Tera hi jalwa- mono-acting

By Debleena Chatterjee

Language can never be a barrier for appreciating good acting. This was
what was portrayed in the one hour event of Mono-acting where the
participants gave their best within a time span of 2 minutes in the
first round. It wasn’t really easy for the participants because
naturally we take hours to express ourselves on one issue but doing so
in such a short time, that too in topics like man is asked to speak on
the death of his rival, multiple personality disorder, fashion model
becomes a chief minister, lipstick salesman selling a lipstick and so
on. Holding the attention of the audience for even a brief time is
quite difficult and you have to be really good in your field to do so
and almost all the participants were really good. Things become all
the more difficult when you have to mesmerise them with your solo
acting performance on issues which might not always have a humorous
touch to it. This was very well proved by participants like Yogesh,
Aditya Sharma, Manil Singh and John Pradeep. They were also the
participants who made their way to the final round of the show and
both Yogesh and Aditya gave two powerful back to back performances
which really deserved standing ovation from all the viewers. They had
to go for self selected topics after discussing about it for 30
seconds with the judge Prof. Unni Nayer, and each went for topics
which dealt with different genres of people’s places and occupational
lives. John who had qualified for the final round decided to act as a
retarded boy who had lost his family in tsunami, Aditya acted on the
topic death is beautiful which dealt with HIV-AIDS, Yogesh acted as a
rickshaw puller and his customer as well and the way he portrayed both
the characters were beyond belief and Malin acted as Gabbar in his old
age in the movie Sholay, his performance really had a good deal of
humorous touch to it. All the mono-acting done by the participants
were way beyond the expectation of the judges and the audience as
well. There was a tough competition for the first place between Aditya
and Yogesh but finally with his acting skill, narration capacity and
expressive ways Aditya of SRM University won the competition and
bagged the first position. An excellent show came to an end with the
best man winning the game. This event of mono-acting did prove that
soliloquy and monologue is really a difficult job to handle from the
actor’s point of view and you have to be the best in this field in
order to bring out your talent and capabilities.

Bon Appétit

By Shruti Pillai

Hostel Kitchen, held on the final day of Milan ’11, was nothing short
of a fantastic food carnival. It was the place to be for cooking
enthusiasts, especially those from the hostels. The event challenged
over 20 teams to prepare a food item within 45 minutes flat, without
using fire! Each team, consisting of two members, was given Rs.100 to
purchase the ingredients that were available from a mock shop set up
on the spot.
The first half hour provided for the competitor’s to buy the required
ingredients saw lots of mayhem as they ran around deciding and
discussing what to purchase that would help them create the perfect
dish and claim the winning place. Once the scene settled, the “chefs”
were busy raising the standards of creativity, preparing amazing
dishes, each looking better than the other!
Mr. Ganesh Moorthy and Mr. Anand Thiliban, Chefs from the Institute of
Hotel management were the judges for the event. They tasted their way
through all the wonderful looking dishes and finally after spending
quite some time in contemplation, announced Saketh from IIIT Hyderabad
and Prithvi from SRM University’s team the winners. The judges decided
on “Hyder Nawaaba’s”, as they called themselves, as the winners for
their presentation, taste and knowledge about cooking. They were
presented with a cash price of Rs.2500 for their splendid victory. “I
loved the competition.  And I loved us winning even more!” exclaimed a
satisfied Saketh. “I will definitely not miss out on this event next
year if they conduct it again” he added.
“This was an extremely interesting event for me to judge. So many
teams with no cooking background have shown off amazing skills here.
There are bound to be minor glitches, but that’s always acceptable”,
said Mr. Ganesh Moorthy.  “Various creative and innovative ideas which
I did not expect were shown here today. Milan should encourage such
events every year.” added Mr. Anand Thiliban.
So the moral of the story is that one does not need to go to popular
eating joints and spend big bucks to have healthy and appetizing food.
Sometimes you should just try doing it yourself!

