Without a villain in the story, there is never a hero! Elevating the importance of an antagonist in every story, Lakshya, the theatre society of Kamala Nehru College saw the seventh edition of its annual theatre festival- Concoction, unfold on the theme- ‘Main hoon Khalnayak’ from 17-19th February 2016.
With exuberant performances and energised crowd, Concoction was a non-competitive, three day theatre extravaganza which aimed at promotion of the spirit of theatre and performance above competition and contention.
The day 1 of the festival saw Aaghaz- The street play event, that involved the performance of complex and mostly political issue oriented productions at the college’s chaupal. From street acts based on Kashmir, Israel-Palestine, and religion to productions on mental illness, the event was a success at grabbing student attention. The production by SRCC, based on mental illness called-‘The defective ward’, stood out for the audience the most. The day ended with a dynamic jamming session by the Djembefola United group and also a mesmerizing performance by Mukul & Shenjit, who brought everyone up on their toes.
Mokshika, the President of Lakshya, the theatre society of Kamala Nehru College, speaking to us, shared that, “ We had a non-competitive Concoction this year. Apart from administrative and logistical hassles, for me, the spirit of theatre and performing arts is most important and Concoction was an attempt to promote the same. I hope the teams had as much fun as we did while organising the event.”
Followed by street, Day 2 and 3 saw Archlights- The stage play event, that was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience. Colleges like Dyal Singh, SRCC, Sri Venkateswara, Ramanujan and Hindu shook the stage with their excellent execution, lighting techniques and prop usage. While Hindu’s production called-‘Characters Revolt’ talked about characters of three boys entrapped within the confines of a writer’s story and how they wish to rewrite it, Sri Venkateswara’s play titled-‘Veronica’s Room’ completely took the audience by surprise with its element of unpredictable suspense. Post some mind blowing stage acts, Day 3 witnessed Pratiyug, a sufi pop-rock band that galvanised the gathering with their electrifying renditions.
Alongside the main event, Concoction ’16 had two informal events planned for the day, Treasure Hunt and Quiz that gave the crowd an opportunity to win some prizes for themselves.
On asking people their experience of the festival, we received some great positive responses.“Art cannot be described, one can only experience it by watching, especially incase of theatre. All the performances at the event were such that no words can be appropriate enough to describe the beauty of theatre”, remarked Aakriti Sharma, a student of KNC.
Dilgrace Kaur, a dedicated Lakshya member shared with us her experience of organising the event. “Each day is a new experience. Learning, unlearning, enjoying and working. The 3 most awaited days of the year for any Lakshya member are the days of Concoction where we bring together all the talent in the town”, she remarked.
As the event drew to a closure, the teams took with them special hampers, love, appreciation and the sound of the resounding claps which had no end!
Image credits: Vedvanti Kasture
Riya Chhibber
In the month of September, every year for the last 4 decades, the Students Union of AIIMS organises ‘Pulse’, their annual fest that can be easily considered as one of the most magnanimous fest in India. Also called as “Annual South Asian Socio-Cultural, Literary and Sports meet”, the fest this year was held from the 16th to the 22nd September and witnessed participation from 90 colleges and around 6000 students. The fest is like a seven day carnival taking you through the vivid aspects of music, dance, literature, knowledge, drama and culture.
In Pulse 2012, from the very first day till the last, one was busy enjoying various events in the fest. The fest definitely offered students a lot to savour on. Beginning with the P-wave – a musical drama, the first day saw a variety of events like quizzes, debates, painting competitions etc being organised at various places within the institute. Classical Night took place on the first eve where the great Sarod players, Ayaan and Amaan Ali Khan mesmerised the audience with their splendid performance. One of the best fragments of the fest was the MRC (with the DJ) which continued late into the night for all the seven days. Here the loud and sizzling music surely made even the non -dancers hit the floor.
singing popular Bollywood numbers. The Laughter Night saw the old and the young sitting together and enjoying hilarious anecdotes and jokes by many popular TV artists. Rock Night took place on the last day where an amazing performance by Suraj Jagan made everyone run around on the beats of Bhaag-DK Bose.