Theatre Auditions 2011-12 !!

16 September, 2011

All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players. I could not have used a more clichéd line to start my account on the theatre auditions but we in the Cultural Committee are a strong believer in mediocrity and I personally lack all the panache of even a mediocre writer. So as I dwell in the intricate corners of my mind to remember that fateful day when we organised the theatre auditions, it but makes me laugh to think that all the mediocrity was washed down by some awesome, kickass performances. Considering we are law students, we generally have enough spare time to pursue our varied passions. Theatre enthusiasts are an integral part of NUJS, the drunken parties, the tales of debauchery, the opinionated debates, the illogical moots, each and every one of them requires a thorough and strong knowledge of basic dramatics and this was very nicely illustrated at the auditions.

I was offered the prestigious honour of hosting the audition (read *threatened to do it*) which I enthusiastically accepted (read *had no other choice*). I must confess, the audience turnout was not expected to be that huge. But this was not going to stop our young little theatre soldiers. The whole exercise was divided into two rounds, the first consisted of a monologue which the contestants had to prepare beforehand and the second round was an impromptu one in which the contestants were divided into teams and given weird scenarios to act out. The  audition  began  with  an  ever  pleasant  rendition  of  a Shakespearean work by a first year. It was either Romeo and Juliet, Julius Ceaser or Hamlet (The only Shakespeare plays I know... and now that I come to think of it could have been Macbeth). From my immense literary knowledge on Shakespeare's work, I could definitely say that the performance easily captured the essence of the whole scene. But our contestants were not going to restrict themselves to the conventional style of auditioning. They went ahead and performed monologues from many classic films which have a cult following. Films like American Psycho, Inglorious Basterds, Braveheart. Yours truly also tried his luck with the auditions. I tried to do an Alan Shore but ultimately forgot my lines and was shown off the stage with a few sympathetic claps.

One very special feature of the audition was the different array of accents that was on display. We had Aniket Ghosh of the second year doing a wee bit of Scottish accent and playing Braveheart, we had Joachim Saldhana pulling off an impeccable English accent and reciting Lord Mountbatten's speech, and we had Utkarsh Meena of first year with an outstanding Gujarati accent, playing Brad Pitt from Inglorious Basterds. Shashvat Arya of the second year acted out the opening scene of Gulaal and had most of the audience convinced that a separate Rajputana sovereignty is the best thing the country needs right now. Mohit Prasad did a fun little one sided conversation of a boyfriend who longed for a break-up. And our very own Rituraj did an Amitabh impression (which was creepily very accurate). The weirdness reached its pinnacle when Vineet Bhalla opted to act out the classic scene from American Psycho in which Christian Bale kills his first victim; not only Bhalla but also the victim (Shashvat) did a fabulous job.

The teams for the second round were eventually divided and they were given fifteen minutes to prepare a short play on situations given to them. During the fifteen minutes a short film directed by the judge was shown to the audience. The impromptu round was a huge success, showing that the students in our college have an awesome sense of humour, the most memorable amongst them was of Aniket, Prateek and Mohit about *ahem* girls in boy's hostel *ahem* (we would like to state that all views expressed by the contestants were their alone and the Cult Com does not endorse or support any of them) which was freakishly funny. After the audition, the judges invited all the contestants in a classic theatre circle and gave them the feedback. Everyone returned a better actor that day.

Divyanshu.......

University Dance Team Auditions 2011-12 !!

Even before I had joined NUJS, one of the events that I really, really looked forward to was the university dance team audition, because for people who are in love with dance, being there on stage at every opportunity, is all that matters. So that is what I am going to talk about.

