| Ragam | |
| Organisation type | Student Run, Non-Profit inter college Cultural Festival |
|---|---|
| Founded | |
| Place | Calicut, India |
| Institute | National Institute of Technology Calicut |
| Major events | Western orchestra, Eastern orchestra, light music, group dance, Mime, Street Play, Couture Boulevard Celebrity talks and pro shows |
| Guests | KK, Shaan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shankar Mahadevan, Naresh Iyer, Karthik, Balabhaskar, Benny Dayal |
| Slogan | Slogans of various Ragam
|
| Website | Ragam.org.in |
RAGAM is the annual inter-collegiate fiesta of National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NITC), Kerala, India, which started in the late seventies to commemorate the death of a former student P. Rajan, who died after being held under police custody (under the presumptions that he was a naxalite).[1] Ragam brings in the creamy layer of multifaceted personalities from all over India for a mesmerizing respite in an enthralling aura of fun and frolic..
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Ragam, a fest which has spanned 2 decades, is undoubtedly one of India's finest and Kerala’s foremost cultural festival. The humble yet controversial beginnings of this festival are well known to every college student worth his salt. A perfect blend of immortal hues, haunting music, intoxicating waltzing, fiery debates and a dozen other bizarre events, the second largest cultural fest in India, Ragam, fetches the innate finesse in the talented buds. Ragam has very innovative events, unique in its nature and presentation styles, leaving moist imprints of good memories in every person who is part of the fest. The professionalism portrayed by the participants, may it be the elegance of the dancers, exuberance of the musicians, confidence and wit of the orators, flare of the writers or the meticulous works of the future Da Vinci’s, it has always helped in keeping Ragam alive with zest.
The Festival has seen many famous musicians and band performances. Among the famous names that performed for Ragam over the years are Krishnakumar Kunnath (KK), Naresh Iyer, Shankar Mahadevan, Shaan, Karthik, Balabhaskar, Benny Dayal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Parikrama, Silk Route, Motherjane, Higher on Maiden (A tribute band to Iron Maiden), Breathe The Floyd ( A tribute band to Pink Floyd from UK).
This 4 day festival from March 09th to 12th assures ultimate fun and entertainment. Every Ragam has been unique in its own way. This year, to add icing to the cake, Ragam promises to be more glorious and authentic, for, the alma mater celebrates the golden jubilee year for which a V.I.P is expected to inaugurate the festival. This time, Ragam celebrates its golden jubilee year and promises a hike in the prize amounts. Hence the prize winners will have the benefits of raking in huger amounts than the previous years. This year, Ragam revolves around Youth Emotions and events are associated closely with these lively emotions classified as ecstasy, eureka, poker face, adrenaline and fantasy, that are radiated by the bubbling youngsters. The most alluring event this time would be the Mr and Miss Ragam contest. This will be the major highlight featuring a variety of rounds which would test the mettle, wit, humour, confidence, talents and body language of all the contestants. This event, with its professionally scrutinized rounds, is sure to give the right platform for the contestants to showcase their magnanimous persona. A dozen other events like Fashion show, Choreo Nites, Amplified, tantalizing literary and debating events like ‘What is the good word’, JAM, Mock press, Creative writing etc., art oriented events demanding more than paints and brushes, will also keep Ragam atop. The biggest attraction of this Ragam is a musical night by India's youth icon Sunidhi Chauhan who is sure to set the stage ablaze with her euphonious voice rendering her super hits like ‘Sheila ki jawani’ on March 11th. The following night is sure to be filled with the magical symphonies of the Jai Ho combination team composed of Stephen Devassy, the pianist, Suvi Suresh and Vijay Prakash, the singers, Blaaze, the rap artist who were behind the creation of the Grammy Award winning A R Rahman Song Jai Ho.
The workshops arranged this time would help in building a strong foundation of one’s vested interests and keep their flames of passion ever glowing in areas of art, literature, dance, music and even dramatics. We have Salsa workshops to sweep the couples off their feet, and other informative and fun filled workshops like kite flying to entertain and better equip the crowd. Every throbbing heart of NITC promises to be the notes of the beautiful symphony Ragam’11 and we hope that the whole community gets to feel and relish every bit of it.
Ragam was from March 24-27.Ragam 10,like any other Ragam has left a scintillating impact on the youth of India. The show succeeded in creating a new culture of authentic and precise organisation and presentation. The student representation was immense and their energy levels thronged the whole Ragam arena into a platform of fun and frolic.
The workshops arranged as a part of Ragam provided opportunities for the ardent to horn their skills in diverse areas of art, literature, music, dance and even cinemas. Workshops at Ragam offered everyone the best combination of fun and learning. The newest addition to Ragam, Jive Workshop, helped the couples to blossom their graceful dancing skills and to fool everyone with their unbelievable acting skills that they mastered at the Dramatics Workshop. On another note we had people from the Chetana Institute giving a workshop on Short Film Making and Malayala Manorama with their journalism workshop. It thus helped in building a strong foundation of one’s vested interests and kept the flames of passion ever glowing.
