| Malhar मल्हार |
|
|---|---|
| Frequency | Once in a Year during Monsoon |
| Location(s) | St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, India |
| Years active | 32 |
| Inaugurated | 1979[1] |
| Attendance | 30,000 |
| Website | www.malharfest.org |
| This is a College festival. | |
Malhar is one of the most popular college festivals in Mumbai, India, hosted annually by the students of St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. It is an Inter-collegiate Youth Festival, and has been in existence since 1979. It is usually held in August, during the monsoon season, and involves teams from 90 other colleges in Mumbai and 30 colleges across India. The event includes cultural contests in literary, performing arts and fine arts categories, along with a number of workshops on different themes. The festival is run completely by the students of St. Xavier's College, with some 1200 volunteers involved, and it draws 30,000 student participants[2] and audience to the College Campus annually.[3]
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Each year, the festival follows a specific theme. The theme for the year 2011 was Labyrinth.
Antakshari, India's most popular chain game, in which knowledge of Hindi songs is put to the test.
Mr and Ms Malhar is the talent contest to find the ultimate festival entertainer. It looks for talent, originality and sense of humour. The winners are crowned reigning king and queen of the festival.
In this event contestants show their dancing prowess and tap to popular Bollywood tunes.
Contestants showcase street styles like Hip-Hop, Krumping and B-boying. The dance performances are based on the theme of the festival.
Bands from different colleges compete to play different kinds of genres.[4]
Contestants have to perform in a dark room filled with neon lights and live up to the theme/story.
The Amateur Night is a platform for amateur bands all over the city to showcase their talent. The event is solely for the workforce of Malhar and those with V.I.P passes. Bands can play any genre of music.
In addition to being a college festival that aims to entertain, Malhar is also a socially conscious festival. From cleanliness drives to tree plantations, using the Malhar platform and its numerical strength of over a thousand, the workforce tackles and promotes awareness about social issues.
Malhar On Wheels is a new publicity campaign that began in 2010. Two weeks prior to Malhar, students belonging to the P.R. department go to several colleges and perform publicity gimmicks and teaser campaigns to generate interest pre-Malhar.