Lifetime achievement conferred to Dulal Roy
HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, Nov 14: The 5th Guwahati Theatre Festival ended on Sunday with Meherzad Patel writing and directing ‘Rusty Screws’, a rib-tickling comedy which kept the audience in splits and amused throughout. There was hardly a dull moment during the 90-minute play.
Animated satire about life and lies, the play presents a dilemma about friends over family. The cast led by Danish Irani were in their hilarious best.
The highlight of the day was conferring of Life in The Theatre Award 2022 to one of Assam’s most acclaimed and multifaceted drama persona, Dulal Roy for his exceptional contribution to theatre over many decades.
Accepting the award Roy said, “I immensely thank G Plus and the Guwahati Theatre Festival for conferring the ‘Life in The Theatre Award’ to me. This award will give me further inspiration to propagate meaningful theatre in Assam and will also help the younger fraternity to dream and aspire to work in theatre.”
A recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Roy, through innovative mechanisms of light, music, sound, stage craft and modern techniques gave some memorable and outstanding productions. Roy has also worked relentlessly to preserve and promote traditional art forms like Sattriya dance and Ankiya Naat Bhaona.
‘Life in The Theatre Award’ is an initiative of G Plus and Guwahati Theatre Festival since its inception to recognise outstanding theatre personalities, the earlier recipients being Kulada Kumar Bhattacharjee, Late Arun Sarma, Late Surkracharjya Rabha and Late Nipon Goswami.
Nandinee Kalita, advisor, Guwahati Theatre Festival, felicitated and presented Sri Roy with a cheleng sador, a citation and a cheque of Rs 50,000.
Sunit Jain, chairman of Guwahati Theatre Festival said, “I am happy that the festival ended with great success and we could present to the Guwahati audience a few remarkable productions, across genres and subjects.”
The 5th edition of the G Plus Guwahati Theatre Festival was inaugurated on November 11 at Pragjyoti ITA, Machkhowa. On the inaugural day, ‘Taking Sides’, directed by Atul Kumar was staged. The play witnessed a stellar performance from Atul Kumar, Sukant Goel, Mallika Singh, Richa Jain, Kashin Shetty, Kenny Desai and Kashish Saluja delivered equally immersive performances to enthral the audience.
On the second day of the festival, ‘Vodka & No Tonic’, a depiction of lockdown woes with a dash of humour was staged. The full packed house at Pragjyoti ITA, Machkhowa was enthralled by this powerful theatre which explored the play of relationship and emotions. ‘Vodka and No Tonic’ and other stories from ‘Lockdown Liaisons’ by bestselling writer Shobhaa De explored the fragility of human relationships in a collection of short stories that trace the subtle world of emotions as they shift and are redefined within the four walls of the home. The five stories or rather segments had a common thread of Covid and lockdown. Brilliant performances by Lillete Dubey, Ira Dubey and Joy Sengupta kept the audience completely captivated.
The festival also recognised and rewarded the winners of the All Assam Theatre Competition which was conducted at the Kumar Bhaskar Natya Mandir on November 6, 2022. All Assam Theatre Competition was introduced for the very first time to the Guwahati Theatre Festival with a prime focus to encourage and ignite young minds into dramatics and performing arts.
Guwahati Theatre Festival started in the year 2016 and since then it has become a landmark event in the cultural landscape of the region bringing in nationally and internationally acclaimed plays to theatre enthusiasts of the region.
The fifth edition of the festival is initiated by G Plus in association with The Assam Tribune. The festival is supported by Ballantine’s, Apollo Hospitals Guwahati, Oil India Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, State Bank of India, NEDFi and NTPC Bongaigaon.
