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February 17, 2017

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DU Annual Fest Season

Montage’17 at JMC: Battle of Bands and Jasleen Royal steal the show on Day 1

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The first day at Montage 2017 – the Annual Cultural fest of Jesus and Mary College – began with Sister Rosily T.L. r.j.m, the officiating Principal of the college declaring the fest open which was followed by melodious gospels sung by the students of the college.

 

This was followed by ‘Adaah’- an event organised by Nrityanjali, the Indian Dance Society of JMC, which included the Indian Classical Solo competition and the Group Folk Dance competition. The competition was judged by Radhika Kathal and Hemant Pandey. The Indian Classical Solo saw energetic performances from the participants and Aishwariya and Raghav from Sri Venkateswara College won the first and second prizes, respectively. The third prize was won by Nimisha from Janki Devi Memorial College while Neha from Gargi College won a special prize.

In the Group folk dance competition, the participants filled the auditorium which tunes and energetic beats from across India. The competition, in which a total of nine teams participated, the first prize was won by Nupur, the folk dance society of Kamala Nehru College. The second and third prizes were won by Nrityakriti of Maitreyi College and Nazaakat of Gargi College, while the singer of the SGTB Khalsa’s team won a special mention for his exceptional performance.

Nupur, the folk dance society of Kamala Nehru College bagged the first spot in the Group Folk Dance competition

Echo, the western music society of JMC organised ‘Madrigal’ which included western group singing competition where students of the Western Music Society of Lady Shri Ram College bagged the first position followed by Sound Machine of St. Stephen’s College winning the second position and Aria of Hindu College securing the third position. In the event of ‘I like to duet x2’, Sparsh and Alankrita of LSR bagged the first position. For the event ‘Tap That Treble’, which was the western solo singing competition, Sparsh from LSR won the first prize and the second prize was bagged by David from St. Stephen’s College while the third position was jointly won by Sumer from Venky and Zachariah from Ansal University. ‘Battle of Bands’ was judged by Siby Mathew and Roshan Roy, with a total of seven participating bands and Tantrik Steve of Hansraj College gave the award winning performance.

LSR bagged top spot in the Western A capella 

The English Theatre Competition which was organised by the dramatics society was a patience testing game. The champion prize was bagged by Hindu College whereas the Runners Up was bagged by Shahid Bhagat Singh College. Zoya from DCAC won the best actor award.

With the competitive events calling it up a day, the enthusiastic crowd gathered to enjoy the concert by Jasleen Royal. The singer enthralled the audience with popular tracks like Kabira and Iktara along with her popular tracks from the film ‘Dear Zindagi’.

Featured image credits: Sahil Chauhan

Photography team: 

Prateek Singh ([email protected] )

Alex Arthur  ([email protected])

Sahil Chauhan ([email protected])

Correspondents: 

Anagha Rakta ([email protected])

Radhika Boruah ([email protected])

Baani Kasyap ([email protected])

Srivedant Kar ([email protected])

 

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DUB News

A pledge for misogyny? St.Stephen’s ANGA comes under fire for V-Day oath promoting misogyny

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ST Stphen

The latest video, showing the members of St. Stephen’s College’s ANGA taking a pledge on Valentine’s Day to promote misogyny, has caused a furore on the internet.

 

A video making the rounds of social media since 14th February, showing the members of St. Stephen’s College’s Alnutt North Gentlemen’s Association (ANGA) taking a pledge, has been grabbing a lot of eyeballs lately. The oath is taken in the Alnutt North men’s residence block alongside the block tutor every year, and has been a part of ANGA’s V-Day tradition for quite some time now. It is a ritual not unlike Hindu College’s Damdami Mayi Puja of the Virgin Tree on every Valentine’s Day. An eyebrow-raising aspect of it, however, lies in the fact that the men, in the name of “Liberty” and building a “paramount egalitarian fellowship”, simultaneously pledge “to philander exclusively with men” and to “promote among them all misogyny”.

A source, not wishing to be named, clarifies that though most of the boys participate in the ritual and head out for an ice-cream afterwards, it is nota compulsory oath. They are even told in advance, ‘supposedly’, that the pledge is all in good fun. It is not meant to be taken seriously under any circumstance, and the issue was never given such publicity or brought under the limelight before. With social media providing instant access these days and the video going viral, however, ANGA has come under direct attack from various student groups, some of which even claim to have been protesting in vain against the ritual for quite some time.

Responding to the immense backlash, ANGA states, “We as members of the ANGA family and the larger Stephanian family have always upheld its values actively, supporting the ideas of gender equality. The ANGA oath has traditionally been a mockery meant to take a dig at the institutionalised inequality that exists in our society. It was a clear expression of sarcasm… we believe that it is not right to exaggerate it to such a large extent… at the end of the day, we all belong to the larger Stephanian family. We will, in the future, continue to fight for issues of gender inequality. We are extremely saddened by this kind of misinterpretation of our intentions… [This was] never intended to start a war against the other gender.”

