'Rewind, Press Play, Unwind' - a rather weird and inane tag-line for Festember'09. Anyhow captions seldom matter but for publicity. And publicity got another hit when the artists coming for Pronite were announced. When colleges are competing to get Shankar Mahadevan and Sonu Nigam, we had to compromise for a rather novel and naive guest show - Benny Dayal and a troupe called Bandish. Benny was already famous with his voice in a couple of Rahman hits and he had come over for Festember'08 as a judge. Now he gets his chance to perform. And Bandish was fairly unknown to most of us except for the organizers. Most people attend Festember for its Pronite, and this time half of NITT returned home.
Festember'09 was kick started with the worst organization possible. No one to sing the invocation prayer song. Embarrassment saved only by a brave M.O.C guy, who picked up the mike to recite a vinayaka sloka after the delegates and the crowd were made to stand and wait for 5 minutes! But the night was made a memorable one by Kadri Gopalnath and Kanyakumari when they mesmerized the audience in the Barn Hall with an enthralling concert. Kadri was exceptional on his saxophone and Kanyakumari her usual best on the violin. The performance surely raised expectations about Festember'09.
Days 1 and 2 attracted crowd only for the finals of the Musical and dance events. Absence of mess-bill-coupons for the stalls were the main reason. Apart from these, the workshops attracted lots of participants. The Tango workshop had couples moving around having fun while the Archery workshop held competition to find the best person to handle the traditional bow and arrow.
Day 3 had the much (not) awaited Pronite. Benny's song selection was good but only those songs were not meant for him. Had he stuck to the ones that he had sung and decreased his dancing steps on stage, his show would have been much better. And some administration problems led to an abrupt ending of the show. And the girls were sent back to their hostels because it was getting late into the night! Well everyone thought with the way things were going, it would not make much of a difference. But Bandish proved everyone wrong. Starting off with Dhim dhim tanana, they outperformed Benny with that one song itself. The all-guys crowd was on Bay 1 burning the dance floor to Bandish's tunes.
This time Festember did not promise much. An average show on the whole with a few exceptions may be. When the organizers and the administration change next time, I am hoping Festember'10 to be the best ever.
Festember'09 was kick started with the worst organization possible. No one to sing the invocation prayer song. Embarrassment saved only by a brave M.O.C guy, who picked up the mike to recite a vinayaka sloka after the delegates and the crowd were made to stand and wait for 5 minutes! But the night was made a memorable one by Kadri Gopalnath and Kanyakumari when they mesmerized the audience in the Barn Hall with an enthralling concert. Kadri was exceptional on his saxophone and Kanyakumari her usual best on the violin. The performance surely raised expectations about Festember'09.
Days 1 and 2 attracted crowd only for the finals of the Musical and dance events. Absence of mess-bill-coupons for the stalls were the main reason. Apart from these, the workshops attracted lots of participants. The Tango workshop had couples moving around having fun while the Archery workshop held competition to find the best person to handle the traditional bow and arrow.
Day 3 had the much (not) awaited Pronite. Benny's song selection was good but only those songs were not meant for him. Had he stuck to the ones that he had sung and decreased his dancing steps on stage, his show would have been much better. And some administration problems led to an abrupt ending of the show. And the girls were sent back to their hostels because it was getting late into the night! Well everyone thought with the way things were going, it would not make much of a difference. But Bandish proved everyone wrong. Starting off with Dhim dhim tanana, they outperformed Benny with that one song itself. The all-guys crowd was on Bay 1 burning the dance floor to Bandish's tunes.
This time Festember did not promise much. An average show on the whole with a few exceptions may be. When the organizers and the administration change next time, I am hoping Festember'10 to be the best ever.
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