21st Bharat Rang Mahotsav to open with Amol Palekar’s ‘Kusur’

The 21st Bharat Rang Mahotsav (BRM) will stage 91 plays, a mix of post-modern and regional theatre, by Indian and international thespians here from February 1, the National School of Drama announced on Wednesday.

Opening with theatre veteran Amol Palekar's "Kusur", the annual theatre festival will showcase a heady mix of romance, suspense, comedy and music, served up in a culturally diverse bouquet of international plays, interactive sessions and allied events.

The opening play, which also marks Palekar's comeback to theatre after a gap of 25 years, revolves around the life of retired Assistant Police Commissioner Dandavate, whose life changes over the course of the night when he volunteers to serve at the police control room.

"BRM aims at uniting individuals and subsequently, we have spread the celebration of nation over with the goal that venue contacts an increasing number of individuals. BRM has been an exceptionally effective celebration drawing in a ton of crowd and we trust a comparative run for the current year as well," said Arjun Deo Charan, Acting Chairman, NSD Society.

With an aim to promote theatre among people, NSD will also host the festival in Shillong, Dehradun, Nagpur, Vellupuram and Puducherry. The 21-day festival will include plays in Hindi, English, and other regional languages.

The national capital will host 73 plays in Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, English, Manipuri, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannad, Marathi, Odiya, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Tamil, Rajasthani, Bundeli, Marathi and non-verbal among other languages.

The festival will also stage ten foreign plays from International productions from countries such as USA, Russia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Czech Republic and Nepal.

"The 21st Bharat Rang Mahotsav focuses on providing an engaging audience experience. There are shows that will leave a far larger imprint on the audience than just making them simply watch something. Hence the audience will also experience the importance of space, design and environments," Suresh Sharma, Director In-charge, NSD, said.

The performances in New Delhi will be held at the NSD campus, Kamani auditorium and Shri Ram Centre.

Besides the plays, the NSD campus will be abuzz with allied performances which will include street plays, Director-Meet events, Living Legend Master Class and Advitiya (Youth Forum).

The youth forum shows will comprise performances by dramatic societies of nearly 50 colleges in Delhi while ambience performances will involve folk dance and other traditional performing art forms.

The festival will come to a close on February 21.