Vocals solo- Eastern

By Debleena Chatterjee

Music knows no bounds, it is beyond any barrier that any language,
country or religion can provide. It is a way through which you can
reach people’s heart and which helps you to give vent to your
innermost feelings which are beyond words and description. Music and
songs are composed in such a way that makes you smile, feel happy,
shed tears or feel gloomy. Each and every feeling can be felt more
strongly when tried to be portrayed through “Sangeet”. This is a way
through which one can forget everything and lose themselves in the
rhythm of life. These were the exact feelings the audience and the
judges, Ms.Harini Nagarajan and Ms.Aishwarya Shankar, had, while
listening to the participants of vocals solo eastern competition. The
participants were judged on the basis of their voice quality, range,
tone, expression, stage presence and interaction with audience.
Participants were from SRM University Kattangulathur, MOP Vaishnava
College, Saveeta Medical College, D.G.Vaishnava College and Thanga
Vellu Engineering College. Janani, the participant from MOP Vaishnava
College was the one to bag the first position and Aishwarya Pratap
Singh of SRM University itself bagged the second position. These were
no doubt the best performances of the day. When both these
participants came on stage and gave their individual performances the
audience were left speechless and the judges were mesmerised at the
way they portrayed the true feelings of the songs. When Aishwarya’s
song got over, many had tears in their eyes and when Janani came down
from the stage every one present there wanted to congratulate her on
the spell bounding performance she gave. Two guys sang Chinese song
and even though they didn’t get any prize they enjoyed the whole
programme thoroughly. Thus this wonderful musical event came to an end
with an excellent performance from Ms. Aishwarya Shankar on a heart
touching bhajan.

Rock-Bhoomi

By Arvi and Debleena

The battle of the desi bands started with a huge bang when SRM
University band- Jack of All Trades gave a mind blowing host
performance and set the stage on fire with the song Kabhi na Kabhi
sung by their lead singer Aishwarya Pratap Singh. The mood set by the
first host performance was kept intact by the second SRM band which
sung Old Tamil Songs and had the crowd tapping their feet and humming
to their number the moment they started off. When the host
performances were so good it was quite clear that the six
participating teams were going to give a tough fight for winning the
competition. The judges Dr. Manibhaduri, Ms.Shweta Mohan, Retired
Squadron Leader Unni Nayar and Ms.Roshni were really surprised to see
all the bands giving a tough fight to each other for winning the Rock
Bhoomi title. However the two participating teams which stole the show
completely was the second team, O2 and the last team i.e., team six
which sang Massakali from Delhi 6 and sang a song of their own
composition. O2 received the second position and team six bagged the
first position. It is true that the audience response to all the
teams’ performance was awesome and the participating teams really felt
very elated for being able to perform in front of such great people
and for a wonderful and cheering audience. The wining team received a
certificate and won prize money of Rs.2000 and the second position
holder received a certificate and along with it prize money of Rs.
1000.

Fashion Ka Hai Yeh Jalwa!

By Ratnika Sharma

People are ready to pay any amount to see sizzling beauties and hot
dudes walk the ramp and some fashion freaks just want to find out what
is in vogue these days. Nevertheless, Fashion Show finds huge audience
and so did Milan too for its Fashion event.
The theme this time was ‘One night at the Oscars’ or ‘When East meets
west’. Most teams opted for the former theme which was a relief
because that had more options of better costumes and styling.
Practically speaking it is difficult to mix eastern and western
clothing and come up with a decent combination. Though, one of the
participating teams did refute the above statement by displaying a set
of smart apparel designs by mixing both worlds.
The first prize winners were the hunks from New College, who fetched
points on choreography, costume, music and looks. They sent the girls
swooning over them as they walked the ramp. They won a whopping sum of
Rs. 30,000.
The second prize was won by the SRM University team that also took the
Oscars theme and the participants scorched the ramp with their
costumes and choreography.
But amidst all the glitterati, people just gaped when the judge for
the event walked up the stage. Clad in saffron robes with long beard
and hair, Christian Faber also known as Swami Pranavananda led the
crowd to having second thoughts if they were in the right place. This
Frenchman turned Swami is a fashion designer by profession and owns a
fashion house called Fashions International in the city. As he gave
away the prizes and congratulated the winners he remarked, “Dare to be
what you want to be and don’t be afraid”. The other judges along with
him were Nazia Syed, a well known fashion designer and Prabhu Solomon,
film director.
With this event, Milan came to a glamorous end with a promise to
return next year with better and more interesting events and celebrate
life to its fullest!

