Oculus 2020: Cultural Events

While providing plenty of fun to casual fest-goers and fodder to the tech-enthusiasts, the cultural aspect of Oculus was not ignored. Oculus 2020 was a marvelous amalgamation of some brilliant cultural events.

SARGAM

12 solos and 3 duets made their way to the finals out of 35 solos and 6 duets from SPIT and other colleges around Mumbai, the auditions for which took place on the 25th of January.

The event was held on 7th February, after the inauguration, when the participants and the audience flooded  the SPIT Quadrangle. The extravagant stage setup including monitors, speakers, LED’s and gorgeous lights added glitters to the golden evening. The judging panel comprised of Mr. Deepak Rankawat (International playback singer, lead vocalist of Lesie Lewis Band, sung in UK based movie Cholay) and Mr. Rituraj Tiwari (India’s Got Talent 2018 Runner up, sung title track for KBC, playbacked his song in film Roohani).

The last year’s Sargam winner Rishab Giri, who gave background music for the Bollywood film ‘Shubh Mangal Zyada Sawdhan’ made a surprising guest entry with his soulful performance. Chirag Kotwal won the first prize for his song Aaj Ibadaat and Muskaan Khan came runner up with her song Kaisi Paheli Hai Ye, while duet was won by Vinit Vashi for his Teri Deewani Medley

BEAT IT OUT

The seminar hall of SPIT was buzzing with music connoisseurs as well as intrigued newbies for Beat-it-out, a beatboxing competition as a part of Oculus, the techno-cultural fest held on 9th February 2020

For beginners, beatboxing is a rapidly growing art form that transcends the sole replication of drums and sound effects into full musical performances. The event was hosted by Mihir who is a national level beatboxer himself. There were two elimination rounds which were judged by Indian Beatbox Champions Wah da fu and aady and also Shivali, the female COLOSSAL Champion. From both the rounds top 16 participants (8 from each elimination) moved to the battle round. In the end, it came down to four semifinalists. The small final was held between Aayush and Rahul_jeez which was won by Aayush. The finals came down to Vadsu vs Fatkrrent. After the first round, Fatkrrent got the edge and it turned into a very nail-biting battle. In the second round, Vadsu took the lead and forced the spectators to come out of their seats and dance to his tunes. Thus, it was a close call and in the end, Vadsu was crowned the winner of Beat-it-out.

“It was an unexpected opportunity for me to be able to organize Beat it Out as a new event in Oculus 2020, the experience will be something that will be everlasting for me” –
Ankit Vishwakarma

Carnival

Yet another remarkable day of Oculus 2020 started off with one of its most vibrant events -Carnival- held on Saturday, the 8th, at Sardar Patel Sabhagriha. Carnival is a chance for those who enjoy .being on the stage and walking down the ramp with every eye on them

The event had 7 participants in all, including, VIT, NMIMS, SNDT, RGIT, LORDS, TOLANI and SARASWATI, and it lasted for three hours. The participants looked stunning, each team playing up a theme, as extravagant costumes, and embellished bodies stole the show.

Towards the end Judges declared SNDT as the best team with RGIT on the second wheel. TOLANI wherein pocketed the best theme award for the day. Also, Shashwat Shetty from TOLANI won the best male award and Apoorva Mahadik from SNDT won the best female award, thus calling it a day.

“Having to work with a huge team and the rush till the very last minute. All of it from the start till the end was mesmerising and thrilling”
Harshita Lakhotiya

Aelan-e-Jung

Dance is the communication between body and soul, used to express what is too deep for words.’ One of the final events of Oculus 2020 was Aelan-e-Jung, the intercollege dance competition.

The Bhavan’s amphitheater was full of enthusiasts on the night of 9th February 2020. Eight teams namely, TEC from Terna College, Queen Bandits from SNDT, CREW5678 from Bharti Vidyapeeth, They See Kalakaars from VES, Gyrations from KJ Somaiya, Crusaders from Atharva College, Footloose from RAIT and Beat breakers from VIT participated in the competition.

The dance troupes from these colleges were given different names for anonymity. All of them mesmerized the audience with their performances. The attractive costumes, fluid dance movements, and fascinating props made it tough for the judge to decide the winner. The judge for the event was dancer Karan Maru, a student of Awez Darbar.
In the end, the first position was bagged by VES. The first and second runners-up were RAIT and KJ Somaiya respectively.

The events made for a grand show, and delighted the fest-goers, creating a perfect fusion with what the tech side of Oculus had to offer

Article by Sharli, Aditi and Sahil

Photography by Hrusheekesh, Rounak, Gaurav, Vaibhavi and Sumit