With the usher of a new year, comes a renewed excitement of the possibilities and new experiences to be had. This applies to us all as well as to MITCOE Aarohan which had its humble beginning in 2014 and now in 2016, with one of the most happening and jam-packed cultural events from Pune, they won over the 9000+ attendees with the multitude of events and with over 1 lakh of prize money to be won, it was a festival you just could not afford to miss. To put this into perspective 500+ number of participants were counted in all the events, it could’ve gone even further had the on-spot registrations not been shut down due to the massive response shown by the students attending.
The barrage of fun-filled events lasted over a total of 3 days along with online competitions, a mesmerizing performance from the first marathi rock band in the world, an evening of utter laughter riot along with a really cute little food arena with scrumptious food and a flea market with all sorts of quirky products and services. The events and competitions were hosted by Anwesha Mishra & Siddhant Chawla who is the marketing head of Pictorially Speaking magazine and has been hosting MITCOE Aarohan since the last 3 years.
The inaugural ceremony took place in the presence of an MITCOE alumni, Mr. Dhruv Damale who is also a graduate from the National School of Design specializing in the Fine Arts.
- The festival was launched with a lot of pomp as Ishwari Deshpande who is a trained classical dance specialist having performed at several international events, enthralled the audience with an inaugural performance kicking off the sequence of performances to come over the next two days.
- Next up was Rishikesh Potdar an MITCOE alumni and a brilliant paper cutting artist having previously performed on India’s Got Talent also performed for the horde of crowd by cutting out a portrait of A.R. Rahman.
- To make the ceremony even more memorable, a performance of the original compositions by Ashutosh Sohoni called “Vijayonmaad” & “Tujhyamule” was performed by Rohan Pillai,Pranav Paranjape & Ashutosh. Lyrics of the song Tujhyamule are by Mr.Sandeep Khare who is already well known. Here’s the link of the song:
- Inner Flame (Solo Dance): As the name suggests, this competition was a chance for dancers from all types of expertise to showcase their talent for solo expression. The solo dance of more than 25 performers was judged by Mr. Abhilash Mulay who is an International level performer.
- Dastaak (Street Play): The best way to generate awareness for a certain issue in society is to dramatize it and bring it to life in front of people who are oblivious to it. Street plays are a means for spreading this awareness. This competition was judged by Aroh Welankar who is most widely known for playing the main character of the famous marathi feature film “Rege” and also for the film “Ghanta”. Performers from COEP along with performers from BVP Law won the competition for the plays on Women Empowerment and female foeticide respectively.
- Moksh: After all these action-packed performances, an even more electrifying performance was lined up for the attendees as Moksh, the world’s first marathi rock band started their set for the Pro-Nite concert. They ruled over the crowd as they sang various marathi and hindi songs along with a few original compositions. The crowd grew thicker until it was closing time when the band took a selfie with all the attendees and the day was concluded with this concert.
- Humming (Solo Singing): In a country of over 1.2 billion, we’re bound to have quite a number of singers and that’s exactly what happened for the solo singing competition. As with all other competitions, the on-spot registrations touched the roof and people had to be send back because of time constraints. In the end, out of the numerous entries, 5 were selected for the semi finals and 2 of them were announced as the winners. The judge here was Mr. Rohan Pillai who is the vocalist of the previously mentioned song “Tujhyamule” and the winner of several firodiya awards including Best Western Vocals and Best Classical Vocals.
- Mad-Ads (Improv Ad): Improvisations are always fun to watch. People can come up really wonderful ideas when a time limit is imposed. The task here is to come up with a credible ad for a sensible or sometimes an absurd product. Mad Ads was an attempt for the same. This competition was judged by Mr. Palash Hase, director of the award winning play “Malabh”.
