By Madelyn Stone, News Staff

Song, dance and fashion from South Asia are coming to Blackman Auditorium this Saturday. Northeastern’s South Asian Student Organization – better known as Utsav, from the Sanskrit word for “festival” – will host its 22nd annual cultural show, themed “2012: End of the World.”

The annual show, called “Nataraj” after the Hindu lord of dance, incorporates cultural traditions from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan. After the 6 p.m. show, Utsav will offer audience members a catered Indian dinner in Curry’s West Addition with paneer, naan, samosas and the dessert gulab jamun.

Past Nataraj shows have revolved around themes like “Saturday Night Live” and “Avatar” for the skits that weave the event together. Vimal Vaidya, co-president of Utsav and a senior biology major, said this year’s theme, based on the Mayan prophecies abou the end of the world, stands out from previous ones.

“It’s actually a fun way so the skit basically unites all the acts,” he said. “It’s almost like you’re watching a movie, so it’s really cool. We’re going to have videos in between some acts as well as some on-stage acting.”

Manasa Parakala, a senior behavioral neuroscience major originally from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, said this show marks the fourth time she’s participated. This will be her third time serving as the coordinator for one of Nataraj’s singing performances.

Parakala said one of the new aspects of this year’s show is the inclusion of a South Indian act.

“The South Indian dance is the first time that we’re having a dance that’s being choreographed to only South Indian music,” she said. “Usually we have Bollywood music which incorporates more North Indian songs, so more the languages that are predominantly from North India.”

Previous Nataraj shows drew audiences that filled all of Blackman auditorium’s 1,058 seats.

“Our show is almost always sold out,” Parakala said. “We have a lot of parents and families that come to watch it, and a lot of the surrounding South Indian groups also come to our show. So there’s a lot of student crowds too that come from outside of Northeastern.”

Noting that there are 400 Northeastern students on Utsav’s mailing list and 120 performers in this year’s Nataraj, Vaidya said there are many reasons people seem to flock to the event.

“It’s one of the largest culture shows in Boston,” Vaidya said. “It’s totally student-led, and it’s just going to be a great show.”

One of this year’s 12 acts will feature the Rangila Rhythms, a female fusion dance group with 12 members which formed last semester.

Isha Arora, a sophomore finance major, is the co-captain of Rangila Rhythms. She said the Indian Fusion dance is a style made up of a diverse combination of genres.

“It’s hip hop, Bollywood, classical and then a mixture of all of it together,” Arora said. “And so this year we’re going to be performing at least four songs at Nataraj. And our team name means ‘colorful’ so I mean, that’s what we try to do. We try to incorporate all different styles of dance for Nataraj because Nataraj is really cultural so we want to bring all aspects of it into our dance.”

Also featuring a blend of genres like Bollywood and fusion, the freshman dance has long been a fixture in the Nataraj show.

One of the freshman dance participants is Ashish Gokaldas, an international business major concentrating in accounting and finance.

“I’m in three performances,” he said. “By tradition, all the freshmen come together and make a dance, and garba raas, which is like more of a traditional Gujarati kind of dance, and then I’m in fusion which is mostly like top 40 tracks and we basically do Indian steps to that.”

Julie Patel, a freshman nursing major, helped choreograph the freshman dance.

“It’s not all Bollywood music, there’s a little bit of everything in it,” she said. “People should come see the whole show altogether, it’s like a story. I’m not going to give the story away but it’s about like the world ending and it’s hard to explain without giving the story up, but it’s really cool.”

The combination of the contemporary and ancient elements of South Asian culture, where dancers in traditionally ornate costumes perform to Bollywood hits, is a fun way to learn about the region’s heritage, said Aditi Desai, a freshman pharmacy major.

Desai explained why students should come to see the show.

“First to see what South Asian culture’s all about,” he said. “And just to see like how the dances are, how the people are and how vibrant the culture is. And also you can always check out the food. So it’s a great way to see a new culture and live through it.”

Nataraj tickets cost $5 for Northeastern students and $7 for guests, and are available on the myNEU portal.