Well, I had known I would perform at the audition, but what I had not known was that I would be a part of the Cultural Committee (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cultural-Committee-NUJS/154440831233788?ref=ts) itself and hence, not only was I going to participate in the audition, but I was also going to help organise it! The meetings were held, rules were framed, the date set (making sure it was nowhere near the contracts tutorial !!), the auditorium requisitioned and the notices put up. Then there were things like arranging for the judge, deciding on the “guest performances”, deciding on the duties like registration, judgement, etc. The posters for the audition also had to be made. And finally, the ‘noojies’ had to be coaxed into coming for the audition because for some incomprehensible reason, we just don’t do a thing until we really have no other choice left....

There were three days to go for the audition, everything was set, people were practicing and I still had no clue about my performance. On the day of the audition, after frantic last minute music editing and practicing, I settled down in the auditorium with my friends. I was up at number 7. The programme started with the welcoming of the judges and the reading of rules by the emcee for the evening – Divyanshu. Considering the applause and the comments (“oh, he is so cute”, “he’s adorable” and the like) from the audience, I have no doubts about the popularity of the emcee ;) (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1107352875 – his facebook profile, just for you ;) The auditions were held for both eastern and western categories, with Stephen as the external judge for the event (He is a Dance Instructor/Choreographer at Crewk'd: https://www.facebook.com/crewkd) 

The evening ended with a rocking performance on “Aaja Nachle” by Khushi Kejriwal followed by a duet performance by Gayathri and Modhulika on “Bedardi Raja”, which was undoubtedly superb and left everyone wanting for more. We even made the judge dance for us on stage.

But the best performance of the evening by a huge margin was definitely Divyanshu grooving to “Chamak Challo” ;) :P

The results were announced after a few days.

And the team is :

Eastern Team:

Sushruti Tripathi, Apoorva Sundar, Anushka Shetty, Alphonsa Jojan and Neeti Bhatt.

Western Team:

Nivedita Udupa, Ambika Wadehra, Sadhvi Sood, Avichal Mathur and Utkarsh Meena.

.............................    Sushruti  Tripathi  :)

Black Comedy- Theatre at its best

Black Comedy- NUJS' first theatre production opened to a bout of silent anticipation in the auditorium on the eve of Holi. The darkness on the stage was in tune with the bated breath of the audience. And as just everyone was expecting lights to be turned on, voices were heard in the dark...

Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer, follows a reversed lighting scheme. It is a farce set in a London flat during an electrical blackout. To read the play, click here

It was a difficult task to handle the lights in this particular theatre production. Murali rose to the task and performed it admirably. Vishnu Shriram managed to win over the audience with his sound effects. The set designed by Peter Adam and Vijay was nothing short of miraculously marvellous. Costumes arranged for by Ketaki Purohit suited the play perfectly and the ease and dexterity with which Nitika Gupta designed and arranged for the props was amazing. Modhulika Bose did a fantastic job as the asistant director. Being the convenor of the cultural committee, Naman Gupta was thought of to be the right person to be the production manager and he proved the same right. And the play would not have been possible if not for Amoolya Narayan, the director and the most enthusiastic person on the sets. The cast and crew worked tirelessly for perfection, helped by several others including commiittee members. The play could not have been pulled off but for everyone's cooperation and support.


The play opened with Brindsle (played by Divyanshu) and his fiancée Carol (played by Srishti Goyal) who have taken the fancy furniture of neighbour Harold’s ((played by Jochaim Saldana)flat in order to impress Carol's father, Colonel Melkett (played by Tapobrata Mukherjee). Brindsley is afraid that the Colonel will not give up his daughter to a starving artist. Things go awry when the lights go out, leaving Brindlsey helpless as characters arrive, one by one. First is Brindsley's elderly neighbor, Miss Furnival (played by Vaishnavi), followed by Colonel Melkett, unimpressed by the blackout, and Brindsley's worst nightmare comes true as Harold returns early. Brindsley tries desperately to return the furniture without Harold noticing while dealing with the rest of the guests (which includes the electrician/philosopher Schuppanzigh (played by Vineet Bhalla)and the millionaire George Bamberger (played by Devang Agarwala). The play ended with a standing ovation by the audience who were enthralled by the magical experience they had just had.

