Udupi: MIT’s Aaina Dramatics blazes a glorious trail

Bellevision Media Network

Udupi, 29 Dec 2015: Aaina Dramatics, the cultural wing of the Student’s Council of Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), Manipal University blazed a glorious trail at one of Asia’s biggest cultural festivals, ‘Mood Indigo 2015,’ organized by IIT- Mumbai on December 21.

 

The team won the stage play competition and a cash prize of Rs 25,000. In addition to the opportunity to showcase the play ‘Ravanleela’ at the prestigious NCPA (National Centre for Performing Arts), Mumbai some time in February 2016, Aaina Dramatics also won third place in the Short Film competition and a prize money of Rs 6,000 for the short film titled, ‘The Last Class.’

 

 

‘Ravanleela’ had freedom of expression through mythology and a play within a play concept, with cultural flavors of Karnataka by way of Yakshagana, supported by The Yakshagana Kendra, Udupi. About 55 college’s dramatics societies from all over India participated in the elimination round of the stage play competition called ‘The Third Bell.’

 

MIT was one of the five teams that qualified after the elimination round in which an 11-minute trailer of the play had to be presented and was judged by faculty from well-known drama schools, films assistant directors, casting directors. The teams that qualified were: MIT, Manipal; PEC-Chandigarh; IIT–Mumbai; Mount Carmel, Bangalore and Delhi’s Hansraj College.

 

 

‘With five strong teams doing battle for the final honors, it was tough,’ said Pallav Singh one of the team members. The entire play was of 50 minutes, including stage setup and clearance. The judges were screenplay writers of Bollywood movies, directors and pass outs from National School of Drama. ‘We beat all the colleges in a fierce competition to emerge as numero uno. The first runners-up were IIT Bombay and was followed by PEC Chandigarh in the third place,’ Pallav said.

 

The team comprised 12 members -- nine actors, a director, an assistant director and a lights and sounds manager. The backstage was supported by MITians living in Mumbai who worked in tandem with the cast and crew to script the victory in true MIT spirit. The play is a self-written script by Abhinav Grover - An MIT alumnus of 2014 batch. The team worked for 16-17 hours a day and in this period we literally did everything like a well-knit team. ‘All this was possible because of the support of the director MIT, Dr G K Prabhu and Dr Veena Maben, associate director student affairs.

 

Team members of the play: Pallav Singh, Abhinav Grover, Khushi Goenka, Khushbu Tiwari, Dhiraj Wadhwani, Suryansh Mishra, Seewant Kushal, Prateek Uppal, Sankalp Kumar, Sehaj Gambhir, Venumadhav Bhatt, Uday Pandit.

 

In the short film competition named ‘Director’s cut,’ the MIT team finished second runners-up. It was an open competition where innumerable short films from all over India. The organizers of Mood Indigo 2015 selected eight film clips based on their story, editing, direction, sets, cleanliness and other technical parameters.

 

The selected teams were then asked to make a 12-minute film on any theme (Open theme) to be submitted by December 12. The cast of the play and the short film was common. ‘We now had a herculean task to manage short film and play within a 9-day window. Considering the outcome in both, I think we did quite well,’ exclaimed Pallav. ‘We bagged a cash prize of Rs 6000 for this win.’

 

The ‘Last Class’ is written by Puneeth Maram (MIT Alumnus of 2015 batch) director and producer -  Kunal Bhan and Neeraj Mohan (MIT 2016 batch). Starring in major roles were: Pallav Singh (MIT 2016 batch), Abhinav Grover (MIT 2014 batch), Seewant Kushal (MIT 2017 batch).