Caught between a battle of interpretations by DU’s various feminist students and women’s groups, and a round of clarifications by ANGA itself, the ritual stands contested. Whether this, or even the rituals like the one followed by Hindu College, ought to be followed or not, is an entirely separate debate altogether. As of now, the spotlight is on ANGA.

 

Deepannita Misra

[email protected]

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DUB Speak

From Masala to Content- a changing paradigm in audiences’ theatrical choices

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Indian films audience choices

The Bollywood film industry has been the largest producer of drama, action,comedy and romance for over a century now. Owing to its growing popularity, there’s hardly someone who hasn’t watched a Bollywood flick in all its “masala” glory at least once in their life. Creating its own genre, our country’s film industry has served masala in all its possible mix that has been received “with love” by the audience.

 

The genre, which is like an overdone assortment of all the four major genres, whilst sewing the fabric of the main plot of the film, serves to the Indian audience a fool-proof entertainment formula. A “macho” do-it-all hero, a pretty sidekick whose role is to display her beauty and incompetence to the hero, a villain in a constant tussle with the invincible “Bhai”, these masala flicks never fail to take home bags full of earnings and applause from the audiences. With the increased love for this genre, Bollywood’s filmmakers and audience have found their comfort zone here and do not seem too inclined to be taking a turn from serving the cinemas with this overused yet lucrative recipe.

 

It would, however, be unfair to not acknowledge the emergence of a more meaningful and content based cinema in the recent times. It is in fact, heartening to know that a certain section of the audience regards and immensely appreciates the presence of such cinema. This paradigm shift has been visible only in the past few years, beginning with box office success of movies like Rang de basanti, Lage Raho Munna Bhai and Taare Zameen Par to name a few.

 

Although, the demand for “masala” still fares high due to the diversity of interests and expectations of the audiences. People from all backgrounds look up to cinema with their own expectations of it. Interestingly, a large chunk looks up to it as a respite from their daily struggles where Shahrukh Khan’s romance or Salman “Bhai”’s effortless action pulls them away from the stresses they’ve burdening themselves with, albeit temporarily, thus creating a constant demand for masala. Despite this, there has been a remarkable shift in the audience’s choice of cinema. This shift can be observed from their increased inclination to Hollywood in the recent times. Primarily observed among the youth, viewers may not always be as excited to watch the latest SRK or Salman Bhai release, but they might be inclined towards picking the latest Hollywood flick. Moreover, the very rise in the supply of content based movies like Udta Punjab, Masaan or Dangal proves the changing demand of the Indian audiences.

 

This shift, must make us Indians proud of our evolution from an escapist towards an enlightened audience.

 

Priyal Mahtta

[email protected]

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DU Annual Fest Season

Day 3 at Reverie’17 : Shalmali Kholgade and Sanya Malhotra enthral the audience at Gargi

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Day 3 at Reverie, the annual cultural fest of Gargi College, kicked off with enthralling performances in the Western Acapella competition by various groups. A total of eleven colleges performed at the event which was judged by Sherry Matthews and Clayton Dubbeam. Echo, the Western Music Society of Jesus and Mary College, emerged as winners, and the first runner-ups and the second runner-ups were Kamla Nehru College and Shiv Nadar University respectively. 

Check out a glimpse of the Western Acapella

The day continued with the Western Duet Competition and the Western Solo Competition. For the Duets, Kishore and Riya from Amity University, Noida were declared winners. The runner-ups were Kislaya Rishiraj from Sri Venkateswara College and Piya Podder from Kamla Nehru College. In the Solos, the winner was Isha from Gargi, the first runner-up was Kishore from Amity and the second runner-up was Anurag from Delhi Technological University.

RJ Khurafati Nitin from Fever 104 also came to the fest as a speaker at the event. He promoted his new talk show At Fever 104 and made the audience laugh with his sketch. Q.E.D. the Debating Competition saw the participation of many colleges. Anmol from Sri Venkateswara College secured the first position and Aditya from P.G.D.A.V. College secured the second position, while Saumya Verma from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College stood third.

The next event was Cursive-iti, which was the Western Choreography Competition, which saw nine participating groups from various colleges. Gargi College came first for their performance on the lines of Alice in Wonderland. The first runner-ups were Hansraj College and the second runner-ups were Lady Shri Ram College.

Sanya Malhotra, who played Babita Phogat in the Aamir Khan starer Dangal, and an alumnus of Gargi College, graced the stage of her alma mater with co-star Aparshakti Khurana. The two actors danced to hits like Dhaakad and London Thumakda and answered some questions from their fans.

 

 

Reverie ended with an electrifying closing performance by popular Bollywood singer Shalmali Kholgade. She charmed the audience with her melodious voice and super hit tracks like Pareshaan, Raabta and Agar Tum Saath Ho among other popular Bollywood tracks. Reverie, the annual cultural fest of Gargi College wrapped up with a powerful performance, which shall be cherished until next year!

 

Feature Image credits: Jasmine Chahal for DU Beat 

Joyee Bhattacharya

([email protected])

Anagha Rakta
[email protected]

Nikhil Kumar
[email protected]

Srivedant Kar

[email protected] 

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