Fete on to mark M S Sathyu’s 93rd birthday

Theatre troupe WeBhinna is organising ‘Sathyu Sambhrama’, a week-long celebration on the life and times of MS Sathyu, renowned filmmaker and theatre director, who turns 93 today.

The birthday celebrations of the iconic filmmaker began with staging of two of his plays, ‘Varasudaara’ and the musical ‘Gul-E-Bakavali’, on Monday and Tuesday respectively.

Sathyu rose to fame with the critically-acclaimed Hindi film ‘Garam Hava’, which dealt with the post-partition plight of the Muslims. A couple of his classic Kannada films — ‘Chitegu Chinte’ (1978) and ‘Bara’ (1980) — will be screened on July 6 and 7 respectively. The latter is a National Award-winning socio-political film based on UR Ananthamurthy’s novel of the same name. All events are held at the ADA Rangamandira on JC Road.

On July 8, Kannada filmmaker KM Chaitanya (‘Aa Dinagalu’) will talk to around 80-100 students from four theatre groups on the topic ‘Sathyu and Theatre Movement’ from 4 to 6 pm. It will be followed by Sathyu, a Padma Shri recipient in 1975, interacting with those closely associated with him in theatre and students from NSD and other theatre teams.

There will be a screening of a documentary on Sathyu on Saturday followed by a slide show of his works. The event will conclude on Sunday with many theatre stalwarts, including Arundathi Nag, Dattanna and Sundar Raj, talking about Sathyu.

All events are open for the public and the entry is free. For details, call 97396 14139 or 96325 42600.