Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College — Centre for Management Studies celebrated Abhinaya,  the national level theatre festival recently which took place at the Chowdaiah Memorial Hall. Amateur theatre groups from different parts of the country participated. The pre-finals of this event were held earlier in February.

The plays were in three languages: English, Hindi and Kannada. Three finalists were chosen from each of these languages and they battled it out at the finals. The event was inaugurated by famous theatre personalities like
Girija Lokesh, Lilette Dubey and Sajid Ahmed.

The first set of plays was in Hindi. Sifar won the first place. It was the story about an employee who is so submerged in his work that he has absolutely no time for his family and friends. He has an encounter with Yama or the god of death who tells him that his time is up and he should go with Yama. The actors did a superb job. The other plays were Tax Free and Rehesya. The judges for the Hindi plays were Lilette Dubey and Sajid Ahmed.

Next came the English plays. In this category, 'The Point Blank' performed by Christ College won the first place. This was about the issue of on-the-campus shooting of the school children which happened in a New Delhi school. The other play was Her Name is Bharati, about a physically harassed woman, performed by Jyoti Nivas College. The judges for this category were Ashish Sen of Voices and Arundhati Raja.

The last three plays were in Kannada where Mantheswamiya Katha Prasanga performed by the SSMRV College won the first place. This play was appreciated by everyone present and they said that it was worth the wait as it was the last play of the day. It was a mixture of the past and present and even showed glimpses of modernisation in it. The other plays were Sati by a group called Chiranta and Kanniveya Nerallali by St Joseph’s College. Renowned director Nagabharana and famous theatre personality-actor Laxmi Chandrashekar judged the plays in this category.