As the capital froze in the New Year chill, the warmth seemed to have come from the stage set for the 10th Theatre Utsav – Bharat Rang Mahotsav (BRM), 2008 – the annual theatre festival of the National School of Drama (NSD). This year is also the golden jubilee year of this prestigious theatre school.

Ibrahim Alkazi, the founder director of NSD, and one of the legends of Indian theatre was the Guest of Honour.

Amal Alana, chairperson NSD, recounted nostalgically the five decade long journey of NSD – imparting theatre training to the aspirants in the independent India. She said that BRM 2008 will be special in many ways as it not only will showcase the best of contemporary Indian theatre, but will also have a sizable international presence.

She said, “The Bharat Rang Mahotsav this year showcases a representative selection of the work of NSD’s graduates in a package of 60 plays. While this work is  widespread, it is, more importantly, aesthetically rewarding. In a country where theatre still does not provide a sufficient livelihood, it is surprising that work of such diverse nature remains untainted by considerations of commerce.”

Professor Anuradha Kapoor, director NSD, in her welcome address emphasised the special significance of this year’s theatre fest.

She said, “The 10th BRM will showcase the work of NSD alumni, not only from India but also from countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Mauritius, which will give an insight into the reach and practice of theatre by the NSD alumni.”

Another speciality of this year’s festival will be the satellite festival to be held in Mumbai from January 6-17 in association with the government of Maharasthra. It will host 26 productions from the main festival in Delhi and also have five platform performances of folk artistes from the state.

The festival in Delhi, which is on till January 20,  is spread over six venues apart from special performances like a dance performance by the world renowned German dancer, Pina Bausch, in Siri Fort, Delhi; as also in the Jamshed Baba Theatre in Mumbai.  At the inaugural function attended by Sheela Dixit, chief minister of Delhi, the B V Karanth Smriti Puraskar and the Manohar Singh Smriti Puruskar were presented to M K Raina and Hema Singh respectively.

International productions

The special performance of Pina Bausch’s group – Tanztheater Wuppertal, Bamboo Blues – will replicate her 25 years of bonding with India. The directors from Switzerland, Norway, Poland, China, and Japan will also be interacting with the students of NSD and theatre activists.

In all, there will be around 19 international productions reflecting the growth of BRM into Asia’s biggest theatre festival. Professor Anuradha Kapoor added, “With the involvement of about 900 people directly in the productions that will be showcased, and an expected audiences of 50,000 to be reached, the 10th BRM will be just the beginning of the golden jubilee year celebrations of NSD.”

Best of Indian talent

As usual, this year too, the theatre festival will be a treat for the theatre lover. Some of the productions to look forward to are Roysten Abel’s rendering of Girish Karnad’s monologue, ‘Flowers’ (English), Satyadev Dubey’s ‘Antigone’ (English) with Naseerudin Shah adding flesh and blood to Jean Anouih’s renowned French interpretation of the ‘Greek tragedy’, and Ranjeet Kapoor’s ‘Ek Sanasadiya Samiti ki Utthak Baithak’ (Hindi). There will also be works of veterans like M K Raina, D R Ankur, Rajinder Nath, and Bansi Kaul too.

In the best of theatre from the regions, there will be ‘Life, Festival and Death’ by I G Mini, looking at a Malayalam interpretation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez using a theeyam artist’s life. Vijay Tendulkar’s ‘Kanyadaan’ will be staged in an English translation by Lillete Dubey, while B Jayashree’s ‘Girija Kalyana’ will be the Kannada entry.

Interestingly, the festival also has some of the timeless classics like Ghasiram Kotwal in Manipuri (direction Kshetri Jugindro), ‘The Chairs’ (Assamese), and Moham Maharishi’s ‘Dear Babu’ (English).

Exhibitions

Yet another interesting feature of this year’s NSD festival is two colourful exhibitions mounted at the NSD premises and the Kamani auditorium. It traces the important events in the last five decades of the evolution of NSD as one of the finest theatre training institutes of Asia. A collage of black and white and coloured photographs highlighting the contributions of the stalwarts.

The second exhibition is a unique compilation of the history of different aspects of Indian theatre like costume, design, stagecraft, lighting, and all other aspects of theatre training and the different techniques used in different genres and theatre practices across the country. All in all, BRM 2008 will surely satiate the actor in all of us.