JOIN USThe colourful paper decorations adorning the lawns of National School of Drama announce the onset of the festival that turns the Capital into a ‘drama hub’ – Bharat Rang Mahotsav.
The 17th edition of the annual event commenced in the city recently amid much fan fare. At the inauguration, a performance by the NSD Repertory Company, of the play Ghazab Teri Adaa, directed by Waman Kendre, also the director of NSD, enthralled the audience.
“We are fortunate to have art forms that are 1000 years old, but even then, the presence of Indian theatre is almost nil in the world. However, we are trying to find solutions. There are many people who have given themselves completely to theatre but are economically suffering, I, myself, never did any production due to lack of funds,” said Ratan Thiyam, chairman, NSD Society, at the inaugural where veteran Om Puri was the guest of honour.
The festival this year will be a complete package of cultural extravaganza with seminars, literary interactions (interface with Krishna Sobti), lecture demonstrations (Himani Shivpuri acting a scene from Krishna Sobti’s Mitro Marjani), dance (Birju Maharaj), company theatre music (B Jayshree’s talk on ‘Rang Sangeet’), film music and another form of visual art (Raghu Rai’s photography exhibition).
This time, NSD has set up a ‘Theatre Bazaar’ for theatre lovers and audiences in general. Herein, all products related to theatre will be showcased. There will also be ‘World Theatre Forum’ on the theme of – Breaking the Borders, wherein theatre luminaries from all over the world will come together to interact with the audiences.
The feature ‘Meet the Directors’ will facilitate audiences to interact with directors from the previous day’s performances, everyday in the morning starting 10 am at Antarmukh from today (Feb 3).
This year the festival pays tribute to Shambhu Mitra (1915-1997) and Begum Akhtar (1914-1974) on account of their birth centenaries and Veenapani Chawla (1947-2014) who passed away recently. The schedule therefore includes performances, exhibitions and lectures on the same.
The closing ceremony will be on February 18 where Aadirangam -- an ensemble
of eight tribal group performers from across India will be presented.
There is an interesting line-up of plays, the information for which can be accessed at the website: www.nsd.gov.in.