Excelsior Correspondent
Jammu , May 15 : Natrang completed its thirty eventful years today and the occasion was celebrated with the presentation of Balwant Thakur’s highly acclaimed Hindi play ‘Aap Hamare Hain Kaun’ – a hard hitting satire on educational system, expressed through children and youth at the auditorium of IIIM, Jammu.
Speaking on the occasion the founder of Natrang, Padamshree Balwant Thakur unfolded the exciting dramatic happenings of Natrang in last thirty years which not only included it’s successes but failures as well.
In thirty years Natrang through the selfless contribution of thousands of missionaries brought the J&K theatre to the National and International limelight and its highly acclaimed plays vibrated the theatre world and proudly travelled the whole length and breadth of the country and also crossed the boundaries of the country as well and won appreciation in Russia, Germany, U.K., Singapore, Turkey, Hungary, Poland, and UAE and thus established an International brand called Natrang.
Natrang was established on May 15, 1983 with the presentation of two unique short plays Neeli Jheel’ and ‘Nanhen Kandhey Pair’ directed by Balwant Thakur at Abhinav Theatre Jammu. The actors who featured in first performance of Natrang included Vijay Attri, Aasha Arora, Arvind Anand, Mohan Singh, Prabodh Jamwal and Arun Sharma.
In 30 years the plays which over shadowed the theatre scene of the country included ‘Bawa Jitto’ ‘Ghumayee’ ‘Mahabhoj’ ‘Aap Hamare Hain Kaun’ ‘Chauraha’ ‘Poster’ ‘Mere Hisse Ki Dhoop Kahan Hai’ ‘Sainyan Bhaye Kotwal’ ‘Raktbeej’ ‘Comedy of Terrors’ ‘Suno Eh Kahani’ ‘Kanjoos’ ‘Holi’ ‘Mind games’ and ‘Kaun Nachaye Naach’. Natrang produced over one thousand actors and many have made their mark in films and TV world. Prominent among them include Sunil Palwal, Anjali Abrol, Bhanu Goswami, Harish Khanna, Neeelu Dogra, Mridul Suri, Nariender Sachchar, Arvind Anand and Ashok Verma.
Out of the 5650 shows by Natrang in last thirty years, the credit of maximum number of participation is shared by Neeraj Kant, Anil Tickoo, Sanjeev Gupta, Pankaj Sharma, Sumeet Sharma, Juhi Singh, Sat Salarbi, Suresh Kumar, Vijay Bhat, Vikrant Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Mohd. Yaseen, Rahul Singh and Sajra Qadir and. In these years over thirty actors of Natrang brought National/International honours and acclaims. From National scholars to International fellowships these recognitions gave a distinct identity to Jammu theatre. Prominent honors included International fellowships to Balwant Thakur (Ford Foundation USA) Harish Khanna (British Council UK) Ashish Nijhawan (Inlaks, USA), National Awards to Balwant Thakur (Padamshree, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Sanskriti Award, National Senior Fellowship, Gurushree Samaan, Abhinayak Samaan, World Theatre day Honor) Sanjeev Gupta (Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Yuva Bismalla Khan Award) Sumeet Sharma (Sangeet natak Akademi’s Yuva Bismalla Khan Award) Deepika B. Thakur (National Fellowship) Anil Tickoo (National Fellowship) Neeraj Kant (National Fellowship) Mohd Yaseen, Rahul Singh, Sajra Qadir, Gopi Sharma, Kritika Bhau, Rythm Misher (National Scholarships).
Director Natrang, Balwant Thakur also thanked the IIIM management for hosting the show.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel