Theatre fest to pay tribute to eminent playwright

A two-day theatre festival in the capital will Friday open with late Charan Das Sidhu's "Nastik Shaheed", as a mark of tribute to the eminent playwright who died last year.

This is the first time the department of art, culture and languages and the Sahitya Kala Parishad is organising the festival "Rangmanch Utsav".

The organisers felt festivals like these will encourage people to develop interest in theatre.

"In India, we have abundant talent in the field of performing arts and we should do everything to nurture this art form and encourage people," J.P. Singh, Sahitya Kala Parishad's assistant secretary for drama, said in a statement Thursday.

The festival will be held at the Sriram Centre in central Delhi.

The play "Nasik Shaheed" is based on the life experiences of Bhagat Singh, one of the heroes of India's independence struggle, and talks about his beliefs.

Directed by Ravi Taneja, it was written by Sidhu.

The first day will also see the dramatic adaptation of English novelist George Orwell's epic classic "Animal Farm", that tells the story of revolution and suppression of man by man.

On the second day, "Sitaaron Ke Paas - Kalpana Chawala", directed by actor and theatre personality Sushma Seth will open the show, followed by the popular "Andha Yug" - depiction of the last days of the Mahabharata from the point of view of the few surviving members of the Pandava-Kaurava clan and the despair of loss and death brought in by a brutal war.