Adobe Panache - When engineers let their hair down || 'Adobe's Got Talent' as observed by Bhavna Negi & Ankit Singh

Panache, the Adobe India’s Talent hunt is an event organized by the ESCAPE society of Adobe every year.

  

Aptly named - Panache is not pulling any stops and is willing to dig way deeper than last season to retrieve those hidden gems. 

This post is written by Bhavna Negi and photographs being used are clicked by Ankit Singh

The name of the event itself stands unique as uniquely as it celebrates people’s talent. The past years have seen the grand success of the event, again because of the participation of mind boggling number of Adobe employees. There are a multitude of innovative competitions, in fields as varied as comedy, music, artists, singers and dance, and magicians to name a few.

 

These competitions form the backbone of Panache and generate tremendous participation and audience-response. While the rules of the event remain the same, the event itself changes as this season sees an exponential growth in participation and subsequently in the kind of acts that were performed.

Panache is meant to drench the crowd with its ever-lasting essence and to engross its name in golden as the best corporate festival.
In this show, the judges, hosts and the ESCAPE team creates an atmosphere that is most conducive for the participants as well as the audience to completely come out of their shells, bloom and act effortlessly, delivering one heart-warming performance after another.

With Jury members –
    
 (Pic credits for above three - Nitin Gupta)

Shannon Victor Peter, Anmol and Jasneet keeping a keen vigil for the unique talent, Whilst the charming host Dhirendra Mohan- had audience spirits all pep up.

And indeed, the search for the most entertaining act began and the result was nothing short of spectacular.

The talent show also promises exciting prizes for the winner:
1st Prize – Gift Vouchers worth Rs.10,000
2nd Prize – Gift Vouchers worth Rs.7,500
3rd Prize – Gift Vouchers worth Rs.5000

And the audience gets a gift too for all the enthusiasm and participation. And the event was followed by scrumptious snacks.
ESCAPE has been thematic this year where we had guest performer along with the participant and each one was with the feeling of being on a ship.

They promised the show isn’t going to be monotonous with.
Let’s walk you through the entire event and bring to you the amazing in-house talent viz the Participants as well as the Guest Performers.-

Participant I -
Isha Mehta, living up to her name, started the show with a beautiful and yet energetic song - 'Ho laal meri pat rakhiyon bala jhule laalan'. It set the mood right and every audience swayed to the song. Indeed, a perfect start to the show.

Participant-Mohammad Shahnawaz Khan, is yet another In-house talent at Adobe known for his singing style. His song last year was as famous as were this year. He sang 'Gulabi Aankhein', which adds another feather in this singer’s cap, so here’s wishing him all the luck.

Participant II –Ankit Vaidya, was an instant success with the crowd.
He made them dance and sing along with his mind blowing singing. He chose the famous song 'khaike paan banaras wala', from famous Bollywood movie Don starring Amitabh Bachchan.


Participant III –Bhim Kaul, needs no introduction. He’s well known as the 'Insane Indian Drummer'. His drumming is a happy balance between the conventional and non-conventional. And indeed, there was no doubt that his first love affair was actually with his drum kit.
 

Guest Performer II-
And we had an ensemble contemporary performance by, Nishtha Gupta and Deepanshu Arora. They chose a famous Bollywood number,'Uska Hi Bana' from the movie 1920: Evil Returns.


Not only are they great dancers because of the techniques but also because of their passion. Every picture you witness here speaks a thousand words for them.

Participant IV –Amar Mukherjee, won the first position with his exemplary performance with the harmonica. And do not go by his age, for he is as young as ever in his spirit..! Audience had a great time listening to him. He played a beautiful piece, 'Ja Re Ud Ja Re Panchhi'  originally sung by the nightingale of India Lata Mangeshkar for the Bollywood movie 'Maya'.
 

 

Participant V –Mish Kaushik, was every bit a diva. She sang beautifully to 'David Guetta – Titanium'. She was tremendous with her voice that
had the audience cheered to her and felt in love with her instantly. She was both soft and sweet, and brilliant her ability.


Participant VI –Varun Nagpal, not every day you come across some fine artists with rare combination of being an innovator and a traditionalist. He was one of them. He played Raag Bhopali on his flute, for which he got amazing response from the audience.

His gentle timbres fascinated the audience and kept them glued and enthralled.

 

 
Guest Performer III-
Saurabh Kishore, was the winner of Panache - 2012. He is amazing singer as well as an expert with his guitar. His string struck the chord beautifully with the audience. He played and sang to the tune of 'Californication', with extreme versatility and his vocals  expressed the gem of a person he is.
 

Participant VII –
Chani Shrivastava, gave a very sweet performance to the famous songs of 'Mujhe Rang De' and 'Ghaghra'. She mesmerized the audience with her graceful expressions and flawless dancing. It was a treat to watch her dance.
 

Participant VIII –
Atul Kumar Saini, now a well-known rockstar at Adobe. His performance was outstanding and a memorable one, for he never ceased to amaze. He won the second prize and it was so well deserved. He embellished the tune effortlessly and his captivating vocal rhythm connected with the audience instantly, with song 'Bande-Indian Ocean'.

 

Participant IX –
Waseem Shah, another talented singer who started his performance with some phrases from the Urdu Shayari. Gifted with a melodious voice, he sang the evergreen romantic song 'Dilbar mere' from Bollywood movie – 'Satte Pe Satta' which was appreciated by audience.
 
You could even hear the audience sing along.

 
Guest Performer IV-
Bhavna Negi – she was the first runner up for Panache-2012.
 

She is very talented and an outstanding dancer. She wooed the audience with her thumkas and mischievous expressions. The songs and the performance given by Bhavna were equally liked by the audience.

Participant X –
Pushpendra Yadav, sang to numerous songs and must I say, he’s a talented singer. He had the audience throughout his performance. He impressed with his performances and was touted as one of the strongest contender. 

 

Audience was in awe of his singing
 
Participant XI –
Ashish Mehta, and his soft voice did all the justice to the song 'na jane kab se umeedein'. He rendered his soulful voice and with his humble beginnings he became another popular contestant amongst the audience.


The show never ended post the performance by the participants or the guest performers. Whilst the jury took their time to decide and announce results, our very own, uber-talented host Dhirendra Mohan kept the audience entertained. Did I mention, he’s an amazing singer. He sang 'Hawa Hawa Ae Hawa Khushbu Luta De'.
And there was one such special moment, when the participant Chani, Nishtha and Bhavna, shared the stage- Indeed, Cherry-on-top moment.

And finally the results were announced –
Amar Mukherjee won the first prize, Atul Kumar Saini won the second prize and Bhim Kaul won the third prize.
Varun Nagpal and Ankit Vaidya won the consolation prizes.
And, a special mention for Ashish Mehta, for his performance.

And this was not the end of the show. Adobe has always welcomed talent - it ended with a prize of Samsung Note2 to Vikas Sharma for an In-house Photography contest.

 

And Special appreciation to the ESCAPE Community – Dhirendra Mohan, Pulkit Jain, Nishtha Gupta, Saurabh Manocha, Sunaina Kapoor, Akshat Goel, Shuchi Gupta.

Bhavna's Original expressions about Panache'13 - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q0TGylIpCIqfrlEKafbOFaaAGLliSeTZVEji_SsA7nY/edit