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Mood Indigo at IIT Bombay: Highlights Series (Part 2)

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After four days of the overwhelming bonanza of celebrations, Mood Indigo, the cultural spectacle at IIT Bombay drew to a close with some memorable performances. Here is what we thought were the highlights of the fest.

 

NY Musician Vladimir Cetkar performs at Mood Indigo

A multi-talented musician based in New York, Vladimir Cetkar, known for his song ‘We will never end’, gave the much needed musical punch to heighten the spirits of the crowd attending Mood Indigo this Christmas. He not only performed his best-known singles but also caught everyone’s eye with his charming personality.

EIC fame Sorabh Pant enthralled all with his tongue in cheek humour 

Performing at his candid best, East India Comedy fame Sorabh Pant left no stones unturned at tickling the funny bone of his audience at IIT Bombay. From demonetisation to other upbeat issues, he gave a humorous turn to just about everything.

 

EDM Night with Anish Sood 

Renowned EDM composer and DJ, Anish Sood set the musical mood at Mood Indigo as the audience led their hair down and enjoyed his gig to the fullest!

 Arnab Goswami and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis discuss ‘Transforming Maharashtra’

CM Devendra Fadnavis and TV news anchor Arnab Goswami marked their attendance at Mood Indigo in a rather address engaging fashion as they discussed issues like reservation and vote bank politics, and left no stones unturned at taking potshots at other politicians during the interactive session.

 

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Arnab Goswami and Maharashtra CM at IIT Bombay | Image credits: Harshit Thukral

Renowned journalist Prabhu Chawla spoke to students about dynastic politics and more 

Veteran journalist news anchor Prabhu Chawla, interacted with various students at Mood Indigo, as part of the Literary Fest. The issue raised in his talk was the “rise and fall of political dynasties,” especially in the Indian context. According to him, dynastic politics in principle is undesirable but India as a nation has been accepting of political lineages. The fragmented nature of Indian politics wherein most political parties have cropped up in the fringes of the Congress party, has led to the fascination with maa-betaa sarkars and the like. In his view, the way to root out dynastic politics is by way of nationalism. A pan-Indian issue must be scavenged and propagated so as to gain a mass following. At the world level, with German and French elections being around the corner, Chawla predicts that “the lady is in trouble” (with respect to German Chancellor Angela Merkell) and that “France is leaning towards the Right.”

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Image credits: Hitanksha Jain

Shankar Ehsaan Loy set the musical tone at IIT-B with their gig 

Bollywood composer trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy drew curtains to the four-day fest with their super energetic gig as they performed their all-time hit numbers like ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’, ‘Koi Kahe Kehta Rahe’ and Shankar’s famous ‘Breathless’ track.

Feature image credits: Gerush Bahal 

Reporters:

Riya Chhibber ([email protected])

Abhinaya Harigovind ([email protected])

Swareena Gurung ([email protected])

Kavach Chandra ([email protected])

 

Picture credits: Harshit Thukral, Prateek Singh, Hitanksha Jain and Gerush Bahal for DU Beat.

 

 

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From fashion to fusion: Day 1 at Mood Indigo’16

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Boasting of a huge array of events, Mood Indigo, the annual cultural festival of IIT Bombay kicked off on 23rd December 2016 with a number of scintillating performances and speaker sessions. Based on the theme – ‘One soul, one fest’, the Mood Indigo team likes to recognise themselves as ‘A Bombay Chronicle’. While the line up of events on Day 1 was overwhelming it saw competitions like Conchord, Drum circle, and other light events among others. While the star performances of the ‘Livewire Nite’ featured Crown The Empire, Skrat and others, the first day of the fest had quite an exquisite line up with speakers like the young and dynamic novelist, Durjoy Datta.

Some of the highlights of Day 1 are as following:

 

Vogue: The fashion show 

Mood Indigo’s Vogue, touted as India’s largest college fashion show, was an extravagant display of glitz, glamour and gloss. The event saw eight teams compete in two rounds. The first round, based on the theme ‘Raga Invasion,’ was an expression of the influence of music on fashion and saw participants drawing inspiration from Michael Jackson and punk rock to Indian classical. The second round, based on the theme ‘Asymmetric,’ was an array of seemingly conflicting shapes and patterns coming together in harmony. The event was judged by Sonnalli Seygall, Karan Berry, Leon Vaz, Vikram Singh Bawa and Instagram fashionistas, Isha Kanani and Meghna Kaur Kaushal. The judges were enthused by the energy and confidence translated into the show on stage. Pearl Academy, Delhi walked away with the first place, while the Faculty of Architecture, Manipal took second. Faculty of Architecture also took the title of ‘Best Design,’ while Tanvi, from Thakur College of Science and Commerce was adjudged the best model.

A video posted by DU Beat (@du_beat) on

The winners, Pearl Academy, Delhi’s fashion team, told DU Beat that they were thrilled to have won first place, having least expected it. “The hard work paid off, what with having sacrificed our vacations to participate and put in our best”, said a team member. Their entry for round one focussed on flowy outfits in earthy colours of deep red, orange and yellow, while they used asymmetric white frills in the second round.

