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Iresh Gupta

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Pixels, the photography society of Hans Raj College organized their annual photography fest titled ‘Plickture’ on 2nd-4th March along with Confluence, the annual cultural fest of the college. The fest featured competitions that were conducted online as well as those held on-the-spot. By having a separate event for photography societies to participate as a team, it also brought team work into the foray of activities.

Here is a look at who won what during the fest:

Online Events

As part of the pre-event promotions, an online photography competition was organized where the participants had to send in pictures clicked by them on the themes, “Life as you see it” and “What if?”

Results were as follows:

first prize for life as you see it
Winning Entry for ‘Life as you see it’

Theme: Life as you see it
1st Prize – Subhradeep Saha, Zakir Hussain College
Caption – A summer bath

first prize what if_
Winning entry for ‘What If?’

Theme: What If?
1st Prize – Arushi Aggarwal, Miranda House
Caption – What if past could come to life

Winners were awarded a manfrotto jacket and a tripod.

Photo Exhibition

For the campus festival the society had organized the photo exhibition which was more of the main attractions for the Day 1 of college annual festival. 100 photos clicked by the members of the societies were displayed with appropriate captions. The visitors had an option to comment on any photo (using sticky notes) or write their reviews in AMBIGRAM Pixels – Remark Book. The look up flex at the exhibition was also appreciated by the visitors. Prithvi Kakkar, the president of Pixels said, “Teachers and students in their feedback mentioned that ‘aaj tak Hans Raj mein aisa kabhi nahi hua’, I need not say anything else.”

On-the-spot

For the campus rounds an on-the-spot competition was organized separate for DSLR and mobile users. The participants had to click the photographs inside the Hans Raj campus using a camera or mobile phone and submit it with appropriate captions.

Theme: Irony (DSLR users)

First prize for ‘Irony’

1st Prize – Taranveer Singh, Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce
Caption – Isn’t it just ironical when you can’t capture irony in a competition themed Irony

Second prize irony
Second prize winning entry for ‘Irony’

2nd Prize – Arushi Aggarwal, Miranda House
Caption – A Glance.

Theme: Campus Cheer (Mobile Users)

First prize campus cheer
First Prize for ‘Campus Cheer’

1st Prize – Swarna Garg, Shivaji College
Caption – Express it out now because ‘kal rahein ya na rahein hum’

second prize campus cheer
Second prize for ‘Campus Cheer’

2nd Prize – Rahul Vaid, Hansraj College
Caption – Who Said Only Birds Can Fly

Winners for the first spot for both the themes were awarded Rs. 1500 each and the first runner-ups were given Rs. 1000 each.

Battle of Societies

The main highlight event of Plickture was Battle of Societies, for which eight photography societies from various colleges participated. Battle of Societies was divided into five events one of which was an online event. Other 4 events were CAP-IT where participants had to caption 5 photos clicked by members of Pixels; PHOT-ON – an on the spot competition where one member from the team had to click the photographs within the campus on the theme “artsy philosophy”; QUIZ THE CAM – the photography quiz and PHOTO MORPHING – making a photo collage.

The results for the individual events were as follows:
Online Event – Lady Shri Ram College for Women and Kirori Mal College
Phot-on – Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce
Quiz the cam – Lady Shri Ram College for Women
Cap-it – Lady Shri Ram College for Women
Photo Morphing – Lady Shri Ram College for Women

Hence, after compiling the results, Lady Shri Ram College’s film and photography society Projekt was declared the Best Photography Society. They were awarded a trophy and a cash prize of Rs. 10,000. Commenting on their victory, Koyna, one of the coordinators of Projekt says, “Battle of socities was a very unique event because till now we have only had individual competitions. There has never been any event where you have a society as a whole competing against other socities. It’s indeed overwhelming to be able to stand ground at such a event. Hopefully, this will make Projekt and the photography team more visible within the college as well.”

Mr. Pradeep Kumar, a wildlife photographer and an ex-professor at Hans Raj College judged all the events.

Day two at Medina – the annual theatre festival of Hindu College witnessed the street play competition – Itehaad-e-Ibtida on 7th March. After day one of Qissa-e-Ibtida (stage play competition), Dastan goi (Urdu storytelling) and Filmy Chakkar (Bollywood Quiz), day two featured only the nine hour long street play competition.

