GUWAHATI:
“Theatre in the Northeast has been able to keep itself free of the influence of film,” noted theatre personality and deputy director of DDK Delhi, Rajeev Raj Srivastava on January 6.
Addressing the 36th Inter-University North East Zone Youth Festival ‘YUVA PRATIBHA’, Srivastava said: “My perception of theatre performance in the North East was quite different from what I have seen here today. I was stunned to see such beautiful performances. While in the other zones like the North or the Central zone, theatre is very much influenced by films, the most interesting aspect I have noticed here is that, fortunately, the theatre here has been able to free itself from this film influence.”
“How they have kept their culture of folk and classic theatre and beautifully fused the modern art of theatre is amazing,” Srivastava said.
Srivastava is visiting as one of the jury members of the 20-member judges of the event.
The 5-day-long Youth Festival has been organised by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) New Delhi and hosted by the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM) from January 4 to 8.
Expressing his views, Dr Manish Jangra, another senior theatre personality and Deputy Director, Youth Welfare at Chandigarh University, Mohali said, “I congratulate the entire USTM team, the chancellor, vice-chancellor, volunteers and all for holding this youth festival in a very organised way, working day and night to make it a success. This success will be imprinted in the pages of the history of the youth festival”.
He said that the plays performed were based on socially relevant issues reflecting the thinking of the youth.
“I am sure all the best-performing youths of the Northeast will be able to show their magic in the upcoming National level competitions of the Youth Festival”, he added.
A panel of 20 esteemed and expert jury members from across the country are at the venue of the Youth Festival to judge various cultural and literary competitions.
Some of the jury members include Dr Manish Jangra, Deputy Director, Youth Welfare, Chandigarh University, Mohali; Mrinal Kumar Pathak, AIR & DDK Artist; Dr Nikhilesh Dnyaneshwar Nalode; Dr Santosh Kumar Pathak, renowned Sitar player and author; Tribhuvan Kumar Deo, Director, Marsi Art & Culture, Delhi; Suman Singh, Professional Artist, Writer; Shailendra Kumar, Freelance Painter and Photographer; Dr Sudhir Kumar, LN Mithila University, Darbhanga; Amardeep Singh Panesar Director, Rhythms International Folk Art; Tapas Debnath, Dance Artist (Kathak).
Friday’s competitions include one-act play, classical instrument solo (mon-percussion), classical vocal solo (Hindustan/Karnataka), light vocal Indian, group song (Indian), collage making, spot photography, clay modelling and debate.
The competitions scheduled for tomorrow are folk orchestra, cartooning, rangoli, installation, quiz, mime and mimicry.
The participating universities at this 5-day-long youth festival are Gauhati University, Cotton University, Bodoland University, ICFAI University, Tripura, Tezpur University, Dibrugarh University, National Sports University, North Eastern Hill University, Rajiv Gandhi University, Dhanamanjuri University, Manipur University, Manipur University of Culture, Royal Global University, Indian Institute of Information Technology Guwahati, and the host USTM.