Nukkad natak a big draw at Uphoria

By Surabhi Shahi
Aakrosh, the street play event, at the first day of Bennett University’s annual college festival, Uphoria, was a crowd puller with six colleges participating in the competition. Team Kalakriti from Galgotia University won the first prize, while the second and third prizes were bagged by Teams Abhivyakti from Amity University and Team Muktalif from Christ University respectively. Well-known theatre actor Nasir Abdullah was the judge for the event.

The street play or nukkad natak took place in front of C block, which houses the residential hostel. There were more than 100 students that had gathered, and more joined in as the street play participants hollered in Hindi: aao aao natak dekho (come and watch the street play).

Colleges that participated in the event included Galgotia University, Christ, Rukmini Institute of Advanced Studies, Symbiosis centre for management studies (SCMS).

Divya Jyoti, head of management of Ansh, dramatics and theatrical club, Bennett University, said, “All the six teams were amazing and full of action. All of them picked important social causes for their nukaad natak and each one delivered good performances.”

One social such cause was down syndrome which Team Roshni from Jamia Hamdard University performed on. The team through its performance tried to sensitise the audience about the condition and the hardships of those who have down syndrome; how these individuals become victims of bullying and struggle with lack of acceptance because of their condition.

Water scarcity was another social cause that was taken up at Aakrosh. Team Kirdaar from SCMS performed on the theme of water scarcity.

The participants shared that the Bennett crowd was quite engaged during the performances. “We got a good audience response.”

Jyoti, head of Management at Ansh, added, “The audience response was good, in fact when the teams were doing the flash mob, it excited the students even more. The energy of each team was just adding to the audience's reaction.”
Spiral Dip
This event was a collaboration event organized by the creative clubs of Bennett: Alexis and Silhouette clubs. The event involved making tie-n-dye t-shirt on your own. “I am not a very artistic person, but I did not face as many difficulties today as I thought I would because everyone here was so helpful”, one of the members said. “They are opening up the t-shirts tomorrow because we have to let them dry overnight, I guess but I am very excited to see how my t-shirt will look”, she added.

There were several other contests too like a Bollywood mimic contest, a ramp walk, and a stand-up contest for students.

(The writer is a Sem 5 student of BA (JMC) course at Bennett University)