Here is a short clip from the play:

4th NUJS Night

NUJS Night- the mesmerising event that brings the entire NUJS family together- became 4 years old. Pragya Gupta tells us about the birthday celebrations:

The year’s most awaited event, by faculty and students alike, was organised by the mess committee and the cultural committee on the crisp night of the 30th of January. Twinkling lights around the campus and the cheesy bollywood music blaring through the speakers promised a very entertaining evening ahead.

After the arrival of the VC and the ceremonial lighting of the lamp, the tiny stage set up near the cess pool was taken over by the hosts for the night, Abhisar Bairagi and Kumar Ashutosh. No person who dared to come up on the stage was spared their witty assault! The audience had a fun time at the expense of the hapless interviewees (a celebrated frenemy duo, and Lord convenor himself!) who were busy dodging extremely uncomfortable questions and while the rest of us read between their very diplomatic lines. Meanwhile, there were people at work backstage who were punctuating the proceedings with some very well chosen songs (recall; ‘yeh doosti...’ and ‘main jooru ka ghulaam.....’ to be read w.r.t. the last bracket).

Next to come up on the stage were band ‘Jo so ho so’ (nomenclated right behind the stage) whose rendition of “Afterglow“held the audience enthralled. This was followed by Vineet Bhalla’s performance, who had prepared a mime on ‘Don’t look back in anger’. The next performance much to the audience’s delight was by The Indian Music Act, with Siddharth Tiwari as the lead singer. Their very popular ‘Hostel ke ye faasle’ elicited a very enthusiastic response from the audience! On popular demand, the lyricist, a very hesitant Mr Akshat Vajpayee, was called up on the stage and applauded.

Here the proceedings came to a halt for a very much needed dinner break. More than the delicious spread, I think the rarity of eating and not having to wash the plate afterwards was exciting for the hostelers. The members of the messcom and the purple-liveried waiters had their hands full with the mile long queue for the food. Needless to say, the faculty enjoyed the dinner as much as the students did.

The audience’s attention was snagged back onstage by Gayathri R. and Alphonsa whose very lively dance on ‘Randaka Randaka’ quickly made people run to fill the seats up again. This was followed by Rituraj Sharma’s much awaited performance, who took the audience through the golden ages of Bollywood with the help of Saniya, Antara Priya, Avichal and Pranav; the last three being his ‘hand-picked' first year talents.
Next came the biggest highlight of the evening, the performance which the faculty had also been eagerly looking forward to.... the very original skit by some very talented actors. The scene opened to a faculty meet between the Vice Chancellor (Kislay, the best of all by unanimous opinion), and the rest of the faculty members. The people almost fell off their chairs laughing and trying to eat and clap and hoot at the same time!


Not to be let off easily, the teachers were called up on the stage next. Prof. M.P. Singh had the entire cast of the play interviewing him; then, with great expectations of some interesting revelations, the wardens of the hostels were interviewed, though with the peril of exams hanging over their heads, the interviewers couldn’t quite press upon some of the more salacious topics. The next talk was quite a novelty with Prof. Daniel Matthews interviewing professor Shameek Sen.

The last performance of the evening was a very innovatively composed instrumental by ‘Peter and Pals’,and it set just the right tone for wrapping up the night’s activities. Thus ended the highly energised and entertaining NUJS night for the year 2011, with hopes of a similar gathering year after year.

Martial Masks!

On January 15th 2011, the Cultural Committee organized ‘Martial Masks’, which was a rendition of Chhou dance from Purulia, West Bengal.
The event was organized in collaboration with SPICMACAY, which is the Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth. SPICMACAY is a voluntary, apolitical, participatory student movement which aims to enrich the education process by exposing students to the rich cultural traditions of India. In the thirty three years of its existence, SPIC MACAY has opened more than 300 chapters, both in India and abroad and it organises more than 2500 programmes every year in schools and colleges. Our alliance with SPICMACAY has indeed been a successful one, what with Pandit Chaurasia’s performance last year, and Martial Masks this year. And we are of the hope that it will continue to be so.


