The National School of Drama’s summer festival is here with the staging of five realist and one classical play. Starting Thursday, audiences will witness the best productions of the NSD repertory company this year. These include their two new works Chhaya Shakuntalam and Khalid ki Khala .
It is the 50th year of the company of which theatre and cinema legends such as Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Pankaj Kapoor, Raghubir Yadav, Seema Biswas and Himani Shivpuri have been a part of. Speaking to The Hindu repertory chief Suresh Sharma said that the annual festival is a mixed bag of family dramas, earthy tales and politics.
“We are opening with Mahesh Elkunchwar’s Virasat adapted from Marathi and directed by NSD’s former director Anuradha Kapur. It’s a trilogy, based on the fragmentation of a joint family from rural Maharashtra and the way they are mapped in the changing demography of India,” he said.
Kalidas’ classic Chhaya Shakuntalam is being directed as a musical by eminent Malayalam dramatist Kavalam Narayana Panikkar. Ramesh Talwar, who has directed films such as Doosara Aadmi and Baseraa , is directing Begum Qudsia Zaidi’s 1954 play Khalid ki Khala based on Brandon Thomas’ farcical 1892 comedy Charley's Aunt . Movies Chachi 420 and Aunty no. 1 have also been inspired by this play, Mr. Sharma added.
Two political plays—Vijay Tendulkar’s Jaat Hee Poocho Sadhu Ki , directed by Rajinder Nath and Dafa 292, a melange of Manto’s works directed by Anoop Trevedi are also part of this festival. Vijaydan Detha’s Aadamzaad and Faniswarnath Renu’s Panchlight are being staged together, directed by Ranjit Kapoor.
The repertory company has stuck with time-tested crowd pullers, rather than showcase their experimental works. The strand of realism runs strong with an attempt to lure Delhi audiences. Also, the temptation to stage a politically controversial play in the current climate has been avoided.
NSD director Waman Kendre told this paper that discussions were in progress on introducing a course on playwriting. “There is also a proposal to separate the courses of design and direction in our three year programme. We also plan to introduce courses on art administration and theatre and management and marketing,” he told this paper.
He hoped that the school would be made a Centre for Excellence or a Centre for advanced studies. “We need to have a research programme as students have to go back to the university system for a Ph.D. which is too theoretical,” Mr. Kendre added.
