The finals to Nihilanth 2011, held IIM Kolkata in Jan 2011. Audio video questions and some rounds have been removed.

1.  
An IIM Calcutta Presentation
QM: Satyajit Chetri

2.  12 questions
 2 points per correct answer.

3.  The following lines written in 1590 by Sir Edmund Spenser
from Book 3 of his epic The Faerie Queene:
o It was upon a Sommers shynie day,
o When Titan faire his beames did display,
o In a fresh fountaine, farre from all mens vew,
o She bath'd her brest, the boyling heat t'allay;
o She bath'd with ____ ____, and ___ ____ ,
o And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.

5.  Roses red, violets blue.

6.  Connect..

8.  Connect..

9.  Composer Gustavo Santaolalla’s (partial) filmography:
o Amores perros (2000)
o The Insider (1999)
o 21 Grams (2003)
o Brokeback Mountain (2005) Winner, Academy Award for Original
Music Score
o Babel (2006) Academy Award for Original Music Score
o Into the Wild (2007)
 His first release for the year 2011 is due to release on
January 21.

12.  The PrimeSensor design includes an advanced visual data
processing middleware optimized for mass-market CE
products called NITE, which provides the algorithmic
framework for the development of rich natural interaction
applications. The product portfolio contains the
PrimeSensor Reference Design, PrimeSense SoC, which
acts as the backend SoC for the entire system.
 Why is this technology developed by an Israeli company in
the news in 2010?

15.  Identify the person in the centre.

17.  Charles Perrault

18.  Punchtantra -- Value Statements on Business and Life
Management has been written by P C Balasubramanian,
and Raja Krishnamoorthy, both involved in human
resources for different organizations. The book examines a
bunch of guidelines, the tag-line being:
o From a coolie to a CEO, from a small time entrepreneur to a big
business man, these simple yet insightful lines have been quoted by
many to communicate their views in a simple but powerful manner!.
 What is this book all about?

23.  German Expressionist Cinema

26.  Chogyal Palace, Sikkim.
 Satyajit Ray’s Sikkim was screened this year, after a
government ban was withdrawn for the first time.

30.  The word trompe l'oeil is French for 'deceive the eye', an art
technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to
create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear
in three dimensions. Joanne Gair painted this famous
example at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in West Hollywood
in a week-long stint, using a pinstriped three-piece as
reference. Despite accusations of plagiarism, critics
compared it to Botticelli's works such as Primavera. What
famous painting?

34.  Identify the person on the bed. Why is Akshay Kumar
visiting him?

36.  R K Laxman.
 Part of the promotion for Khatta Meetha, where Akshay
Kumar plays the Common Man. (insert eye-roll here)

37.  16 visuals.
 Non-exhaustive ( I had to pick and choose, ok? )
 Please write down what you see, because after the theme is
out, bonus points for identifying the individual connects.
 The points you stand to make, and lose, are included in
every slide.

55.  Movies titles that are different from the books they are
based on.

56.  This is where you are supposed to write them down.
 One bonus point if you mention which two movies are
based on books by the same author.
 Two more bonus points if you mention the name of the
author.

57. Movie Book
Vinyl Clockwork Orange
Stand By Me The Body
Million Dollar Baby Rope Burns
Schindler’s List Schindler’s Ark
Blade Runner Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Apocalypse Now Heart of Darkness
Goodfellas The Wiseguys
21 Bringing Down The House
Clueless Emma
Precious Push
There Will Be Blood Oil!
The King and I Anna and the King of Siam
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Die Hard Nothing Lasts Forever
Manhunter Red Dragon
Social Network Accidental Billionaires

58.  7 questions.
 Exhaustive.
 The theme however is not an ‘ent’ variable.
 Normal 2 points for cracking the directs.
 Theme points shown on the slide.

59.  A very hard, clean sliver of wood had been treated by fire
and herbs and was slid down so that it just entered the hole
in my head. I felt a stinging, tickling sensation.…. Suddenly
there was a blinding flash. For a moment the pain was
intense. It diminished, died and was replaced by spirals of
colour. As the projecting sliver was being bound into place
so that it could not move, the Lama Mingyar Dondup turned
to me and said:" You are now one of us, ____. For the rest
of your life you will see people as they are and not as they
pretend to be.
 Excerpt that describes a process, from a book that bears
the title of the process. What book?

61.  The Third Eye, by T Lobsang Rampa.

62.  Two sisters, who performed at Mumbai and Delhi in late
November/early December. Identify.

64.  Tegan and Sara.

65. Heimdall, according to Norse Myth, is also known as the White
God. He possesses the resounding horn Gjallarhorn, owns the
golden-maned horse Gulltoppr, has gold teeth, and is the son
of Nine Mothers. Heimdallr is attested as possessing
foreknowledge, keen eyesight and hearing, and keeps watch
for the onset of Ragnarök while drinking fine mead where the
rainbow bridge meets heaven.
The Council of Conservative Citizens in the USA is supporting a
BOYCOTT THOR website because of something about the
upcoming Thor movie. What?

67.  The White God is being played by a black guy.

70.  Christina Ricci

71.  Danish singer Sannie Charlotte Carlson peaked with a
chartbusting single in 1994, under a single-word
pseudonym ____ that she used as a tribute to her piano
teacher, went on to publish 4 albums that have the same
name (as versions I, II, III and IV). She has since changed
her performance name to Naan, and has written and sung
dance songs with Benny Benassi and DJ Favretto. What was
the pseudonym she’s most known for?

