As two first-years unfamiliar with the Vistaar Choir Showcase’s legacy, we approached it with interest and excitement, drawn in by the buzz it had generated across the Ashokan community. Sandwiched between Abhinaya’s (Ashoka’s Dance Society) performance the day before and the much-anticipated The Green Room’s (TGR, Ashoka’s Theatre Society) play the following day, Vistaar’s display on 29th November, 2024 seemed aligned as a perfect centerpiece in the celebration of three of Ashoka’s major performing arts societies. This naturally raised expectations, and the pre-event excitement was palpable, evident from the long queue outside Reddy Auditorium, where staff, professors, and students alike lined up in anticipation to witness the show.
The audience took their seats, light flooded the stage, and lively music filled the air. From the get-go, this showcase came across as an ambitious endeavor, a blend of three distinct musical verticals, Alankār, The Jim-Jams and Apple Cello. Each of the choirs has unique strengths, with Alankār performing Indian music, and The Jim-Jams and Apple Cello adding a Western flavour, the former utilising instruments and the latter singing acapella, creating music solely through vocals and beats. Fittingly, songs of varied genres, from Beyonce’s Crazy in Love to popular Bollywood track Bang-Bang, prefaced the event.
Welcomed by hoots and screams following the announcer’s disembodied voice, Apple Cello took the stage. The vocalists, clad in similar shades of black and blue, seemed to have already begun harmonising. As we set out on the night’s journey with Vistaar, Apple Cello’s opening song was ‘The Night We Met’. Shria Nair’s (UG ‘27) delivery as the main vocalist was strong and clear, while simultaneously tentative and soft. Harshith Roshan (UG ‘27) was beatboxing on the side of the stage as he swayed to the music and beats. Roshan went on to beat-box for multiple songs in the course of the evening, doing a brilliant job, and in the process may have inspired many in the audience to experiment later on, probably to their roommates’ dismay. Next up was Hozier’s ‘Movement’, with Surya Bhat (UG ‘26) as the lead vocalist. The crowd went wild at every chorus, which was sung in a deep voice in juxtaposition to the softer, smoother stanzas. Apple Cello’s performance came to an end with the song, ‘Hard Place’, with the lead singer, Shriya Sanjay (UG ‘27), who as conductor had been facing the stage, now came to the forefront. Their versatility was evident: their voice soared, hitting high notes, pulling off tricky—there’s no other satisfying English word for it—gamakas. Apple Cello had set the mood well, its soft and melodic tone turning the stage into a secret to which we were witness.
Then came Alankār. Instrumentalists lined up at the front of the stage: a tabla player, a cajon player, a guitarist, a mandolin player and a violinist, foregrounding the vocalists. All clad in ethnic wear, they came together to form a beautiful fusion in a thunderstorm of a performance. “The grandeur of music is a reflection of the grandeur of life itself,” the announcer said by way of introduction. These words rang true as we watched the light turn deep red, and the voices of the choir united in a powerful movement, their hands keeping taalam on the side. This performance, beginning with Sati Shlok and finishing with a medley, turned out to be a challenging but brilliantly orchestrated one-act production. It drew in the audience, who clapped their hands even as those on stage began to stamp their feet to the beat. It brought the evening to a fever pitch, the time when we all, from the edge of our seats, were silently grateful we had made our way there that night. Suffice it to say, this seamless, one act performance stood out even amongst the other well orchestrated performances that evening.
A praiseworthy aspect of this showcase performance was the lighting, which fluctuated and faded in and out in sync with the tempo and sentiment of the music. This served as a punctuation mark that separated the songs even as it bound them together, and before our eyes Shiv Tandav flowed into Bismil. Voices softened and slowed, and the stage fell to a gentle green. Voices hastened and rose, and the green was replaced by a fiery red. Silences, caught between two breaths of a song, took on a meaning in the orange, the crimson, the viridescent. The white lighting, as the performance ended and the audience broke into applause and cheers, reminded us there was a world off the stage, though the music did much to transport one from the confines of the auditorium. If Apple Cello was the pitter patter of rain on the windowpane, or the babble of a stream, Alankār was the crash of a cascading waterfall.
And then the moment came for The Jim-Jams! With the drums, the electric guitar, and the keyboard accompanying the vocals, the instrumentalists almost equaled the vocalists in number. The songs to come were interpretations of the power of nature, echoed by the performers’ who sported earthy tones. We eventually heard a number of songs, some new and some familiar: Welcome to the Jungle, Adventure of a Lifetime, Eat Your Young, California Dreaming, and Birds of a Feather. Their vocal arrangements blended solo singing with lush background harmonies that added depth and texture to the pieces. The moments where all voices joined in a unified chorus were particularly powerful, amplifying the emotion of the music. A technical oversight took away from the performance. There was a sense of loss as the intricate harmonies of well-practiced voices were occasionally overshadowed by instruments. Nonetheless, the group delivered a dynamic and immersive musical experience, providing lively beats and energetic tunes.
Assuming the night was over, the audience rose to leave, but Vistaar sprang a surprise: a secret collaborative number, a fusion of the three choirs. Launching into a performance of Labrinth’s All For Us, the choirs wove their distinct styles into an electrifying whole. Despite their different specialities, the performers blended together well, seemingly letting go of their individual styles to put on a unified performance, executing the song with its original elements with a complex layering of orchestral strings, pulsating beats, and gospel-inspired vocals.
Purists may disagree, and experimentalists may applaud, but neither can deny that this year’s Mixtape is poised to leave a lasting impression and we wonder how Vistaar would beat this in the spring showcase!
[Edited by Teista Dwivedi and Srijana Siri)
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