With a combination of finesse and ingenuity, Ragam 10 experienced the electrifying atmosphere of zest and extravaganza, as the most adept performed to enthrall everyone to make it the most memorable night for a long time. Last year, the ride, as promised, was more thrilling and exciting with none other than the voice that has captured so many hearts - Krishnakumar Kunnath better known as ’ KK ‘ who performed live at the OAT to thousand’s of spectators. The elegant and classy singer born in god's own country - Kerala, was back home to rock the show at Ragam 10. And to round off the musical feast, we had yet another singing heartthrob, Naresh Iyer, the prodigy spotted by A R Rahman and who gifted to us chart topping hits such as ‘Roobaroo’ from 'Rang De Basanti', ‘Mundhinam Parthene’ from 'Varanam Ayiram' and many others. As the unbeliever guilty of sanity is taken by the fallen angel, everyone lost themselves to insanity as Higher – on – Maiden paid tribute to the legends of rock. The show gave a wonderful chance to everyone to listen to the Original and arguably the finest tribute to Iron Maiden live. With more than 30 performances in over 13 countries, Higher-On-Maiden have come along way from 1995, when a group of teenagers banging out Iron Maiden songs decided to pay tribute to their idols.
In aaddition to these Ragam 10 featured other fabulous events like Choreo Nights. Fashion Show, Amplified, Swararaga and many others.
Ragam 10 was not just about entertainment and fun, but it also stood for natural cause. Rallies conducted in major districts of Kerala as a part of Ragam publicity were extremely successful. This helped in creating awareness among the common people on the importance of going green.
Ragam ’09 saw famed singer Benny Dayal performing at NITC with his hit songs like ‘adiyae kolluthaey’,’taxi taxi’ and ‘Pappu cant dance’ among others. The second day was NITC’s appointment with the phenomenal Shankar Mahadhevan. His electric performance set the stage on fire and his masterfully rendered hit songs threw the crowd into rapture. The last performance was by Pink Floyd tribute band, ’Breathe the Floyd’. NITC being their first stop on an all India tour, they transported the crowd into the depths of psychedelic rock and played some all time hits of the legendary band.
Over 4000 students of 130 colleges participated in Ragam 08. The 26th to 29 March 2008, saw the sprawling campus come alive with the sounds of music and dance and the oratory skills of the future world leaders. The events included group dances, western and eastern music competitions both group and solo, dumb charades and all kinds of literary events , enough to set any college students imagination alight!
Staying true to the grand scale on which it is organized, Ragam 08 was backed up by the sponsorships of bigwigs such as tata indicom and Sony.
The highlight of the event was probably the Pro Shows again, this time featuring popular playback singer Karthik, the hip Indian rock band, the Raghu Dixit Project and the white metal band, Whitenoise.
With about 4000 students from over 110 colleges participating in various events ,Ragam 07 was a huge success.Students from across the country vied for the top honours to bring glory to their alma mater.
The fest start off with a musical event followed by events which portrayed out each participants creativity and talents. The participation for ‘on the spot’ events was high, pencil -sketching event was a crowd-puller. Western orchestras electrified the audience with some hot numbers. The main dancing event , which over the years has been arguably the major attraction at Ragam , saw 14 teams from various colleges this year.
Shaan,the young singing sensation of Bollywood ,took the proshows at Ragam to an unprecedented level with his benchmark performance.
Ragam '06 was held from February 22–26, 2006 with year's theme being `Confluence of Colours.'. The curtain was raised on `Ragam '06' with the ceremony to commemorate the late Rajan, former student of Regional Engineering College, Calicut (now the NIT-C). A solemn message by Eachara Warrier, father of late Rajan, was read out to the audience in English and Malayalam. Ragam '06 saw the performances by Balabhaskar, Parikrama and Silk Route1.
^1 The Famous Pakistani Band "Strings" was to perform at the festival. Due to some issues it had to changed to "Silk Route".
The traditional events are categorised under literary, dramatics, fine arts and speaking events. The literary events include Dumb Charades, What's The Good Word, Pictionary, Triple Mash and Creative Writing, while the speaking events consists of Extempore, Just A Minute (JAM), Block and Tackle, debate and mock press. The fine arts events include clay modelling, collage, pot painting, face painting, cartooning, Rangoli and pencil sketching.
The music and dance programmes include Western orchestra, Eastern orchestra, light music, group dance and classical dance. The dramatics competitions planned are mime, mimicry, mono act, street play and tableau. There are also crowd-pullers such as the Ragam Quizzes, pot pourri, movie spoof and Ad-Apt.
With big corporate names like Tata DoCoMo, Nokia, Fastrack, institutions like UOWD, media giants like SS Music, Asianet, Rosebowl, Radio Mango 91.9, Red FM 93.5 sponsoring the event, Ragam becomes a hot spot for brand recognition and brand promotion. And indeed, Ragam has carved a niche for itself in corporate circles.