This year, due to highly unfortunate circumstances we could not host the Manganiars from Rajasthan. Instead, we were given the opportunity to have the Tarapada Chhou group, a team of 18 men from Purulia, who performed for us ‘Mahishasura Mardini’, the legendary tale of the slaying of Mahishasura by Goddess Durga. The rendition of the story, which most of us are familiar with, in a dance form which is an infusion of tribal, folk and classical dances and martial arts, was nothing short of interesting.
The audience, who mostly consisted of students and faculty from NUJS and certain representatives of SPICMACAY, were left spellbound and honoured the humble artists with a well deserved standing ovation.
The evening was brought to an end with an introduction of the Tarapada Chhou group, along with an address to the students by Mr. Kanak Sankar Mukherjee, one of the organisers from SPICMACAY, who brought our attention to the artists, their skills and the kind of humble lives they lead, imploring us to keep in mind the finesse we witnessed that evening and to respect and work for the survival of every such cultural form that makes our country the wonderful place it is.



The event was a success despite many hurdles, and it was possible only due to the untiring efforts of the members of the Cultural Committee, the organisers from SPICMACAY, the ever enthusiastic volunteers, and a wonderful audience.

[For more pics of the event, please visit Creative Genes, managed by Vivek Kumar, one of the most brilliant photographers you will come across.]

(as penned by Varsha Bhattcharya, our co-convenor who emceed the event)

Ayodhya, a train trip and lots of memories

When NALSAR invited us for Summons 2010, their cultural and literary fest, not many who could share their experience of Summons with the new contingent were around. It had been quite a few years since we had last been in Shameerpet for a cult fest.

The looming Ayodhya verdict at almost the same time added to the apprehension. I had to handle frantic calls from worried parents wherein I was told a number of times that I wasn't a parent yet and as such it wasn't easy for me to understand a parent's anxiety. Well, I almost felt like one that day notwithstanding that I am only in my third year of college. Wishing them all the luck and giving almost parent like advice, we bade the contingent farewell and what happened thereafter was a roller coaster of a ride on which Vineet Bhalla and Gagana NV take us:


In spite of the fact that most of our parents kept on rambling about how the looming Ayodhya verdict might lead to riots and bandhs and that it wasn't safe for us to travel all the way to Hyderabad just to take part in a college fest, we all went ahead for Summons anyways. Most of us were first-years going to their very first college fest, and nothing could dampen our sunny spirits, not even a potential battle between religious fundamentalists and the danger it posed to our lives!

Since we had an early train to catch, we had been instructed to be ready with our luggage outside by 6 a.m. sharp. True to NUJS spirit, the entire contingent was out only by 6:50, after urgent phone calls to the two main culprits who kept us all waiting for so long, Shruthee and Gagana. We bid our good-byes and boarded the fleet of taxis that had come to pick us up, kicking off the journey in right earnest.

Some of us were honored and some (unfortunately) scandalized to have the DC committee, i.e., 'Daru and Cigarette' committee accompanying our Summons contingent. Other than terrorising the NLU-Orrissa kids in the train, the DC club also effortlessly kept the eunuchs away. And all through the train journey, Chick-magnet a.k.a. Vaibhav was trying furiously not to blush in view of the fact that he was reunited with his dearest, ahem…’friend’ after a long time. Highlight of the train journey though was ShooMon Da’s spectacles flying away from his face and out of the bogey door (only his glasses could have pulled that off!!) as a result of which ShooMon Da became, er, visually challenged for a whole day-and-a-half. The eventful 26-hour long train journey ended once we reached Secunderabad, and a two-hour long bus journey later, we were left standing outside ‘Celebrity Resort’ in the middle of wilderness. Even though our 30-member contingent had to squeeze into the three-bed room (15 into one room, in case of the first year guys) villa, none of us complained much because, well, there was air-conditioning!!