Continuing the tradition of bringing something new and unique for street theatre artists, Medina is not about the usual annual productions being performed by various teams. All the artists are given different challenges each year – these range from performing the production of other teams participating, to performing a 2 year old production of your own society with a preparation time of few hours. This year all the teams were shuffled, each time having members of 5 other teams divided according to the year of their study and music art portrayed in the performances. Through this process, 10 teams were formed and they were given 3 hours preparation time to make a new play on different social topics given to each team through a chit system. The topics given were related to the topics on which plays in the university have been happening recently.

Mr. Sahil Yadav, alumni of Ibtida and presently in Jawaharlal Nehru University judged the event. He mentioned, “Medina is different because it is not a usual competition. Artists come out of their comfort zone. They perform with people whom they don’t know, brainstorm and form a play in few hours.”

Participating teams included SGTB Khalsa College, Hansraj College, Jesus and Mary College, PGDAV College, Ramanujan College, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Miranda House, Shivaji and Guru Teg Bahadur Institute of Technology.

After 3 hours of preparation, all the teams presented their plays. The results were as follows:

1st position:
Team – final year students of Ramanujan College, second year students of SGTB Khalsa and first year students of GTBIT with musicians from Jesus and Mary College. They performed a play on Gender Inequality.

2nd position:
Team – final year students from College of Business Studies and Hansraj College, second year students from shivaji and PGDAV freshers with musicians from Shri Ram College of Commerce. “Old Age is…” is the play they presented on old age challenges and problems.

Retiring Actor Award: Prabhjot Singh, SGTB Khalsa College

Newcomer Award: Nikita Kumar, Miranda House

IMG-20140308-WA0017

Rohit Kumar of India’s Got Talent fame, made a sand painting depicting various elements of street theatre. This was followed by the feedback session and small celebration organised by Ibtida. The cake cutting was followed by a DJ where students themselves also sang songs from Hindi cinema. All the participants, same as the judge really liked the concept.

A member of dramatics society of Shri Ram College Of Commerce said, “Itehaad-e-Ibtida is the best and the most creative theatre festival of Delhi University. We wait for Medina 2015. Thank you for keeping the true spirit of theatre alive in the circuit.”

With the tagline ‘Sailing through Drama’, Ibtida – the Hindi dramatics society of Hindu College is holding Medina, the 3rd Annual theatre festival on 6th-7th March.

Three events were scheduled for the first day of Medina. These included DastangoiFilmy Chakkar and Qissa-e-Ibtida.

The day started with Dastangoi, the last form of Urdu storytelling event which went for an hour. Dastangoi promotes the lost art of Urdu storytelling. “Kabir ke dohe ko, unki kavitaaon ko, unki zindagi ke baare mein muh zubani btana hi hamara kaam hai”, said Ankit Chadha who was the performer for the event. Ankit is the alumni of Ibtida and Hindu College. Dastangoi was held at the Virgin Tree in the college campus where Mr. Chadha was too subtle to be the lead performer. Sitting on a mattress under the tree, he attracted a lot of spectators.

Dastangoi by ankit
Dastangoi

Filmy Chakkar, the bollywood quiz was also held at the same place as that of Dastangoi right after it. Various teams participated and the quiz was divided into three rounds. Each question had various hints and teams were marked accordingly. The participants had to guess names of bollywood actors and films through these hints. Abhyuday Tiwari and Pranjal from Hindu College won Filmy Chakkar with a cash prize of Rs. 1000 and prizes in kind worth Rs. 4000.

Last in line for the first day at Medina was Qissa-e-Ibtida – the non competitive stage play event. Four top teams were selected for the finals by the Ibtida team through a screening process. This celebration of theatre began with Kirori Mal College performing their production God followed by Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay by SGTB Khalsa College and The Private Ear by Ramjas College. The last play for Qissa-E-Ibtida was by Hans Raj College presenting Holi, their annual production.

filmy chakkar
Filmy Chakkar

Mr. Avtar Sahani – the eminent movie and theatre personality judged the event. Each team was awarded Rs. 4000 and two best actors were adjudged and presented Rs. 1000 each. Sahib Singh from SGTB Khalsa and Priyanka Kumar from KMC got the title for their respective productions.

