Days of vibrance and brilliance

It was with much fanfare and enthusiasm that Unmaad 2012, the annual cultural fiesta of IIM-Bangalore, was held.

The three-day festival saw a good number of participants turning up from across the country.  The festival, which had the tagline ‘Escape Yourself’, saw not only the students performing but also professional musicians and dancers.

Nukkad Natak, a street-play competition, was one of the prominent events on the first day, which saw nine teams performing on various social issues.  The team from IIM-B enacted a play on the implications of social networking on political movements.

In the AD Unmaad event, the contestants had to create an advertisement for a product given on the spot. The participants came up with interesting themes.  The audience also had a chance to enjoy an impromptu performance by stand-up comedian Ashwin Matthew who made them roll in laughter. 

The literary events too drew good participation. In the event, ‘Not Just Black and White’, the participants had to sketch the portrait of any person they liked.  A couple dance event, called ‘Just Duet’, also saw some breathtaking performances.

The salsa workshop and ‘Tongue Tied’, the dumb charades event, were also enjoyed by the students. Benny Prasad, who holds a Guinness record for being the world’s most travelled musician, gave an exclusive performance.

He started his concert with the composition ‘Tribes’ on a unique instrument made by him called Bentar and performed four popular music compositions for the evening.  The prominent event on the first day was the ‘B-School of Rock’ — a band competition between professional and semi-professional bands from all over the country.

One of India’s most renowned metal rock bands ‘Demonic Resurrection’ judged the event. The band set the audience’s pulse racing with their music in the energetic concert after the competition.

The second day started with musical events like Sur, designed on the lines of music reality shows such as ‘Indian Idol’.  In the first round, the singers crooned songs of their choice. In the finale, they performed the songs given to  them by the jury.

In the evening, Kailash Kher performed to a packed audience who cheered him all through the show. The audience hummed their way through the evening to Allah Ke Bandey as well as a few new tracks from his upcoming album that were performed for the first time to an open audience.

“The preparation for Unmaad like getting sponsors, designing publicity materials and reaching out to colleges started in early September last year.  This time, we had a rocking response with more than 150 colleges registering in more than 25 events,” says Varun Rajani, the cultural coordinator, who also explains the logic behind choosing ‘Escape Yourselves’ as the tagline for Unmaad 2012. “People think that students at B-schools are geeks and don’t look beyond academic commitments. So, we wanted to show the world that we too enjoy a lot of things like other youngsters,” he says.

Vasundhara Jain, one of the coordinators, says that Unmaad helps them come out of their comfort zone and get refreshed. “Cultural activities apart, this time, a week prior to Unmaad, we hosted nearly 100 orphans at our campus and helped them spend a creative and fun-filled day on the campus in association with ‘Make A Difference Foundation’. We are also proud of many professional artistes who had come forward on their own and showed interest in performing at Unmaad. Such is the reputation of our festival,” she says.