Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 27: Theatre personality Padmashri Balwant Thakur, in a candid interaction during the Meet the Director series held as part of ongoing Natya Samagama, at the K L Saigal Hall, here today, said, “It is my dream to create a well-equipped space dedicated solely to dramatics”.
A strong votary of the economics of theatre, Balwant Thakur said, for the theatre to evolve as a culture, it is most important to keep on staging a living play like Bawa Jitto, which in last thirty years of its 300 shows has immensely widened the audience base.
Balwant Thakur, the founder director of Jammu based Natrang theatre group, which has staged plays in Dogri and Hindi across the country and abroad, shared his journey of theatre from the days of childhood memories of his native village where folk forms were part of everyday life. He spoke of shifting to Jyotipuram, Reasi, for better school education and the subsequent exposure to modern school education, an auditorium, library and an evening life of dramas and literary activities of the officer’s club.
After moving to Jammu, he got involved in cultural groups of the college and later the Jammu University. The participation and subsequent exposure in the Inter-university drama competitions finally led to the formation of Natrang theatre group in 1983.
He acknowledged the seminal role played by Sangeet Natak Akademy, New Delhi, in providing opportunities to him as a young director and to learn from leading theatre personalities of the country. Speaking in detail about how his magnum opus play Baba Jitto came to be written by Ram Nath Shastri, and staged for the first time in 1986, he said the form and style of the play evolved out of the quest for theatre language which was based on native folk art forms and narrative idioms as well as modern day experimentation.
On the occasion, Arvind Anand, the senior actor who has been doing the role of Bawa Jitto since last three decades, also shared his experiences. He spoke about his continuing artistic quest in communicating folk hero’s persona of humility, deep-rooted religiosity, righteousness, as well as the intensity of emotion which lead to self-sacrifice.
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