Seven band groups and 13 solo performers participated in the regional live auditions for Dhaka. Popular musician-singer Kumar Biswajit and music director Foad Naser Babu were the judges.

Solo performer Mitra Kabir won an award for being the best performer. Her folk rendition of Heri mukh chandey thekiyachhi fandey and modern Bangla song O ki eshechhey had good lyrics and tune. The music compositions were also wonderful.

Besides Mitra, a few other performers displayed their immense musical potential. Solo singer Samira Zuberi Himika's songs had ordinary lyrics but the music was quite good. Especially the tabla with the guitars produced good effect.

Himika , however, is an epitome of the confusion among the participants at the Star Search. In answer to judge Kumar Biswajit's question whether she wants to do music seriously, the young girl sounded confused. She said, that if she had only won the contest, she would consider the possibility of becoming a singer! Similarly, the vocal of band Amra surprised the audience saying that he sang just to give his band a backup rather than to become a vocalist in his own right. The question then is: Why are these young boys and girls participating in such a contest when they do not have any specific goals?

It's time Benson & Hedges and the judges took steps to bring together committed musicians for whom music is a passion.

Kumar Biswajit was annoyed by another feature of the singers, especially of the band performers: an unavoidable problem in pronunciation. He asked the participants to correct their pronunciations first. Singer Milon Kanti Mistry, for example, had tremendous problems in pronouncing 'cha' and 'chha'. Otherwise, his lyrics were good, the tunes had good twists in the manner of ghazal, Milon's voice is also in its way to maturity.

The B&H Star Search is no doubt an exemplary event in the cultural field of the country. One hopes that it will go further to draw out the talents of the generations to come by ironing out a few glitches.