Mr. Sahani provided feedback to all four teams and said, “Choose less subject matter, but do justice to what is there in the final script. Too many things lead to confusion. Clarity in theatre is very important which can be achieved by not deviating from the main theme of the act.” He appreciated all teams for their effort and expressed happiness that theatre is still alive in the university.

While Ibtida, the Hindi Dramatics society of Hindu College prepared for ‘Medina 2014’, Masque – the English theatre society organised ‘Masquerade 2014’ on the 5th and 6th of March, 2014 at Akshara Theatre, a well known exquisite theatre and arts complex of Delhi. ‘Masquerade’ is the fourth theatre event organised by Masque, however the second year for it being a theatre celebration. The festival in its first two editions was a competitive event where the performing teams used to fight for a title.

“The basic motive behind organising Masquerade 2014 is that theatre, as a paid profession is not appreciated in our society quite well. Hence, we wish to attract theatre enthusiasts from DU to celebrate theatre and its spirit and cater to an audience spread across Delhi. And that is why we thought of changing it to a non-competitive event after the second edition of the festival”, Mrinalini, president of the society said.

The event formerly being merely theatre oriented, witnessed the incorporation of music into the festival for the first time.  “When we organize this festival to celebrate theatre, and then why not include other cultural aspects like music?” said Akanksha, the Vice President of Masque.” In light of the same, Masquerade 2014 had seven theatre performances (out of which, one was by the host team) and four musical performances which include bands as well as the individual acts. Through the prelim process, six stage teams were shortlisted out of total of eighteen teams.

Day One – March 5th, 2014 ( Wednesday)

Numerous colleges like Shivaji College, Hans Raj College and Ramjas College presented their annual productions namely Mission 31, Holi and The Private Ear respectively. Dhruv Visvanath, who had previously performed at the fests like Sri Venkateswara’s Nexus and Hansraj College’s Confluence also performed for the audience. Vidur Hans and The Burnt Alternative, another band that played with harmonic acoustic sounds and is indulged in serious song writing process showed up for the day.

The audience comprised of people from all age groups including the families of performers.The organising society had done arrangements wherein the photos of all teams were put up, with a feedback chart at the counters. Anybody from the audience or other teams could write his/her views about the respective team’s performance. The chart was later presented to the respective teams by the members of Masque.

Day Two – March 6th, 2014 ( Thursday)

Day 2 witnessed similar plays and audiences as Day 1. Another band called ‘L for Vendetta’ famous from its recent win at the ‘Battle of Bands’ in Hans Raj College’s ‘Confluence 2014’ also performed at Masquerade. Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi Technical University, Kirori Mal College and the host team also presented their stage annual productions which are Love and Money, Kya Dilli Kya Lahore, The Chatroom and 5th Symphony respectively.

Neeraja Narayanaswamy, the lead vocalist of the band, Moon Shadow Frequency also performed at the festival. The concluding day for ‘Masquerade’ was the first day of the Hindi Dramatics Fest of Hindu College, Medina – 2014.

Astitva, the dramatics society of Dyal Singh College organised Expressions – the annual theatre festival of the society on 4th-5th March. The festival witnessed stage performances from ten college theatre societies of Delhi University. This was Astitva‘s 6th theatre festival as a motive to encourage campus theatre. Day 1 witnessed five performances which were The Fifth Symphony by Hindu College, Blindspot by Gargi College, The Nerd by Shri Ram College of Commerce, Fandi by Delhi Technical University and Shivaji College performed Mission 31. The viewers had mixed opinions about the performances on Day 1. Mandira, a spectator, says, “As it is the end of the festival season, the performances seem repetitive now. But there are certain ones, which you never get bored of.”

