Excelsior Correspondent
Jammu, Mar 30: The first ‘Jammu Youth Theatre Festival’ concluded here today with the staging of two new plays ‘Apne Apne Kshtij’ and ‘Natak Ki Talaash’ here at the Auditorium of Govt. College for Women, Gandhi Nagar Jammu. Jointly organised by Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Ministry of External Affairs and North Zone Cultural Centre, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, this festival featured five plays by about 150 young performers who demonstrated their immense creativity both onstage and backstage.
Speaking on the occasion Regional Director of ICCR Jammu, Balwant Thakur said that this was an attempt of two National organisations to introduce theatre amongst youth and expressed happiness and satisfaction in the fact not only about two hundred young aspirants have been introduced to the vibrant world of theatre but also have been given the opportunity to appreciate arts and creative activities.
Today’s first play ‘Apne Apne Kshitj’ was presented by the students of GCW, Parade Jammu under the direction and guidance of Bipin Gupta. Women prejudice is a reoccurring issue that everyone is well acquainted with it and play ‘Apne Apne Kshitij’ brings the core essence of this issue. Ideological backwardness being the core essence of all the problems in our society is being highlighted through the play. The play tries to bring forward the psychology of that girl who is being judged by the stereotypes established by the society. Gender issues are synonymous with women’s issues and biases within women is considered there problems. Virtue is a quality associated only with women. The theme urges us to break free from such stereotypes. We all talk about it, ponder about it and crib about it but very few ever make an effort to do something about it. This stagnancy in our society needs to change and ‘Apne Apne Kshitij’ is that first step towards a future where women won’t be judged according to what they wear or whom they dine with. The artists who participated in the play included Sudansha, Sarabjeet Kour, Manisha Kumari, Rupashi Wazir, Vandana Subh, Shivam Sharma, Priya, Komal Bhagat, Tania Bhandari, Sapna Devi, Mohini Gupta, Sarish Nasreen, Neha Uppal and Meenakshi.
The second play ‘Natak Ki Talash’ written and directed by Sumeet Sharma and presented by the students of GGM Science College, presented before us different stories which are not taken from a story book, play or novel but from life itself. These stories are conceived on the very common headlines of the Newspapers which we generally take very casually unless and until, we ourselves are affected by them. Four different stories presented in the play are based on the headlines like ‘Yet another ceasefire violation at international border, two killed, seven injured, our soldiers retaliated properly’. “Not selected for the job, a youth committed suicide”. “Another shameful act of rape, where is women security?” “Heavy rains destroyed the crops worth millions, compensation demanded”. When these stories appear in newspapers, those people who are not the victims take it very casually but for those who are the sufferers of this harsh drama of life, life comes to a stand-still. Whatever happens in the society, relates to all the people whether they feel it or not, this is what the play exemplifies. The artist who participated in the play included Rayees Ahmad, Shivam Singh, Komal Rajput, Deep Naval Kour, Rahul Atri, Shuvam Verma, Tsweng Namgyal, Ankush Rana, Rohit Kumar, Anuj Kumar, Sanjay Kumar, Amit Bhat, Rajat Singh, Paramveer Singh, Avinash Sharma, Kiran Banal, Arun Goswami, Aditya Gandotra, Vishal Sharma, Aseem Manhas, Avinash Kumar Jha, Mohit Kumar and Sangam Sharma.
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