- Stand-Up Comedy: As the day came to a close, the penultimate performance had to be something to look forward to immensely, and who can resist a bunch of comedians tickling your funny bone? Definitely not me. So this evening, instead of the usual whistling and shouting, there were bouts of laughter emerging from the hall. The hall was packed end to end and might’ve been one of the highest points of the festival, if you weren’t here, you missed something really incredible. The performers for the evening included Kautuk Shrivastav, Gaurav Kapur and Andy Reghu who are a part of Chalta Hain Comedy.
- In-Sync (Group Dance): The last event of the day included performers performing all types of dance forms but the one which won was for a contemporary performance from a group from MIT who were also the finalists at Mood Indigo last year. The judge was Mr. Rishikesh Sahane who is associated with the group External Force. He was the runner-up at Mood Indigo in the street dance category in 2014 and was the winner in the same category in 2015.
- Blood Donation camp in association with Blood Connect, an NGO was organized between 9am to 2pm which gathered a huge crowd and a favourable response from the students attending the festival.
- Art Maestro (Fine Arts): The last and the most exciting day of the festival started with a showcase of some of the most amazing talents including charcoal, was and acrylic painting along with other fine arts. This competition was judged by Mr.Shirish Kathale, a senior artist who has performed live paintings at the concerts of musical bigwigs like Zakir Hussain, Shiv Kumar Sharma and many others. He is an expert in the art of translating musical performances into the form of paintings.
- Platform (Talent Hunt): As the last event of the festival, a full-house was expected with a huge variety of performances which included everything from juggling, paper cutting along with other obscure arts to musical performances, poetry recitation, paper cutting and charcoal painting. The award though went to a performance of freestyle football for the amazing footwork and incredible hard-work put in evident from the cheers from the audiences who loved it way too much. The judges for this were Yogesh Shejwalkar and RJ Sumeit from Radio Mirchi.
- Inauguration Ceremony
-
The inaugural ceremony took place in the presence of an MITCOE alumni, Mr. Dhruv Damale who is also a graduate from the National School of Design specializing in the Fine Arts.
- The festival was launched with a lot of pomp as Ishwari Deshpande who is a trained classical dance specialist having performed at several international events, enthralled the audience with an inaugural performance kicking off the sequence of performances to come over the next two days.
- Next up was Rishikesh Potdar an MITCOE alumni and a brilliant paper cutting artist having previously performed on India’s Got Talent also performed for the horde of crowd by cutting out a portrait of A.R. Rahman.
- To make the ceremony even more memorable, a performance of the original compositions by Ashutosh Sohoni called “Vijayonmaad” & “Tujhyamule” was performed by Rohan Pillai,Pranav Paranjape & Ashutosh. Lyrics of the song Tujhyamule are by Mr.Sandeep Khare who is already well known. Here’s the link of the song:
- Day 1
-
- Inner Flame (Solo Dance): As the name suggests, this competition was a chance for dancers from all types of expertise to showcase their talent for solo expression. The solo dance of more than 25 performers was judged by Mr. Abhilash Mulay who is an International level performer.
- Dastaak (Street Play): The best way to generate awareness for a certain issue in society is to dramatize it and bring it to life in front of people who are oblivious to it. Street plays are a means for spreading this awareness. This competition was judged by Aroh Welankar who is most widely known for playing the main character of the famous marathi feature film “Rege” and also for the film “Ghanta”. Performers from COEP along with performers from BVP Law won the competition for the plays on Women Empowerment and female foeticide respectively.
- Moksh: After all these action-packed performances, an even more electrifying performance was lined up for the attendees as Moksh, the world’s first marathi rock band started their set for the Pro-Nite concert. They ruled over the crowd as they sang various marathi and hindi songs along with a few original compositions. The crowd grew thicker until it was closing time when the band took a selfie with all the attendees and the day was concluded with this concert.
- Day 2
-
- Humming (Solo Singing): In a country of over 1.2 billion, we’re bound to have quite a number of singers and that’s exactly what happened for the solo singing competition. As with all other competitions, the on-spot registrations touched the roof and people had to be send back because of time constraints. In the end, out of the numerous entries, 5 were selected for the semi finals and 2 of them were announced as the winners. The judge here was Mr. Rohan Pillai who is the vocalist of the previously mentioned song “Tujhyamule” and the winner of several firodiya awards including Best Western Vocals and Best Classical Vocals.