cartoons

The festival was organized with decorations done by the Fine Arts society of the college. Each production by different teams had photographs on display with the production poster. Also, the display board for Astitva and it’s members was put up. Artists from the college had made production illustrations in form of cartoons and caricatures. Mr. V.K Sharma and Mrs. Kirandeep Sharma came over as judges for Expression 14. A graduate from National School of Drama, Mr. Sharma is the member of NSD repertory company for 4 years now. He is the writer and director of many plays and also had acted in films like Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai, Milenge Milenge, Khosla ka Khosla and Fukrey. He is the founder director of Khilona, India’s first company having adults performing for children. Mrs. Kirandeep Sharma with an overall experience of 25 years is a famous writer, director and an actor with specialization in children’s theatre. She is presently the associate director of Khilona and has worked with NSD’S TIE company for three years as a Professional Expert. 5 other plays from the theatre circuit took up the stage on Day 2 of Expressions. It started with Shaheed Bhagat Singh College’s performance, A Reasonable Doubt. The day then saw performances like Holi by Hans Raj Dramatics Society, Kya Dilli Kya Lahore by Delhi Technical University, Birthday Party by Shaheed Bhagat Singh Evening College and Ek Rishte ki Maut by Shivaji College. Performances on Day 2 got more acclaimed than the first day of festival. [caption id="attachment_20700" align="aligncenter" width="560"]holi by hansraj 3 ‘Holi’ by Hans Raj College[/caption] The festival ended with feedback from the judges and result declaration. Shivaji College bagged the first position for Mission 31 and won the cash prize of Rs. 7000. Kya Dilli Kya Lahore by DTU and Holi by Hans Raj College were adjudged the second and third best respectively. They won Rs. 5000 and Rs. 3000. Arpit Vashist from DTU won the best actor award for playing the lead role in Fandi. “Winning the best actor award makes me feel good. But winning it for the production and for the whole team is what makes me really happy”, Arpit said. Shri Ram College of Commerce bagged the award for Best Direction for The Nerd.]]>

The second day at Hans Raj’s Confluence was a musical one with both the Indian and Western music choir lined up on the same day. In addition, Eclat – the dramatics society’s fest also came to a close with Jesus and Mary College winning the street play competition. The day also had a couple of informal events such as Paper Dance and Pictionary to engage with the students.

The day witnessed Rachnotsav – the music festival with its Indian Choir Competition – Pehel. Pandit Sarathi Chaterjee presided over as the judge. The competition had various teams battling for the top positions. Sangeetika, the music society of Kamala Nehru College was adjudged the best performance. Team from Daulat Ram College, Alhaiya bagged the second position in Indian Choir.

Western Choir Competition – Choirs had enthralling musical performances when set audience to the applauding mode throughout the performances. Mr. Nilotpal Sinha and Ms. Grace honoured the event as judges. Kirori Mal College’s Musoc was chosen the best team. Sri Venkateswara College’s Crescendo and Lady Shri Ram College for Women’s Western Music Society shared the place for the first runners-up. Cash prizes worth Rs. 8000/- were given out on Day 2 of Rachnotsav.

Other two exciting competitions were going alongside. Sports Quiz and IPL bidding had 20 and 35 participating teams respectively. Prelims for the sports quiz shortlisted top 6 teams which sat for the quiz finals. Bala Subramanium from Hansraj College and Gukul from Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma (ARSD) bagged the first position and won the cash prize of Rs. 3000/-. Second prize for cash amount of Rs. 2000/- was won by Prateek Panda from Department of Mathematics at Delhi University and Borio from Hansraj. IPL bidding, the mock bidding session saw top 8 teams in finals after a quiz round in the prelims. Contestants in groups of 2 were allotted IPL teams and each team had to buy players with maximum ratings with the budget of 80 crore per team. Sahil Ramchandani and Karuna Singh, both from the host college won the bidding competition and took away Rs. 6500/- in cash and kind.

Art related competitions like Poster Making and Rangoli Making were held. Theme “Freedom” was decided for poster making and Rangoli making saw rangoli designs on nation, diversity and religion to name a few. Chahat Bansal and Swati Sharma from Keshav Mahavidyalaya won the rangoli competition for their Bollywood inspired rangoli. The contestants apart from designing it, had to explain their idea in front of the judges.

