Theatre is but a true expression of life. Each year, the theatre community from all over the world meets at Delhi to celebrate the International Theatre Festival -Bharat Rang Mahotsav, organised by the National School of Drama.
This year, the 18th edition of the festival was organised from February 2 to 21 at the capital while some selected plays were staged at Ahemdabad, Bhuwnwshwer, Jammu, and Thiruvanthapuram. Film actor Nana Patekar was the guest of honour at the inauguration which was presided by Ratan Thiyam, Chairman of National School of Drama. Waman Kendre, Director, NSD and actor Annupam Kher were also present. The inauguration was followed by the performance of Shakespeare’s famous play 'Macbeth' in Manipuri by Chorus Repertory Company, Imphal and directed by Ratan Thiyam.
The three week theatrical experience featured 80 plays from countries around the world. The plays from India were chosen from various states in different languages with a mix of works from big cities and young emerging talent from smaller towns and villages. The committee also invited some educational institutes to performed street plays in a special designed forum for youth. The international section on the other hand had more than a dozen of plays from countries like Australia, Austria, Italy, Pakistan, Poland, Sri Lanka, USA and Bangladesh.
Apart from these plays, the event also included three seminars-'Today in Today’s Theatre', 'Emerging Trend', and 'Rediscovering the Magic of Theatre-world theatre Forum' which featured participation from eminent theatre personalities and speakers from various nations.
The NSD also invited living legends of different theatre fields and other artistic and literary arena for the Living Legend series conceived with a vision to develop a dialogue between the masters of various fields and their journey through life and art. This was a good opportunity to listen to eminent personalities like Kapila Vatsyan, Sonal Mansing, Indra Parthasrathy, Jabbar Patel and Ador Gopalakrishnan. Master classes by Samik Babdyopadtaya, Joy Michael, Balan Nambiar and Chandrasekhar Kambar were also conducted.
The event drew to a close on February 21 with a valedictory ceremony where Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Honorable Minister of State (Independent charge), Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Government of India was the chief guest while renowned Hindi writer Mannu Bhandari, was the guest of honor. Pandwani artist Teejan Bai was the special guest. The festival ended with a musical performance by NSD Repertory company’s 'Swar Yatra'.
