Dhoom was the Annual Cultural Showcase of the ISA, held on March 9th in the Campus Center Auditorium, at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The Indian Students’ Association (ISA) put up a grand cultural extravaganza and called the event DHOOM, which accurately portrayed the upbeat and energetic mood of the students. ISA is a group of graduate students who are dedicated to spread the Indian cultural values in the community. They have annual functions like these, which are extremely popular in the university. In fact, the Indian community looks forward to these events, just so that they can be part of the occasion and celebrate it with fellow Indians with zest. The artists in this particular event were a mix of undergraduates and graduates, not only Indians, but from other countries and cultures as well.

India Nite is an annual event, and depicts the Indian heritage, the culture and the cuisine. It includes cultural programs (classical and light music, dances, fashion shows, poetry recitals, skits and competitions), and a wide variety of Indian cuisine created by the India House, Northampton. The atmosphere, as a whole, was simply enthralling and captured the attention of everyone.

Dhoom, under the careful sculpting of several enthusiastic students, was an extremely pleasurable and bewitching show. They tried to demonstrate the fusion of the traditional and modern Indian culture, and integrated it with the American one. Most of the items depict this particular theme, and do so in an exceptional manner. The skit, an adaptation of the classic movie Sholay shows us what the movie would be like if it were made in this generation. Gabbar Singh and Thakur are in love with Ganga mausi, who in turn rejects both of them and marries Devdas, a character completely unrelated to the original movie. Another piece that seemed to be the talk of the event was the Bharathanatyam dance, Dreaming Sculptor, performed by three extremely talented artists. Three sculptures come to life and celebrate this by exploring the simple things in life. The other items ranged from the film numbers to the mimicking of the popular actors in Bollywood.

The UMass Jazz Crew joined in the event and performed some electrifying pieces. They danced to a couple of songs sung by the "Teen Idols", and a couple from Hindi movies. It was amazing to see them convey the exact emotion of the song, even though they didn’t know what the words meant! For the first time, the ISA requested students from another culture to participate in this event. The Turkish students gave a breathtaking performance, using their native instruments such as "saaz", the piano accordion and their own voices. ISA members plan to make another culture part of the India Nite every year, and thereby set a tradition. The grand finale was a swing dance to the evergreen number, Mera naam chin chin choo . The dancers were so good, that some of the Turkish and American students decided to join in!

The effort and hard work that was done by the organization was extremely clear throughout the show. The audience seemed to enjoy it as much as the participants did in putting up the show. They were clapping and encouraging all the performers, most of the time, singing along with them. It was really an interactive show and that’s what made it so successful. After dinner was served, the area was cleared and everyone had a good opportunity to burn off all those calories by dancing to their favorite music!

Information about the ISA is available at http://www.umass.edu.

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