Catch a glimpse of the #MannequineChallenge we gave to the winning team!

Durjoy Datta on love, break-up and success 

Having had an adventurous personal life himself, an accomplished novelist, Durjoy Datta spoke to the students at IIT-B about his idea of love, relationships and break-ups. While talking to the crowd, he discussed how his initial years involved a cynical attitude towards love and how his personal journey helped him pen down his books. On being asked if he believes in the idea of a perfect relationship, he said, “I do believe that there is something such as a perfect relationship. My idea about love has changed a lot in the last few years.”

 

Image by Hitanksha Jain
Image by Hitanksha Jain

Varun Agarwal: Love, Startup and Anu auntie


Filmographer, entrepreneur and best-selling author, Varun Agarwal was another speaker at the fest who highlighted the importance of finding the right passion and pursuing it. Using his own life events as examples, he stressed on the importance of living life to the fullest, by pursuing one’s passion while taking bold risks in the face of challenges. The right passion in his view is something that is obsessive and which one wouldn’t mind doing for free, pursuing it for the experience rather than the money. Money will eventually follow, if you earnestly follow and take forward that, which you are passionate about.

He said that the current generation is suffering from the “Steve Job’s syndrome” of following the masses in choosing their passion. It is important, however, to choose passions independently of society’s and media’s influence. Confidence, that insulates one from being deterred by the numerous judgmental “Anu aunties,” is the key.

It wasn’t surprising that the audience was in raptures by the end of the talk, eagerly asking questions and partaking in numerous jests against fellow spectators.
  

 ‘Livewire-Nite’ highlights

 

The enchanting tunes of Crown The Empire, Skrat and others got everyone’s foot tapping, as the ‘Livewire Nite’ ensued a rather musical tone to the day, making it the perfect way to draw close to Day 1 of the fest!

 

 

This four-day extravaganza stretching from 23-26th December is all set to witness some big gigs, including a finale performance by the Bollywood Composer trio- Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy.

Reporters:

Riya Chhibber ([email protected])

Abhinaya Harigovind ([email protected])

Swareena Gurung ([email protected])

 

Feature Image credits: Prateek Singh

Picture credits: Hitanksha Jain, Gerush Bahal, Harshit Thukral and Prateek Singh for DU Beat.

 

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The King is Surely Back

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Don 2

MOVIE REVIEW

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan. Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani, Lara Dutta, Kunal Kapoor, Om Puri

Music– Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Direction: Farhan Akhtar

Rating: 4/5

 

Sleek, Stylish, Sexy. Don 2 is all of this.

When the promos claimed ‘The King is Back’, you couldn’t help but expect a lot of thrills and chills from this sequel of the 2006 hit. While the prequel itself had some cool twists besides some shoddy writing, it certainly gave a hint of a sequel in the end. And in Don 2, there is a furthermore indication (through a bike’s number plate) that there indeed will be a Don 3.

But how is Don 2? Well, in one word, it’s thrilling. In spite of a certain number of flaws, Don 2 works because it has the elements of suspense and surprise that a thriller should have. And whenever the screenplay dips and gets boring, there is always a man who comes in to the rescue: SRK. A word on him later!

After capturing the South East Asia, Don has his eyes set on Europe where he plans to rob the leading bank in Berlin. To accomplish his plan, he surrenders first and is thrown in a jail in Bangkok. Partnering with Vardhan, he escapes the jail and begins implementing his devilish plans. Some may say that the plot resembles Ocean’s Eleven or the MI series, but one cannot deny that some portions of the movie, especially the last hour matches Hollywood. The action and chase sequences, the twists and turns may not be too many but they certainly make their presence felt.

No doubt the first half takes its own time in unraveling and also gets a tad monotonous at times. But the film’s latter part surely makes up for it. The final hour is so spectacular that it keeps you on the edge of the seat and doesn’t give you much time to think. You remain gasping as Don conquers his enemies and wins over you, too.

Of the cast, well, it’s a one man show. Shah Rukh Khan is in an absolutely supreme form as he charms one and all with the magnetic yet wicked Don. He looks dapper and sexy in all the looks and literally steals the show with his smirk and his quick-witted one liners.

Priyanka Chopra doesn’t look a cop, though she is suitably restrained. Boman Irani is potent as Vardhan and looks menacing enough. Kunal Kapoor’s short role is adorable and he springs a pleasant surprise. Lara Dutta and Om Puri are just average while the latter is completely wasted. Hrithik’s cameo is okay but he certainly didn’t infuse the same charm as SRK.

Music by S-E-L is strictly average. I won’t blame him as a film like this had to have minimum songs. Though, I liked the song in the end credits.

For Farhan, the film could’ve been better especially in the first half. He ought to have stayed away from depending so much on Shah Rukh. But to be honest, keeping the lazy writing aside, credit has to be given to him for making such a stylized and sleek product.

The film will definitely garner a better response both from the viewers and the Box Office than Ra.One.

I am going with 4 stars out of five for Farhan Akhtar’s, or should I say SRK’s, Don 2. The film is a hell of a ride in the second half and a Shah Rukh Khan show all the way.

Watch Don 2 and end the year with a blast!

 

Chaitanya Sharma
[email protected]

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