While everyone else was unwinding and resting, the determined-to-see-the-sights-of-Hyderabad-while-they-could fivesome of Shoumendu, ShooMon Da, Bhagi, Bhalla and Yash sneaked off from the villa to Hyderabad. At that time trivial matters such as commuting back from Hyderabad to our resort-in-the-middle-of-nowhere at night didn’t strike their genius minds. As it turned out, they got stuck in Secunderabad for two harrowing hours while returning, running after buses and autos in the middle of a heavy downpour and begging and pleading them to drop them near our villa. After some 268 blunt refusals of this humble request, one noble autowallah finally helped them out of their ordeal. Back in the villa, the rest of the contingent members were busy threatening to sue the owners of a nearby restaurant for illegally charging extra tax on the dinner (We are budding lawyers, after all!).

The fest didn’t start on such a high note for us, what with Sidhaant, who was registered to take part in poster-making competition, disappearing minutes before the event was supposed to start and pissing everyone off by turning up late (Pulling off such shenanigans throughout the trip didn’t exactly get him brownie points from the rest of the contingent). Arnab turned up wearing a t-shirt that said ‘Hey Gunjan ! Where’s your roommate?’ to annoy a ‘special someone’ who happened to be a NALSAR-ite. The numerous food stalls that abounded sold some pretty ordinary food at inflated prices (the rolls there were half the size and double the price of what one gets in good ole’ Kolkata).

Coming to the competitions, the first of the four challenges for the Theatre team, the Movie Spoof, was scheduled early up on the first day. The plotline for this had been conceptualized during the train journey by Shashvat and Bhalla, and the former had written the entire script the previous night only. Still, the fact that we came first means that a) the judges must have really liked our heady concoction of Inception, Twilight, Kaminey, Ghajini, Dabangg and Taare Zameen Par, and b) our theatre team is pretty damn good.

No one in our contingent had planned to take part in Solo Dance, but Avichal bravely volunteered to participate in order to earn our contingent some participation points. We all felt bad for the chap, for he had not prepared anything, and would be dancing unrehearsed. But he stunned everyone with his mind-blowing, impromptu performance to 'Khai ke paan Banaras wala' and walked away with the second position. Surely the story of the fest, his victory provided us not only with merry cheer, but also a great moral boost. Avichals’s promise of a grand treat to us all remains unfulfilled, but that’s another story. A guy from NLU-O, who also had his birthday that day, came first. Due to this, most of our contingent got friendly with him, wishing and congratulating him in the hope of getting a birthday-first prize double treat. When that didn’t seem like materializing, we showed our true colors and gave him a small dose of the NUJS B’Day Celebration, Boys Hostel style!

Sreya and Sidhaant, apart from sharing a 'joking' relationship with each other, possess very, very creative hands. They teamed up and came first in all the fine-arts events except for cartooning. That's because the cartoon strip which they, along with Gagana, drew was a very upright and hilarious comparison of the curfew timings of NUJS and NALSAR (the curfew timing of NALSAR being 7pm!). Obviously it didn’t go down very well with the judges.

The Symbiosis contingent, our main competitor, was huge, with more than 50 wannabes. There was a lot of banter between us and them, most of it of the not-very-polite variety. This kicked off a series of highly entertaining and intense tussles between NUJS and Symbi and the competition turned fiercer and fiercer every minute, culminating in a bitter face-off on the final day between the two contingents that almost turned ugly.

Brassic bhai, our 'elusive' contingent leader ('elusive' because he used to go missing every time someone needed him) and ‘renowned’ rapper won the hearts of every NALSAR-ite with his remarkable performance (in which he spoke very highly of NALSAR) during the Western Solo competition. On the DJ night, we had to make do with a terrible excuse for a DJ who had no sense of music at all. He kept playing boring songs to which no one felt like dancing (I mean, who can dance to the Mario background theme??). But we danced and enjoyed anyways.

