Star-studded sessions and an impressive line-up of events marked the first edition of Med Gala 2022 organised by the students of Journalism and Mass communication, Department of Adult Continuing Education and Extension, Jadavpur University, on November 24 and 25. Over 2,000 students from various colleges in Kolkata had participated.
Med Gala events focused on the culture of sports, quiz, photography and new-age digital memes. My Kolkata was the digital media partner.
My Kolkata was the digital partner
The inauguration
The fest kicked off with a formal inauguration on November 24 comprising acknowledgements and felicitations and a short address by chief guest and actor Chandan Sen. Students from Asutosh College, Surendranath College, St. Xavier's College, Bhawanipur Education Society College, Acharya Prafulla Chandra College, Amity University and many more took part in this two-day extravaganza.
Lauding actor Chandan Sen’s comment on the “Evolution of journalism from being a watchdog to lapdog”, Santwan Chattopadhyay, head of the Department of Adult Continuing Education and Extension said during the inauguration: “Our students who have taken up this venture (Med Gala) have done an incredible job. They have painted the walls and decorated the place. Most importantly, the events are all application-based and on the creative nature of their courses. So, I think it’s the other way round, moving from lapdog to watchdog.’’
Chandan Sen addresses the audience at the event
Day 1
After the inauguration, an exhibition volleyball match was played in which students from the Department of Physical Education, Jadavpur University, participated. The match was held with support from Kolkata Thunderbolts, the defending champions of Premier Volleyball League, 2022.
The volleyball match in progress
‘Mogojastra’, the quiz competition was held in two rounds – prelims and final. Over 50 students participated in teams of two. Souhardya Pramanik and Souptik Choudhury from the Department of English, Jadavpur University, were the winners.
Participants battle it out in the quiz competition
‘Shobdo-Jobdo’, the feature writing competition had over 100 participants. They were asked to write (within 1,500 words) in Bengali or English on a given topic. Sahajahan Molla emerged as winner of the competition.
Memebaazi, the meme-making competition, was held with the changing dimensions of digital media. The participants had to make memes within a stipulated time based on the templates shared with them by the organising committee. Krish Chakraborty from NSHM Knowledge Campus emerged as the winner.
‘Pictorial’, the comic strip making-competition with the theme ‘The power of media under the present Government’, saw Alefiya Haji emerge as winner.
Niladri Paul, Department of Journalism, Bijoygarh College, was the winner of ‘Chitra-gupt’, the photo journalism competition. Ankita Halder emerged as winner of Photoscope (PhotoStory) which was based on the compilation of three to seven photographs from around the city to form a story.
‘Be offbeat’ was held parallelly with other competitions where participants were allowed to speak their hearts out during the event.
The concluding session for Day 1 was an interactive session with the entire cast of Ballavpurer Roopkotha.
The cast of 'Ballavpurer Roopkotha' interact with the audience
Director- actor Anirban Bhattacharya, Satyam Bhattacharya, Surangana Bandyopadhyay, Shyamal Chakraborty took part in the discussion moderated by actor Rwitobroto Mukherjee. Apart from talking about the journey of the movie and in performing arts by the cast of the movie, Anirban also treated the audience to the song Shaajo Shaajao from the movie.
Day 2
November 25, the final day of Med Gala, had three events.
‘Pitch Astra’, the brand-pitching competition, was mentored by Meghdut Roy Chowdhury and others. At a time when Kolkata is turning into a city of entrepreneurs, this entrepreneurship pitching session gave students the platform to put forward their ideas to the leaders in the sector and gain from their wisdom and knowledge. SXUK (St Xavier’s University Kolkata) Thunderbolts consisting of Aranyak Mojumder, Maliha Siddiqui and Pratasi Sardar emerged as winners.
(Left) Participants present their pitch. (Right) Judges evaluate the presentations
Film is an important tool of education and expression, more so in contemporary times. ‘Screen Masters’, the short film-making competition, was held at the fest where Ok Boomer by Samriddhi Chakraborty emerged as winner.
Audience enjoy a short film session at the event
‘Halla Bol’, the street play competition, saw teams perform on several social topics related to the current scenario. Judged by actor Rwitobroto Mukherjee, Surendranath Law College emerged as winners.
(Left) A play in progress. (Right) Judges of ‘Halla Bol’
The concluding session of Med Gala 2022 was a special full-house screening of Ballavpurer Roopkotha for the students and participants.