight will very much be on Debojit Saha, the hero of the east.

?Ooparwale ne mera sun liya tha,? the bearded melody-maker of Devdas and Kisna laughs.

However much the leaders of Gharanas might mask it, the tension is very much there as the show format pits the composers against each other. ?Himesh (Reshammiya, mentor of Debojit?s rival Vinit Singh) calls the channel 25 times a day to check how he is doing with the polling,? chuckles Darbar.

He has a soft spot for Calcutta as this was the destination of his maiden flight when he had come as a violinist to Hope ?86, at Salt Lake stadium. On the way back from the concert, he had bought shoes for the whole family. ?Anupam Kher had quipped at the airport, ?Mumbai mein jootey nahin milte kya?? But a visit is never complete without shopping,? he argues, while eyeing the shops at City Centre from the car.

The jovial man has a reputation for being quite a task-master when it comes to music. He has no qualms about ticking the biggest names off if they fail to strike the right chord. ?Bhool gaane pe kya wah wah karenge??

The passion ? and the exasperation ? is understandable as he treats every film as his last. ?Music is god?s gift. Tomorrow He might take it away.?

But what bothers him more is the state of the industry. ?Five in 100 films are clicking. Where will the loss of the 95 flops go? Earlier, distributors used to crowd at the producer?s for movie rights. That has reversed!?