Along with formal competitive events, several informal events such as Paper dance and Pictionary were also a part of Confluence. Swati and Neha from Hansraj won the Paper dance competition with a cash prize of Rs. 1000/- and coupons and vouchers worth the same amount. 20-25 teams participated in Scavenger Hunt where participants had to solve maximum clues in one hour time. Khushboo and Shivani from Hansraj won the competition with prize worth of Rs. 3000/-, both in cash and kind.

paper dance-1
Paper Dance

Other filler and fun events were organised for the festival visitors as well like Pictionary which was held in 3 rounds and teams had to solve maximum clues in the least time. Bollywood Tambola required the partners to be well aware about full names of all the bollywood actors and the event was held in various slots where small prizes were given out but participants had a lot of fun.

An evening of music and dance

dhruv
Dhruv Vishwanath takes the stage.

The performance stage was all set in the morning with police security in the area for the DJ evening. Before the DJ’s arrival, Dhruv Vishwanath, a famous performer in the DU circuit sang some romantic numbers. He had also opened for Junkyard Groove, recently at Venky’s Nexus.

dj

 

In the evening, Confluence attracted a good crowd when the DJs took on to the floor. DJ BLING and DJ Vij were an hour late. Everyone moved on the famous dance numbers played by the DJ duo. Manav Malhotra, a DU student said, “The DJ is decent but the crowd is not. We expect Bohemia’s star night on the last day brings great crowd.”

Eclat – the annual theatre festival by the Hansraj Dramatics Society on Day 2 had remaining stage performances for Rangmanchiyata (the stage play competition). Judges for Day 1, Mr. Sanjeev Saluja and Mr. Pranay Manchanda judged the event for this day as well. Shri Ram College of Commerce performed their annual production Black Comedy. The results were scheduled to be disclosed later in the day along with the street results. But according to the judges all teams were equally good, so it was decided to celebrate Rangmanchiyata just as a festival and not a competition. Rs. 2500/- was declared to be given to each team as a token of appreciation.

dtu performing kya dilli kya lahore
DTU performing Kya Dilli, Kya Lahore.

Best actors were adjudged for the stage play competition. Best Actor(Female) was bagged by Vidushi Chadda from SRCC for Black Comedy and Best Actor(Male) was also given from the same production to Kabir Sethi. Both the actors were awarded 100% scholarship for a theatre training programme by Actor Factor Theatre Company worth Rs. 23500/- each. The second position for best actor was won by Arpit Sharma from Delhi Technical University for Kya Dilli, Kya Lahore! Arpit was awarded with 25% scholarship for the same theatre training programme.

Day 2 of Eclat also witnessed the street play competition – “Bolbala Badlav Ka” with the theme “Legacy of Campus theatre.” For the same purpose, the performance area for street theatre was set up in a way that each performing team had a separate booth where the picture gallery of each team for the past 5 years was displayed. Other participants and viewers had an option to provide their feedback for the teams and well at these personalized team booths.

Mr. Vineet Trikha and Mr. Siddharth Singh came over as judges for Bolbola, who are both experienced theatre activists for Pandies Theatre Group. Mr. Singh – an ex president of Hansraj dramatics society and a graduate from Hansraj and presently organizes theatre training for youngsters inside and outside Delhi. Mr. Trikha with almost 15 years of experience has performed many plays in India and abroad.

eclat - sana. best actress street
Sana – Winner of the Best Actress

A total of nine teams performed for Bolbala on social topics like premature puberty, rapes in India which come with no action thereafter, women rights and politics.

Siddharth Singh said, “Teams should be very careful while choosing the themes for street plays. Street theatre is a risky form of dramatic art. A social issue which may appeal to you, may not work with the audience.”

Team from Jesus and Mary College, Kehkasha stole the show at Bolbala. They bagged the prize of best team and best music for their production “Gunah Hai, Par Saza Nahi” and won the cash prize of Rs. 5000/- and Rs. 1000/- respectively. First runners-up position was shared by Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce (GGSCC) and Indraprastha College for Women SRand they were awarded Rs. 3000/- in total. Taking home the title of second runner up team and Rs. 1500/- cash was S.G.T.B Khalsa College for “We, The People”

Best actors were bagged by Sana from Jesus and Mary College and Akhil Sachdeva of GGSCC for their respective productions. They both were awarded the 25% TIP 16 PLUS scholarships by Actor Factor Theatre company.

