The National Theatre Festival begins

President KR Narayanan will inaugurate the third National Theatre festival in New Delhi on March 16.

More than 70 plays, including three from the new states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal, will be held at five venues in the capital, said Ramgopal Bajaj, director of the National School of Drama, which is organising the festival.

Habib Tanvir, Naseeruddin Shah and Mohanlal will be among the prominent artistes at the 24-day festival, that will showcase Indian multilingual theatre.

Shah will act and direct in the Motley production Ismat Aap Ke Naam (Urdu), based on three stories of the famed Urdu novelist, Ismat Chugtai. Mohanlal will act as Karna in Kavalam Narayana Panicker's new Sanskrit play Karnabharam.

The festival will conclude on April 8 with Tanvir's Hirna Ki Amar Kahani and A Dialogue with B V Karanth.

The opening ceremony will be held at the Siri Fort auditorium followed by Rangvividha, an hour-long specially-designed pageant depicting many aspects of Indian theatre as a prelude to the festival.

Major participating companies include Nadira Babbar's Ekjute, Nandikar (Kolkata), Sopanam (Thiruvananthapuram), Awishkar (Bombay) and Vedike (Bangalore).

The production from Chhattisgarh is Mirza Mazood's Maati Ke Gadi (Chhattisgarhi). Ajay Malkani's Ulgula Ka Andh Nahin will represent Jharkhand and Shirish Dobhal's Sadhu Naam Khetrapal and Paanch Bhai Kathait (Garhwali) is the entry from Uttaranchal.

Among other plays are Satish Alekar's Mahanirvan (Marathi), Goodbye Desdemona (English) by Roysten Abel, Shyamanand Jalan's Khamosh Adalat Jari Hai (Hindi), Gautam Haldar's Sadamatar Rajkonya (Bengali), Nangsa Otbum (Ladakhi) by Mipham Otsal, Tenali Raman (Tamil) by J Jayakumar, Verdigris (Malayalam) by Abhilash Pillai, and Manoh Shah's Master Phoolmani (Gujarati).

UNI