- Mad-Ads (Improv Ad): Improvisations are always fun to watch. People can come up really wonderful ideas when a time limit is imposed. The task here is to come up with a credible ad for a sensible or sometimes an absurd product. Mad Ads was an attempt for the same. This competition was judged by Mr. Palash Hase, director of the award winning play “Malabh”.
- Stand-Up Comedy: As the day came to a close, the penultimate performance had to be something to look forward to immensely, and who can resist a bunch of comedians tickling your funny bone? Definitely not me. So this evening, instead of the usual whistling and shouting, there were bouts of laughter emerging from the hall. The hall was packed end to end and might’ve been one of the highest points of the festival, if you weren’t here, you missed something really incredible. The performers for the evening included Kautuk Shrivastav, Gaurav Kapur and Andy Reghu who are a part of Chalta Hain Comedy.
- In-Sync (Group Dance): The last event of the day included performers performing all types of dance forms but the one which won was for a contemporary performance from a group from MIT who were also the finalists at Mood Indigo last year. The judge was Mr. Rishikesh Sahane who is associated with the group External Force. He was the runner-up at Mood Indigo in the street dance category in 2014 and was the winner in the same category in 2015.
- Blood Donation camp in association with Blood Connect, an NGO was organized between 9am to 2pm which gathered a huge crowd and a favourable response from the students attending the festival.
- Day 3
-
- Art Maestro (Fine Arts): The last and the most exciting day of the festival started with a showcase of some of the most amazing talents including charcoal, was and acrylic painting along with other fine arts. This competition was judged by Mr.Shirish Kathale, a senior artist who has performed live paintings at the concerts of musical bigwigs like Zakir Hussain, Shiv Kumar Sharma and many others. He is an expert in the art of translating musical performances into the form of paintings.
- Platform (Talent Hunt): As the last event of the festival, a full-house was expected with a huge variety of performances which included everything from juggling, paper cutting along with other obscure arts to musical performances, poetry recitation, paper cutting and charcoal painting. The award though went to a performance of freestyle football for the amazing footwork and incredible hard-work put in evident from the cheers from the audiences who loved it way too much. The judges for this were Yogesh Shejwalkar and RJ Sumeit from Radio Mirchi.
If all these mind-bogglingly amazing acts weren’t enough hard work, the organizing team of over 110 students went even further to organize 4 online competitions:
- Creative Writing: The theme for the submissions was “Journey”.
- Photography: Theme was “perfect timing”. The winning entry was a photo of a tiger in his natural habitat.
- Graphic Design: Having a universal theme of “Wonders Of the world”, the winning entry brought back memories of the Paris attacks from last year.
- Short Film Making: Various entries were accepted here, most of which dealt with the topic of social causes.
Along with all this, LAN game competitions for games such as FIFA 15, DOTA 2 and CS 1.6 attracted the gamers including India’s best DOTA 2 team. These competitions ran for all the three days with the final round on the last day.
The informal area had something to enjoy for everyone from all walks of life. Paintball arena, 7up-7down, UNO, rifle shooting, table tennis, and a photo booth made sure the attendees didn’t have a dull or idle moment, especially the innovative games like Human snakes and ladder & Human Foosball. The box football tournament was held on all the 3 days with its final round on the last day of the festival.
To sum it all up, it was one of the most inspiring and meticulously organized cultural festivals in Pune with an energetic team of organizers and the equally terrific participants made the whole experience worth bunking all the lectures for the 3 days of adventure.
Review Overview
Management
Hospitality
Visuals
Crowd
Dhinka Tika!
Summary : MIT Aarohan is a good example of how a cultural event should be organized. Everything was meticulously planned and executed. The best thing about this event is the crowd that attends it. They bring life to the event!
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