Colours Of India

By Ratnika Sharma

Energy levels were high and anticipations raised as the Folklorica
event started off with a bang on the final day of Milan. The Punjabi
troop who called themselves Lethal, rocked the floor with an energetic
Bhangra performance that lifted the audience up on their feet and in
no time the entire auditorium was hopping on one leg and shouting
along with their ‘Hoy Hoy’! Of course the discipline team had a tough
time then!
Next up was the famous Tamil Kuthu that started off with Handkerchief
as the prop also called as ‘Oyilattam’ that also set the Tamil crowd
roaring. Who can resist the beats of Kuthu and so once more it was
battle time for the the discipline team. The group of 20 boys and
girls took the dance to another echelon maintaining the energy level
that was raised by the Bhangra troop.
What was so great about this event was that it gave a panoramic view
of the diversity in Indian culture. The Assamese spring dance ‘Bihu’,
started with the male dancers singing and dancing, accompanied by
percussions. The train of girls entered with the typical Bihu step of
shrugging the shoulders lightly. Though not a very energetic dance
with minimum movements, it is a very graceful dance form with subtle
but difficult movements.
As the eastern flavor melted, the audience was introduced to a western
blast of Rajasthani dance. With pots and glasses and colourful
dresses, the dancers set the audience swaying once again. The girls
danced on the pots, lifted the handkerchief with their mouths in a
chakrasan posture and performed the ‘Ghoomar’, a popular component of
Rajasthani folk dance.
With a fitting finale to a resplendent event, the last team from
Rouver College who also won the first prize of Rs. 15,000, performed
‘Karagam’, a traditional folk dance of Tamil Nadu. Beginning with a
dance on wooden stilts playing the percussions, they went on to
perform with decorated pots on their heads and arches with peacock
feathers. The audience watched with abated breaths as the dancers did
stunts on ladders and roller balance.
Every team was given time duration of 8 minutes in which to perform
and 2 minutes for stage set up. The Judges Deepak Muthukrishnan and
Jailakshmi Radhakrishnan declared the Punjabi group from SRM
University as the runner up winning a cash prize of Rs. 10,000.
It was truly a treat to the eyes to see so much colour and art
splashed on to the stage with such vibrant energy that was really
contagious.
The last day of Milan was still brimming with excitement as it came
closer to the valediction. Events like this kept the tempo going of
students who were wishing celebrations would never end!

Tera hi jalwa- mono-acting

By Debleena Chatterjee

Language can never be a barrier for appreciating good acting. This was
what was portrayed in the one hour event of Mono-acting where the
participants gave their best within a time span of 2 minutes in the
first round. It wasn’t really easy for the participants because
naturally we take hours to express ourselves on one issue but doing so
in such a short time, that too in topics like man is asked to speak on
the death of his rival, multiple personality disorder, fashion model
becomes a chief minister, lipstick salesman selling a lipstick and so
on. Holding the attention of the audience for even a brief time is
quite difficult and you have to be really good in your field to do so
and almost all the participants were really good. Things become all
the more difficult when you have to mesmerise them with your solo
acting performance on issues which might not always have a humorous
touch to it. This was very well proved by participants like Yogesh,
Aditya Sharma, Manil Singh and John Pradeep. They were also the
participants who made their way to the final round of the show and
both Yogesh and Aditya gave two powerful back to back performances
which really deserved standing ovation from all the viewers. They had
to go for self selected topics after discussing about it for 30
seconds with the judge Prof. Unni Nayer, and each went for topics
which dealt with different genres of people’s places and occupational
lives. John who had qualified for the final round decided to act as a
retarded boy who had lost his family in tsunami, Aditya acted on the
topic death is beautiful which dealt with HIV-AIDS, Yogesh acted as a
rickshaw puller and his customer as well and the way he portrayed both
the characters were beyond belief and Malin acted as Gabbar in his old
age in the movie Sholay, his performance really had a good deal of
humorous touch to it. All the mono-acting done by the participants
were way beyond the expectation of the judges and the audience as
well. There was a tough competition for the first place between Aditya
and Yogesh but finally with his acting skill, narration capacity and
expressive ways Aditya of SRM University won the competition and
bagged the first position. An excellent show came to an end with the
best man winning the game. This event of mono-acting did prove that
soliloquy and monologue is really a difficult job to handle from the
actor’s point of view and you have to be the best in this field in
order to bring out your talent and capabilities.