DRUMS VS GUITARS

By Chinmayee Mishra

Originality is all that matters. And it was rightly proved at “Thunder Groove”, one of the most awaited shows in Milan. Turning the stage into battle grounds, five bands stunned the audience with their original compositions.

 The stage was totally occupied for two hours, and audience glued to their seats to have a look at the upcoming rock stars.

Giving the host performance was “No Quarters”, the band who aptly proved music alone can touch the hearts of million. They gave a complete performance playing different instruments without any vocals. The tunes played surely made an impact on the judges and the audience present.

Naming the bands to reflect their identity is a tough job to do, and on stage we had five completely different bands with a unique identity.

83/miles hour from SAE College of Engineering gave the audience, as the name suggests had a speed of 83/miles per hour and swiped the audience with their energetic performance.

Rockford Express from NIT Trichy rightly proved that NIT is not only about studies and bookies. The band gave a high level performance while the singer tried his best to get keep the audience occupied.

Out casting others is what Satyambhama planned to do. With their band named Outcast, they gave the judges a best shot of their original composition.

Bringing in a note directly from the outer world, the band named Ghost Note from Rajiv Gandhi College brought in a lively effect with their singer head banging to their original beat.

SRM landed at the end, with the band named “Pipe Dreams” and presented two of their original compositions. With ghost masks, they spread the message of Influence of wars on common people through their composition. 

Thirak to Celebrate Life

By Ratnika Sharma

“Madhuban mein radhika nache re”, in SRM, not one Radhika but many danced their hearts out in the solo classical dance event “Thirak”. But the highlight of the show, as the judge also pointed out, was the sizeable amount of male participation. Out of 9 dancers that participated, 3 were males. The reason why this fact was even highlighted was because of the simple reason that guys of this so called pizza eating generation are really not keen on learning Indian classical dance forms. Call it irony, but the winner of Thirak was Vijay Kumar from RMK Engineering College who absolutely broke all conventions that guys cannot dance without a feminine touch! His perfect postures and graceful execution of the Bharatnatyam dance form stunned everyone present. A National Award Winner in 2003, Vijay is a student, a part time tutor and a dancer. Who would not be impressed by that! His dance essentially revolved around Lord Vishnu and how he rescued an elephant from the clutches of a crocodile. The second prize was won by Kritika of SRM University who performed a Bharatnatyam recital on Lord Shiva.

Another commendable performance was by Satvika from Chettinad Health City who performed the Chaturmukhi, that envisaged the four most important aspects in a woman- love, strength, compassion and justice. Beautifully portrayed and choreographed, the piece did total justice to the dance form that was Bharatnatyam once again.

The event was judged by Mrs Jayshree Kannan, manager with the Air India but possessing a deep passion for dance was trained in the Kalakshetra style of Bharatnatyam dancing and gave her first stage performance at the age of ten. She especially remarked on a performance on a semi classical music but with a purely classical choreography. The dancer’s attire was a contemporary one and she proved that in spite of the contemporary touch, the dance was of the classical genre and it is upon the dancer’s skills to maintain that.

The criteria for judging were rhythm, taal, technique, expression, costume, footwork and general impression. All the dancers left a lasting impression on the small but supportive audience that had gathered. Milan is all about meeting yourself and dancing with a passion is just one of the ways! 

THE FESTIWALL

By Sudipta Saha

Ever got scolded by your parents for scribbling on the walls? Participants of The FestiWall were able to let out all their childhood feelings in this one glorious event!. The diverse Festivals of India which glittered off the walls of SRM were actually a feast for the eyes.

The event kicked off with two rounds, the  first was a pencil sketch in which the participants had to make any sketch of their choice to get selected for the finals. The contestants exemplified their artistic skills and talents in the initial stage. truly revealing the potential of all the budding panters here in SRM!

12 out of 22 teams were selected for the deciding round in which they had to prove themselves not only in being skilled and creative, but they also had to show that their art had both a concept and message behind it.

“Painting on the paper is quite easy but on the wall was a different experience for us and we enjoyed the challenge a lot, said Vipul, a participant.

Professor Jaganathan and Ramya Priya who were the judges for the event, declared Abhinau and Harismran as winners, and Ajay and Lavanya as the runner ups, all students being from our very own SRM University!

Shuru Karo Antakshari... Lekar Hari Ka Naam!

 By Aditya Nandan

What would you do when you are told that the leading bands in the world namely, Linkin Park, Creed, Blue, Metallica, Greenday and Westlife are going one on one with each other?!?

 Enter Musical Prick! Musical Prick is the first of its kind event in Milan and is basically the rebranding of popular game Antakshri (which is played by everyone in India to kill time), and this was nothing short of being one of the best events of Milan and that too on the first day itself!

 With a new concept divided into separate rounds it managed to retain the spirit of ANTAKSHRI. The event had five rounds, where six teams battled each other for nearly three hours to take home the crown!

Round One had a simple Antakshri format, followed by ‘Enact’ round in which any one member had to enact the song given by the audience. It was then followed by the identification round in which part of the face of the stars was shown and participants have to identify them and sing their song. Round Four and Five were the most entertaining rounds of all as all the drama plus controversies were waiting to explode. Finally after the nail biting and action packed five rounds Linkin Park was able to shove off the competition from the other teams and won the title of the best Antakshri Team of the year. They were closely followed by Creed who were only five points less than them and lost due to bad strategy they had during the event and the third place went to Greenday.

This event being conducted for the first time, was done very well by coordinators Vandana and Srishti, and the game was played in good spirits. This event is a testament to the popularity of Antakshri all over India!

A Visual Treat

By Shruti Pillai

They say cinema is the mirror of the society. True to the saying, this Milan edition got a glimpse of the society that we live in today, in the event “Microchalachitra”. Organised by the Dramatics and Visual Communication Domain, the event saw some tough and exciting competition among participants who exhibited their short films to an eager audience on the first day of competitions in Milan ’11. Among over 30 registrations, 11 were short listed from which Dilip. D and C. Prakash emerged winners with their short film “VVTV”, bagging the honors and taking home Rs. 6000. A short film titled “First time”, made by SRM students, won the second place and cash prize of Rs. 4000.

The competition had a plethora of a wide variety of interesting and unique ideas put across to the audience. The films on smoking, drug addiction, misuse of power, friendship, love-comedy,  its failures and a lot more kept the large and enthusiastic audience, who laughed, cheered, gasped and even shed a tear at the right moment, entertained the entire time. “Some of the short films really caught my eye, but a few did not cut it”, stated Nitin, a second year student.

The competition was judged by Dhanraj Balaji, the Head of Department of the Sivaji Ganesan Film Institute and V. Subramanian, a lecturer of Film Technology, both from SRM Vadapalani campus.

By making use of the short time given to them, the participants displayed a glimpse of the vast pool of talent that is available in the field of film development and production in the country. All this and so much more, it’s all happening right here, at Milan ’11.