Koraput: Three-day-long 7th Deomali National Theatre Festival, organised by Nandanik, a theatre group based in Koraput, Odisha, at Municipal Auditorium concluded on Wednesday.
On August 1, on the eve of its 9th Foundation Day, Nandanik arranged an lecture on Ek Patriya Natya Yatra-Lekhan se Manchan tak by Padma Shri Shekhar Sen, a singer-actor of international repute. Shri Sen described the creative process of producing his famed musical mono acts like Kabeer, Surdas and Vivekananda and his inspiring association with theatre greats like Dharmvir Bharti.
On August 2, the 7th Deomali National Theatre Festival was inaugurated at Municipal Auditorium, Koraput in the presence of Shri Abdal Akhtar, Collector, Koraput, Shri Lalt Ranjan Sethy, Chairman, Koraput Municipality, Smt Bhaswati Basu, eminent actress, Shri Umakant Das, veteran theatre artist & author and Dr. Sourav Gupta, Creative Director, Nandanik.
Shri Akhtar appreciated the efforts of Nandanik and extended warm support to its endeavors. He also urged to use the new municipality auditorium. Shri Shethy also congratulated Nandanik and expressed his happiness that the new municipality auditorium is being used for the festival.
Dr. Gupta informed that the Deomali National Theatre Festival is the only national level festival in undivided Koraput and this year 4 plays in Odia, Bangla and Hindi is being showcased. The festival is themed on Development of Theatre & commemorates the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
Asim Basu Award 2022, presented as a mark of encouragement to young theatre artist of Koraput region, was presented to Ajay Edding, a theatre artist of Nandanik from Semiliguda by Mrs Bhaswati Basu. The award is jointly awarded every year by Nandanik in association with Asim Basu Foundation, Bhubaneswar in memory of late Shri Asim Basu, Odisha’s theatre icon since 2018.
Mrs Basu reminisced her father’s association with Koraput and praised the theatre activism of Nandanik at Koraput.
Two Odia plays were staged by Nandanik. The first, Shahid Laxman Nayak is written by Gauriprasad Rath and directed by Saumendra Swain. The next, Takkhyaka, is written by Manoj Mitra and directed by Sourav Gupta. The first play was dedicated to the life & work of Laxman Nayak, tribal martyr from undivided Koraput region. The second play was based on a story from Mahabharata themed on the struggle between life & death.
A mono action, Kiss of Love, was performed by A T Sunny, a PhD research scholar from Central University of Odisha.
On 3rd August 2022, there were two plays-Target in Hindi was performed by Titli Foundation, Rourkela and Kouto in Bangla was performed by Bisargo Theatre, West Bengal. The hindi play is written by Shibankar Chakrabarty and directed by Pallav Chatterjee. The Bangla play is written by Mohit Chattopadhyay and directed by Dwaipayan. While the first play dealt with Left extremism the second play explored existential crisis of human beings in a experimental theatre pattern.
The people of Koraput gathered in large number to watch the plays in the newly constructed air conditioned auditorium by Koraput Municipality.
Photo courtesy: Nandanik
