A festival of firsts

The 17th edition of Bharat Rang Mahotsav brings a range of new experiences for theatre lovers in the National Capital, reports Swati Daftuar

January 29, 2015 02:45 pm | Updated April 02, 2016 05:16 am IST

A file photo from Bharat Rang Mahotsav.

A file photo from Bharat Rang Mahotsav.

Every year, theatre enthusiasts in New Delhi wait for Bharat Rang Mahotsav. They mull over the festival schedule, wait in queues for tickets and clear out their week to catch plays from across the country and the world. Every year, the festival gets a little bigger, a little better and a little more varied.

This year, though, it is more than just a little different. For its 17th edition, the National School of Drama’s flagship festival takes a giant leap, and widens both its scope and reach tremendously. NSD’s Professor Suresh Bhardwaj says that the 17th Bharat Rang Mahotsav is a festival of several firsts, and whilethe festival maintains, and improves upon its central attraction — several carefully handpicked plays from across the country and the world — it also kicks off numerous new initiatives and programs, each concentrating on enriching theatre by involving and understanding its connection to other allied arts and disciplines.

With 82 productions making it to the final list of performances, the schedule for this year’s festival is a rich mix of plays from 12 countries and several states of India. The participating countries include the U.S., U.K., Germany, China, France, Poland, Nepal and Bangladesh. “We had over 500 entries from across India and 65 entries from different countries across the world,” says Waman Kendre, Director, NSD. The selection process too, has undergone a change for the better. “For the first time, we have a three-tier selection process, and eight groups to view the DVDs of the performances and then deliberate on them. We have also identified theatre critics from different regions and asked them to be part of a committee that would send in recommendations,” says Bhardwaj.

This mixed palette of performances perhaps reinforces the theme of this year’s festival, “Breaking Borders”. The theme underlines, to begin with, the very idea of harmony and peaceful coexistence in today’s world of strife, disturbances and division. It also carries, as Kendre and NDS’s Tripurari Sharma explain, several subtexts. “It symbolises the need to do away with borders and difference not just between countries, but also between modern and traditional theatre, theatre from cities and rural areas and creative differences,” says Kendre. Sharma adds that the idea is to also dissolve borders between communities, allied arts and organisation of events related to theatre.

It is with this attempt to include allied arts in this year’s festival, that the programs includes a series on living legends, which will provide the audience with an opportunity to interact with luminaries from different disciplines like photography, dance and music. This year’s personalities include Krishna Sobti, Raghu Rai, B Jayshree and Birju Maharaj. A “World Theatre Forum” on the theme of ‘Breaking the Borders’ has also been organised, with theatre personalities from all over the world. Various discussions and seminars will also take place around the theme “Paridhi Ke Bahar— Natak Bazar”, to bring marginalised voices of fringe communities to the national platform. Stressing on the importance of this festival also being, first and foremost, an academic opportunity for students of theatre, both Kendre and Sharma talk about the need to include students in the organisation of the event, as well as programs in the festival that benefit these students academically. “We have tried to include students the technical and backstage organisation, as well as in the documentation of the festival.”This year, the festival also organises plays, seminars, exhibitions and screenings to pays tribute to Shambhu Mitra and Begum Akhtar on the occasion of their birth centenary, and Veenapani Chawla.

To further increase the involvement of students and encourage the love for theatre in young people, the festival has also started the Youth Theatre Forum, and showcases performances from numerous theatre troupes and rock bands of Delhi University colleges and Jawaharlal Nehru University.

This year sees the biggest line-up of ambience performances too, with 241 shows and 17 participating groups, and a long line-up of folk performance and children’s theatre. In another first, the festival will also see a theatre bazaar, with performance related products like make-up, costumes, props and scripts on sale, as well as over 15 food stalls offering different regional delicacies.

Some traditions, like “Meet the Director”, where the audience can interact with directors of the plays staged the previous day, have been continued.

Others have been started, and Kendre hopes that the festival will only get bigger every year. For the first time Lalit Kala Akademi, Sahitya Akademi, Sangeet Natak Akademi and other government cultural bodies have come forward to be associated with the festival. “This is also in a way breaking of borders. Holding isolated events scattered over the year will not have the same impact as if we come together and work on one big festival,” he says.

With over 150 shows in 23 languages over 18 days, Bharat Rang Mahotsav is already a big festival, but with so many new additions to the fold, it takes on, from this year onward, gargantuan proportions.

There are problems, including the limited seats available for each performance, and the rush for tickets that usually results in a kind of frenzy. While the number of venues has not increased, Kendre does promise a repeat show for every sold out play. .This year also gives theatre lovers the option of booking tickets online on the National School of Drama’s website directly, and also limits the number of tickets per person to four.

With over 750 to 800 people— students, contract labourers, architects, artists, working tirelessly to organise the festival, it promises 18 days of pure, undistilled celebration of theatre and performing arts.

On the cards

This year, the festival pays tribute to Shambhu Mitra and Begum Akhtar on the occasion of their birth centenary, and Veenapani Chawla.

The inaugural ceremony, scheduled for February 1, will include the opening performance of the festival, NSD Repertory Company’s “Ghazab Teri Adaa” directed by Prof. Waman Kendre, staged at the Kamani auditorium. NSD Repertory Company is celebrating its 50th year.

The closing ceremony will be on February 18th where Aadirangam – an ensemble of eight tribal group performers from across India will be presented by National School of Drama, coordinated by Dr. Laique Hussain.

The festival will also travel to other parts of the country with plays being showcased in Agartala (Tripura), Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh), Aurangabad (Maharashtra) and Panaji (Goa).

Dates : February 1- 18, 2015

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.