Stills from the play Mamtaz Bhai Patangwalay

CAPITALS HAVE always been the centrestage for festivals and celebrations, and our history can vouch for it. As the spring chimes in, Delhi living up to its festive image unravels another festival — the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META). The festival and award ceremony, presently in its sixth year, started on Wednesday. Unlike our established and national-level festival, META does not just celebrate it’s “favourites”, selected through some unscientific process and seer-style committee, but runs a meticulous selection process for participants. Entry of director Arvind Gaur’s play Ambedkar Aur Gandhi, the director who has never been entertained by our top-most theatre institution for his non-sycophant approach, justifies the clean and non-biased entry process of META.
In his teens, Ravi Dubey, the creative director of META, had tough time raising money for his stage activities. He would often think of innovative techniques to weave a cordial ecosystem between the stage and the corporate world. Though nothing tangible came to his mind at that time, but the virus stayed. In 2005, the Mahindra group contacted Dubey to plan their corporate brand activity and the teen–time virus reacted. Within 10 minutes the entire concept of META was on papers.
For META entry, theatre groups, individuals, playwrights and critics are invited to submit their productions or recommend a production in “emerging” or “established” category on DVD or VHS. The theatre companies not in position to afford VHS recording are given a choice to apply for funding their recording. The selection committee has five members from all five metros and it shortlists the nominees for the final show. Another set of jury, comprising of eminent stage personalities, views all the nominated productions during the festival and announces the winners in various categories.
“No member of the organising team has any say in the selection process. We see the list after the selection panel reaches the final decision,” says Dubey, who has even requested his celebrity wife Lillete Dubey not to enrol her productions in the event to keep the festival out of blame-game.
Out of the 240 entries received this year, maximum participation was seen from Delhi NCR, followed closely by Maharashtra, West Bengal and Karnataka. Plays were also submitted from Nepal and Bangladesh. With the intent to encourage theatre in all languages, META accepted entries in Sanskrit, Bodo-Assam, Nepali, Konkani, Urdu, Bhojpuri and even non-verbal plays.
Manav Kaul’s Mamtaz Bhai Patangwala opened the show on Wednesday, narrating the story of love, hatred, jealousy and revenge. Kaul’s Red Sparrow was slotted for Thursday. Sushama Deshpande, an actor and director attached with the theatre movement in Maharashtra, will showcase the real-life account of the women saints between the 13th and 18th Century in her Marathi production Bayaa Daar Ughad on Friday.
Gaur’s revolutionary production Ambedkar Aur Gandhi has also been scheduled for Friday. On Saturday, Tichee 17 Prakarne, a Marathi play, comments on the current socio-political chaos by making sharp, deep-cut statements. Aaj Rang Hai, directed by Gopal Tewari and Purva Naresh, brings a baithak singer Beni Bai on stage. Beni Bai uses her knowledge of Indian classical music to counsel her neighbours in a small town of Madhya Pradesh.
Manipuri play Mythical Surrender, to be staged on Sunday, unveils the plight of rape victims during military combing operations in the Northeast. English play, The Interview, has been selected for the same day. On Monday, Sandesh Kulkarni’s Marathi play Punashccha Honeymoon and Ram Ganesh Kamatham’s English production Dancing On Glass ends the preformance part of the festival. The curtain comes down finally on Tuesday with the announcement of awards in the various categories. Tickets are available at Teksons Book Shop at South Extension market and the venues — Kamani auditorium and Sri Ram Centre.