16th Bharat Rang Mahotsav comes to an end with Marathi play

The 16th edition of Bharat Rang Mahotsav ended here today with a vibrant performance of 'Tamasha', a traditional form of Marathi theatre, at the National School of Drama (NSD).
The closing ceremony was addressed by eminent theatre personality Rudraprasad Sengupta, who was the Chief Guest for the event.
Sengupta, who has been connected to NSD since 1978, said this year (2014) the participation of audience was high as compared to the previous years.
"This is my 13th visit to Bhaart Rang Mahotsav, and I have seen those days when the seats used to remain vacant, when watching theatre was not considered something important. But it is no more like that," Sengupta said.

Waman Kendre, director of NSD, expressed happiness with the kind of response the 16th edition of BRM generated and feels that theatre now belongs to all sections of society.
"The theme this year was 'Identity of Indian Theatre' and this time we have seen all facets of theatre, multiple genres, languages, regions, cultures all were staged. Over 40,000 people saw the festival proving that theatre now belongs to both classes as well as masses," Kendre said.

The 16-day long event which kick started on January 4 featured 71 theatre productions in total, out of which seven were overseas plays from China, Poland, Germany, Sri Lanka, Japan and Israel.

Besides the plays, there were allied activities like seminars, discussions, and book reading that enriched people with all facets of modern-day theatre.
While there were plays like 'Urubhanyam', a multi-lingual' six hour play, there were also non-verbal plays like 'Mephisto Waltz' (Germany) and 'The Woman Who Did Not Want to come Down to Earth' (Israel).
Plays were staged in 16 Indian languages like Hindi, Kannada, Bengali, Gujrati, Braj Bhasha, Marathi, Kashmiri among others.