Confluence – the annual cultural festival of Hans Raj College was set open on 2nd March 2014 by the Principal of the college, Mr. V.K Khwatra. The event started with a brief introduction about the festival and how in the past Confluence has been able to receive tremendous appreciation. Mr. VK Khwatra along with other dignitaries and guests, Mr Bijendra Singh (Hostel Warden) and Mrs. Sonal Gupta (ECA Convener) lighted the holy lamp. Mr. Mohit Saini, the newly elected President of Hans Raj College also joined the lamp lighting ceremony.

Saptak Chattopadhyay, member of Swaranjali (Music Society of the college) created an aura in the auditorium by singing the Durga Stuti and Guru Vandana. The Principal then addressed the students and said, “Extra Curricular Activities are the most important part for both interpersonal and intra-personal development. Confluence, I hope, will bring a lot of learning and experience to each one of you in this regard.” He wished luck to all the participants and organizers and declared Confluence 2014 open!

The festival, later in day, witnessed various cultural competitions being organized by different societies of Hans Raj College. Rachnotsav – the Music Festival by Swaranjali, the Music Society of the college, was a tribute and homage to Late. Rachna Sharma, ECA convenor of college who passed away last year. She was a mentor to many students and inspired each member of the society to do his or her best. The Music Festival that would go on for all three days had two solo competitions on the first day.

Mr. Nilotpal Sinha, Director of House of Symphony and Ms. Grace, a well-known vocalist judged the competition. Indian Solo competition witnessed healthy spirit between the participants and the Western solo competition attracted 16 singers from all over the circuit. In the Indian (Solo) Singing event, the 1st prize was won by Digvijay Singh from Kirori Mal College in the Semi Classical category and the 1st prize in the Classical category went to Bineet Singh from Music Faculty. The Western (Solo) Singing event saw Fiona Lalmalsawmi from Miranda House being awarded the first position while Hanita Bhambri from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies bagged the second position.

In their feedback, the judges mentioned that the contestants should focus on the song selection. They pointed that there were two ways to go about this – one is to choose a complex song and perform it in the simplest way and the other is to choose a simple song and perform it in a complex manner to impress the judges.

decoration

Alongside, Pixels, the Photography Society of the college was organizing photography competition called Plickture. The event had a photography exhibition put up in the college with the 100 photographs clicked by the members of society. The visitors had an option to paste their comment there. Also, “Photon on the Spot” was organised with theme – Irony – separately for DSLR and mobile phone users. Battle of Events will also be organized by the society where different photography societies from various colleges will be battling over 5 events in 2 days to win the TITLE OF SOCIETIES, a trophy and Rs. 10000  cash prize. Pithvi Kakkar, President of Pixels told DU Beat that results of all the events of Plickture will be declared on Day 2 of the fest.

In addition, four stage theatre performances were held as part of the college’s annual dramatics fest – Eclat.

Rangmanchiyata (The Stage Play Competition) with the theme “Tribute to Campus Theatre” was held on Day 1 as part of Eclat – The theatre festival organised by the Hans Raj Dramatics Society. The competition commenced in Auditorium right after the inaugural ceremony. Judges for the event were Mr. Sanjeev Saluja, experienced theatre actor and director and also the member of Board of National Committee of Satya Sai Organisation and Mr. Pranay Manchanda, a young graduate from London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and an actor and director with experience of 16 years.

the private ear by ramjas
The Private Ear by Ramjas College

6 top teams from the theatre circuit were selected for the main event after the screening process. Day 1 of Rangmanchiyata has 4 teams presenting their productions. The other 2 teams will be performing on Day 2 and results will be declared on Day 2 of Eclat along with the street play results, also scheduled to be held on the second day. The productions presented were Mamtaz Bhai Patang Waale by Dyal Singh College, The Private Ear by Ramjas College, Batch 2002 by Hindu college and Delhi Technical University performed Kya Dilli, Kya Lahore!

The auditorium was jampacked for all 4 performances and they ended with an individual team feedback from both the judges. Mr. Manchanda said, “I look at plays not as judge but as someone from audience who may have paid 500 bucks to watch the play. Today I saw amazing performances from the campus circuit but teams need to focus more on story and one should understand the character well before portraying it up on the stage”