Our street play, with a Naxalism-based theme, was a huge success and very well-received by the audience. Every single member gave a power packed performance. Swaroop, who played a mentally and physically handicapped villager, actually moved some of the audiences to tears! (Nah, just kidding! But he was pretty much awesome). The Stage Theatre event provided us with two images that we will probably never forget: One, of Shashvat playing a gay Yamraj, Yammi, complete with Bhalla’s ridiculous yellow-and-red pajamas; and two, of Bhalla, who had already played a girl in the Mad Ad, taking it a step further and donning a proper sari for the role of Rakhi ‘Saawan’! Looking very lovely and feminine, he attracted many wide-eyed stares and even requests for his number from some NALSAR guys! (OK, I made up the last bit, but whatever, the guy wore a SARI, for God’s sake!!)

Other than that, Shruthee got lucky in Tambola and earned 400 bucks (we’re awaiting a treat from her too), although the Tambola game will be remembered more for Brassic Bhai’s impressive dive towards the caller with a full house claim that proved to be a bogey! Bhalla, on his third college fest within five weeks, won the creative writing contest, much to the delightful surprise of everyone, including himself. He claims to have written a ‘psychological thriller’ on one of the stipulated topics, ‘Man in the Towel’ (We don’t believe him either). D aka Divyanshu, Bhagi and Shashvat cleared the Dumb Charades prelims by guessing a book, a movie and a famous figure, all within 25 seconds. They ultimately came second in the finals.

Besides all these victories, there were some other fun moments too. Like the Group Dance Competition, during which the crowd oohed and aahed for Pranav, Krishanu and Antara who enthralled the audience with their impressive stunts and of course dance! Or the Paper Dance, in which Bhalla and Shruthee did admirably to reach the fifth round, wherein Bhalla could only stand with one foot on the paper with Shruthee perched on his shoulders. At this point Bhalla’s foot, like his mouth, proved to be too big for his own good. In 'Race Against Time', Shruthee, Gagana and Sidhaant ran around the campus like mad dogs searching for stupid clues. In the Parliamentary Debate, Khosla set it up quite nicely only for Gaind to mess it up (As it is, there’s no love lost between the two). And when no one wished to participate in the Hairstyling Competition, it was ShooMon Da who valiantly stood up, picking an unwilling Vaibhav ‘Chicky’ Verma as his muse. Suffice to say, the resulting hairdo was anything but pleasing to the eye.

The last day, though, belonged to Madhav ‘Slowhand’ Khosla, who was part of all three NUJS victories that day. First, he won Turncoat. Then, he virtually carried D and Bhalla along with him to the first place in the Entertainment Quiz. And in the evening, he came second in the Mastermind-style quiz. The fest finally concluded with a mesmerizing performance by Lucky Ali and his band, which had a very pretty 19-year old as its lead guitarist (with her and three wives, Lucky certainly deserves his name!) In the end, Symbi won the best contingent award, much to our dismay, and we came second best. Still, we did pretty well for ourselves, and could manage to feel proud about our exploits in NALSAR.

Looking back at Summons, we won’t only remember it for the seven first places or the five second places that our contingent got. We will also remember it for many other priceless moments, such as the idle frolic and the stupid games invented and played with friends during marathon train journeys; the group singing sessions during our bus trips, tirelessly orchestrated by the first-year CR, Akshay; cramming up 12-13 guys to sleep in a room with just two beds
; fighting for who gets to use each of the three bathrooms next while getting ready in the mornings; all the guys literally jumping like a pack of wolves on the food that Shruthee brought from her friend’s place; cheering and shouting and goading and applauding each other during the various competitions, and feeling so proud and happy for each other and for the fact that we’re Noojies. The euphoria of winning, the disappointment of losing, the gossiping, the laughing, the hard work put in those practice sessions and much more; these are the memories of what was, for many of us, our very first college fest that we will cherish. To sum it up then, there were some periods of lull, but on the whole, Summons was great fun.