73.  Whigfield

74.  This practice was started in American newspapers in the
early part of the 20th century to showcase a new
technology. Examples of strips that adopted it are The
Phantom, Buz Sawyer, Gasoline Alley and Terry and the
Pirates. Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant was a slight exception –
it was however the last of its kind until 1970.
 Strips like Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes utilized a
variant, because of their popularity, but all in all, ads killed
this practice, even though some historians attribute its loss
to WWII shortages.
 What practice?

76.  The full-page newspaper comic strip

77.  The character appears in the last few minutes of the first
movie, and then becomes the primary antagonist for nine
movies that follow? The most memorable artifact
associated with the character was introduced in the third
movie, and it would go on to become one of the most
recognizable elements of pop culture.
 Identify the franchise and the character.

79.  Friday the 13th, Jason Voorhees.

81.  Days of the week.
 T Lobsang Rampa’s full name is Tuesday Lobsang Rampa.
 Tegan and Sara are singing the song Monday Monday Monday
 Thor - Thursday
 Ms Ricci plays Wednesday Addams in the Addams family.
 Whigfield’s most famous hit was Saturday Night.
 The full page strip appeared in color on Sundays, hence also
called the Sunday strip
 You want me to connect Friday the 13th to the theme? Really?

83. The movie is a sleeper hit of 2009, and the singer is the
actress herself, who fronts a band called She & Him.
Identify the movie and the original singer of the song.

87. ID artist, and what’s the song about? ( It’s called ‘D.O.A’)

89.  What the eff is going on here? ( song + funda)

90.  _____ are the friends who sneer when you cop to liking
Coldplay. They're the people who wear t-shirts silk-screened
with quotes from movies you've never heard of and the only
ones in America who still think Pabst Blue Ribbon is a good
beer. They sport cowboy hats and berets and think Kanye
West stole their sunglasses. Everything about them is
exactingly constructed to give off the vibe that they just
don't care.
 Time magazine, 2009.

91.  This is an iconic photo of an 80s band who are known for
performing their live shows this way.

92. 1. Romantic comedies Zoeey Deschanel, 500 Days of
Summer
2. Actors who are not really actors Santosh Sivan
3. Biopics Edith Piaf, Inception
4. Electronic bands from the 80s Kraftwerk
5. Contemporary Hip hop Jay Z, Auto-Tune
6. Poster plagiarism Anjaana Anjaani
7. Silent films Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton
8. Enterminology Hipsters
9. Weird Indian music Aruhc Ayil – Chura Liya in reverse.

93.  12 questions
 2 points per correct answer.
 Yeah, that’s about it.

94.  Director D and composer X:
 So when we were scouting we found out the whole idea of
the Henley Royal Regatta was based on an Edwardian-
period garden party. I didn't know anything about
Edwardian-period garden parties, so I called sound
designer Ren Klyce and asked him for an example of an
Edwardian composer. Ironically, we ended up with __ ___ __
__ __ ____ ____. First, I was too embarrassed to call X
about it. [laughs] But then I asked him, "What do you think
about doing like a Wendy Carlos version of __ __ ___ __ ___
____ _____?" And it was off my plate.

96.  David Fincher, Trent Reznor.
 Talking about adapting In the Hall of the Mountain King by
Edvard Grieg as part of the rowboat sequence in The Social
Network.

97.  One of X’s last appearances in the Hindi film industry was in
Manorama Six Feet Under as self. Recently back in the
limelight because of the NGO Child Reach International,
after working on an album due to release in 2011.

100.  The term ______ originated in the 1780s and means two
different things in German & French.
 In German it means – a passage of opera with music
 In French it means – a passage in which characters say
nothing but the music conveys/says everything.

102.  Melodrama

103.  This is a track called ‘Baba Yetu’, by composer Christopher
Tin. It was nominated for a Grammy this year. What’s the
significance of the nomination?

105.  The title track of Civilization 4.
 The first piece of music composed for a video game to be
nominated for a Grammy under any category.

106.  The Aurora Teagarden series, where a professional librarian
belongs to the Real Murders club, a group of 12 enthusiasts
who gather monthly to study famous baffling or unsolved
crimes.
 The Lily Bard series, a series of mysteries set in the town of
Shakespeare, Alabama.
 _______
 The Harper Connelly series, where a 24-year old girl has the
ability to detect dead people.

109.  Which character took his name from the title of this song? (
the character wore this band’s T-shirt in the movie
adaptation)

112.  What is this sequence a tribute to?

115. 1. genus Geococcyx of the
cuckoo family, Cuculidae,
native to North and Central
America.
2. Skull of the Canis latrans.

118.  Graphic novels by an NY Times best-selling author, whose
first novel was made into a movie starring Eric Bana, and
her second book Her Fearful Symmetry, got a $5 million
advance.

121.  Someone reciting a poem by someone else. Identify both.

124.  Where would you hear this? Who’s singing? Original singer?

126.  Liza Minelli covering Beyonce Knowles in Sex and the City 2.
 Yes, there was a Sex and the City question in Nihilanth.
Deal with it.

128.  What’s the missing item in the middle? What’s the connect?

130.  Larry David.

131.  X was fired from Disney in 1994, and began working on an
animated movie Y on a same topic as something already in
production Z, with the release date of Y scheduled to
Ocober 1998, to spite Disney. X offered to stop
development of Y if Disney moved the release date of Z,
which was coming out opposite another release from his
company. Disney refused, Y came out before Z, but Z still
managed a higher profit. ID X, Y, and Z.

136.  Sai Paranjype’s Katha

137.  I could not get a question, so here’s a visual instead, which
connects to the theme.

138.  Designs for Prada by an artist. Name the artist.

140.  James Jean

142.  Aesop’s Fables