February 22, 2012

Tempest – Miranda House’s fest: A Curtain Raiser

By DU Beat February 22, 2012

Tempest, the annual cultural festival of Miranda House will kick off tomorrow and promises to be bigger and better. Scheduled for the 23-24-25 February, Tempest is based on the theme ‘Apocalypse’. This year, a number of new competitions will be held during the fest. The ‘Rock Night’ will see a performance by the band Parikrama. The Hindi Metal band Nigambodh will open for Parikrama.

The day 1 of the fest will see a number of events happening back to back. The Entrepreneurship Cell of the college will for the first time since its inception hold competitions during the fest. Their signature event is the ‘End of Times Sales’. For the photography competition, the participants have to cover the fest and submit their best shots. The Rangoli making competition, environment base collage making competition, the quiz competition, the western music competition for solo category will all be held on the first day. The major event for the day will be ‘The Final Act’- the bilingual stage play competition. The day will conclude with the DJ night.

The day 2 will kick off with ‘Dhol Pitara’ the street play competition. The Indian Dance events, the poster making and the mask making competitions, the documentary film making competition and Shama Kohli Memorial debate will all be held on the second day. Another interesting event is the ‘Green Revival’ in which teams have to come prepared with an environmental problem along with the solution that they suggest for it. Other teams will get some time to suggest answers for each problem. Teams will be judged based on the problems they discuss, the solution they suggest for their own problem and for those of other teams. The highlight of the day will be the ‘The Last Step’, the western dance competition.

On the last day of the fest, a number of fun events will be held. The t-shirt designing, the tattoo making, the adventure club treasure hunt, ad-mad, film screening, the Indian and Western Music events will all be held on day 3. Along with the creative writing competition being organized by the Gandhi Study circle, a creative writing competition in Braille will also be held for the visually challenged students. In the Off-site choreography competition, teams will perform at 11 different spots in the Miranda House campus.

The fest will conclude with a performance by the bands Nigambodh and Parikrama. The music that Nigambodh plays has seen its lyrics in Hindi. They rely heavily on spiritual, classical Indian texts in order to churn out pieces of songs that speak of existential psychological dilemmas faced by the youth today. The root of their music lies in their ability to transcend genres and appeals to both, the posh and the local, the young and the old.

Talking about the unusual theme of the fest, Daisy the president of the Miranda House students’ union said “When we think of the year 2012, the end of the world flashes into our mind. So we decided to hold Tempest on this theme. We, however, are talking about it in a positive sense”.So get yourself registered for the fest or buy the passes before their run out of stock.

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Miranda House

Imtiaz Ali in Miranda House

By Shweta Arora February 22, 2012

As a pre-Tempest event, filmmaker Imtiaz Ali came over to Miranda House campus today to meet his fans. Instead of making a back door entry to avoid the huge crowd of female fans, Imtiaz rather chose to walk down the college aisle and made his way into the college auditorium. Imtiaz who was accompanied by his friend from Hindu College was welcomed by a swarm of fans. They literally had to steer through the crowd to make way into the auditorium. “This was a grand welcome not every Hinduite gets the privilege to receive”, he later said.

His visit was organized by the Film Club of the college exclusively for current Miranda House students. Tempest, Miranda House’s fest kicks off tomorrow. The event started off with the students of the Indian Music society singing a medley of songs from his movies. The crowd couldn’t stop cheering when he took out his phone and started making a video of the crowd and the girls singing. Clips of scenes from his movies were shown to cite the offbeat characters the protagonists of his movies have.

Imtiaz started off by asking the audience about the popularity of his movies. Every statement of his was greeted with a round of cheers from the crowd. “Not every Hinduite gets the opportunity to have Miranda girls in such a frame, with all of them cheering. I am overwhelmed to be here today. In fact I have been here before. I came for the dramatics competition during Tempest when I was a student in Hindu College. My heart has always been here. In my college days I used to visit the Hostel gate of the college hoping to enter the college. But today I was welcomed by the college principal herself at the gate”, he said. This was followed by a question-answer session and Imtiaz did not disappoint his fans and answered every question that was thrown at him. Here are some excerpts from the session:

Q.: How did you find the selection of the clips you were shown?
(Scene: Deepika’s character Meera post her wedding realizes that she did a mistake by marrying)
I was intrigued by the scene you showed from Love Aaj Kal. Meera’s behavior in the scene was criticized by a number of people and I’m glad that a girls college has appreciated this scene.

