First Maryland Mazaa was a huge hit

“What do you think would happen if it snowed in India?” asked one of Maryland Mazaa’s three entertaining emcees of the show, Sabrina Matthew, a student at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

First of all, the Indian people would not be able to deal with the snow. In fact, they might go out into the street and burst into song about it.

And so, as Matthew puts it best, we would get “Bollywood caroling!”

To provide us with perfect example of what “Bollywood caroling” would be like, JHU Kranti, Hopkins’ South Asian fusion a cappella group, hosted the First Annual Maryland Maaza this Saturday.

Maryland Mazaa (Maaza meaning fun in Hindi) brought together University of Maryland College Park’s Anokha, University of Maryland Baltimore County’s Taal Cappella and JHU’s own Kranti for an amazing night of South Asian music, Western music and just a little dash of holiday cheer.

The show began with an fantastic number by Kranti, who performed a mash-up of Coldplay’s “Paradise” and A.R. Rahman’s “New York Nagaram” which was brought to another level with some amazing beatboxing.

Another two interesting mash-ups included Chinese songs, one of which was a mash-up of “Tu Hi Meri Shad Hai” from Gangster and “Love Trading” by Mu Ring Xiao Xiao. Junior soloist Vissagan Gopalakrishnan impressively rapped in Chinese for the piece.

University of Maryland — College Park’s Anokha (meaning “Unique” in Sanskrit) began their performance with a lively rendition of “Señorita” from Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. An entertaining love triangle was played out on stage by soloists Sanjay Chainani, Esha Murthy and Purvi Nanavaty.

It was clear Anokha really enjoyed being on stage, and performed two more mash-ups — including an interesting one of Coldplay’s “Paradise” and A.R. Rahman’s “Khwaja Mere Khwaja.” The melodies of both songs blended and soared. Their collection was rounded out with “Thug Le” from the movie “Ladies vs Ricky Bahl.” Anokha was full of energy performing this song while Samjay Chainani and Purvi Nanavaty rocked their solos.

Taal Cappella from University of Maryland Baltimore County brought out the holiday spirit with the classic “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” and soloist Kira Starks was particularly impressive. The show continued with some amazing beatboxing during fun.’s “We are Young.”

Soloist Sabrina Matthew gave an intense performance of fun.’s “Some Nights” infused with some Carnatic music vocalizations was striking.

The hip hop star and pop star of the East and West met each other in the mash-up of Imran Khan’s “Amplifier” and Kanye West’s “All of the Lights.”

Kranti closed the show with two other mash-ups (one of “Hey There Delilah” by Plain White T’s, “Kal Ho Na Ho” from the movie of the same title and “Old Boy” by Kuai Zi Xiong Di).

It was a bit difficult to hear which part was in which language sometimes, but it was interesting to see how these three different songs and languages fit together.

Kranti’s most fun song was a mash-up of A.R. Rahman’s “Mukkabla” and Maroon 5’s “Moves like Jagger.” In “Mukkabla,” the lyrics are sprinkled with the interjection: “Laila.” Luckily, Kranti’s own Laila Siddiqui was able to add more to the song — and they totally rocked it.

Gopalakrishnan admitted the event grew from a seed of an idea this summer. “There are three Maryland a cappella groups and we all sing South Asian music but had no event together,” he said.

Mazaa was a culmination of months of work from all three groups to bring the music of South Asia and the West together.

To close with a bang, all three a cappella groups got together for a mash-up of the classic “Jingle Bell Rock” and “Jab Mila Tu” from “I Hate Luv Storys.” The song ended with the singers lining the aisle to belt out music to the audience.

With wonderful music, samosas and a lively crowd, the First Annual Maryland Maaza was a hit at Hopkins. Emcee Sabrina said it all when she exclaimed, “I cannot wait for next year’s [event]!”

Maryland Maaza will be hosted by Anokha at University of Maryland College Park next year.