Q: Have you ever dated a Mirandian?
My friend from college is here so I can’t lie in front of you all. Although I tried a number of times but could never succeed in dating one. I used to hang out a lot outside the Miranda House hostel gate. Even the guard knew me by face and I used to get him beedis.

Q: Jordan’s character in the movie Rockstar faced a number of hurdles. What hurdles did you face?
See, in life the choice to be happy or sad lies with you. Nothing should decide your happiness or sadness. You obviously can’t control the situations that life makes you face but the right to be happy or sad is with you. I chose to be on the better side of the fence.

Q: Why Nargis Fakhri in Rockstar?
Because I had not met you girls before.

Q: Give us Ranbir Kapoor’s number (more than a hundred girls, in unison)
981… Well leave it, you guys don’t seem much interested.

Q: What’s your next movie going to be about?
I don’t have a story in my mind yet.

Q: Which movie you didn’t direct but you wish that you did?
Sholay, Junoon, Big Fish.

Q: All your movies have been commercial ones, when will you get into Art House film making?
You make movies on things and the way you relate to life; as you growth up, your style of filmmaking changes. So as I grow old and become more grounded, I too will get into art house film making.

This wasn’t the end of his visit. Anukriti, the Hindi Dramatics of the college put up its street play for Imtiaz. After which he went around the campus, paid a visit to the college hostel to interact with his fans there, and had lunch with a few Miranda House students in the hostel mess. He stayed in the Miranda House campus till evening.

Photo Credits: Sonakshi Pandey

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Events

Quite a masquerade

By Amrita Dasgupta February 22, 2012

So, who doesn’t fancy a little drama in their life? At the risk of sounding slightly presumptuous, I would have to say that most of us do. For those who prefer their dose of it on stage rather than off, Hindu College’s annual theatre festival—Masquerade—was the place to be.

The two day event hosted by the English Dramatics Society, ‘Masque’, saw some of the finest colleges of DU showcasing their acting prowess. On day 1 of the fest, IP College for women, LSR, St. Stephen’s and SRCC proved their mettle as masters of nuanced expressions; while on day 2, Kirori Mal College, Hindu College, Sri Venkateswara College and Ramjas College gave them a run for their proverbial money.

To judge the participating teams were two distinguished members of the theatre fraternity. Ms. Amina Sherwani, a distinguished theatre person, journalist and sculptor. She has vast experience in people’s theatre and has performed all over the country as scriptwriter, director as well as light and set designer and has produced and directed over fifty plays. Mr. Milin Kapoor, renowned cinematographer and special effects editor. He has more than 28 years of experience in film, video design, interactivity and cyber space. He has worked on over 400 productions and with some of the biggest names in the Indian film industry.

The most striking performances on the first day were that of LSR and SRCC; wherein SRCC stole the limelight with their witty mystery piece titled ‘Three Blind Mice’. While each member of the SRCC team did a commendable job; it is noteworthy that the IP team consisted of only three members and their dedication was par excellence. Their play ‘Sonata’ explored the world of a writer as the events of one night that occur in the lives of these women are penned down. LSR presented ‘Skeleton Woman’, a story about two people who defeat fantastical odds to be together. St. Stephen’s had put together a play that dealt with the phenomenon of False Memory Syndrome called ‘Anna Weiss’.

On the 22^nd of February, Sri Venkateswara college mesmerised the audience and the judges with their play ‘Pulp’, a comical journey of two playwrights and their rushed attempt to churn out one decent play after another, in order to pacify their producers. Hindu College won many accolades for their production ‘Dead Man’s Testimony’—an adaptation of Ayn Rand’s ‘Night of January 16^th’, although they did not compete. KMC presented ‘Line’– a story about five people attempting to reach the front of a queue using all kinds of strategies and Ramjas told us what happens when a joke goes awry in ‘Mr. Kolpert’.