Cultural Journalism

Theatres Flourishing In Aurangabad Drastically

Aurangabad, August 13, 2017: Record setting plays such as ‘Bhakshak’ and ‘Pazar’ are the true examples of flourishing theatres in the city. Winning 6 times in a row within one year and winning in all the competitions in past two years as well as titled as best one act play ever are the records set by them respectively.

Drama and One Act Play are two different parts of theatres and the major difference between them is of the time duration of the piece presented. Length of drama is about 1 to 2 hours and that of one act play is about 40 to 45 minutes. It approximately takes at least 3 months to complete a theatre and on the other hand the maximum time for the completion of theatre is not specific that is it can even take years to complete the piece. Play festival, Classical Drama festival and many more are celebrated and promoted for the encouragement of the students.

Aslam Shaikh, actor/director/writer says,” Each and every piece of act always contributes to society as we always try to keep and bring social problems on the stage. Also, it is our duty to represent the problems of society on the stage as an artist, director, writer or even as a technician.” Continuing he says, “We want people to think about the problems which are conveyed using dramas and one act plays and we always try to change the thinking of audience through it. We don’t say that we change them completely or force them to change but its just that we try our level best and many a times we succeed in it.”

Theatres or to be specific, theatre groups of Aurangabad have been achieving a great success from past recent years which has motivated them to move further in life with much more great efforts. Also, to be more specific the groups have been progressing with a great speed in the field of One Act Plays smoothly. Dramas such as ‘Ashwathama Hato Hatai’, ‘Thank You Mr.Glad’, ‘Astodyay’ and ‘Julus’ have achieved a great success in the part of Drama field. One Act Plays such as ‘Shining’, ‘Nothing But Think 3013’, ‘Pashvi’, ‘Maslatna Suna’, ‘Bhakshak’, ‘Pazar’, ‘Paru Natak’, ‘Bhayratna’, ‘Barbadya’ and ‘Divya’ have been great plays in their own times.

‘Ashwathama Hato Hatai’ was written and directed by Prof. Dr. Ashok Bandkar. There were more than 30-40 shows of the same in the city and the areas around the city. 70% of the time when the team went into competitions, they always came back with a trophy in their bag. The team has won in places like Pune, Nanded, Parabhani etc. Also, when the ‘Youth Festival of West Zone’ occurred which consists of six different states, the drama was awarded with the 2^nd prize in the whole competition which set an image of the team of Maharashtra in Gujarat. ‘Astodyay’ was another great drama written and directed by Aslam Shaikh which of full length of 2 hours based on slavery of girls and the drama tried to show and highlight that India as a democratic country had the most of it.

Coming to One Act Plays, ‘Shining’ written and directed by Aslam Shaikh, consisted of 10 girls which was based on women empowerment and when it was performed in ‘Mahila Natya Spardha’ by Kaamgar Kalyan Mandal, it received 2^nd prize for the Direction as well as 2^nd prize overall from Aurangabad Division. Later, ‘Nothing But Think 3013’ was based on a future might-have-been that is if no girl/women was alive on Earth then what consequences would have been and that when finally climax shows up and someone comes to know that there’s still 1 girl living in the world and what relief it brings to everyone. ’Yatna Utsav’ was one of the great plays ever made on the problems of Dalits in the society. It is a play by Prof. Bapu Ghokshe, directed by Raoba Gajmal, the play was based on the un-touchability  of Dalits based on caste discrimination  and also as a great example it was shown that how an Dalit Officer himself ignores the people of his community when they needed him the most and how he does not support them. This play stood at 3^rd place in many festivals.

‘Pashvi’ was another one act play written by Sandeep Patil (Nanded), re-written by Baago Kanetkar and directed by Rameshwar Devre. It focused on the issue of rapes of women/girls and the main moto of the play was that the girls no matter in which field they were are not safe and that every field was a dangerous for the girls/women in this generation. ‘Maslatna Suna’ was the first drama which won in Loksatta competition and was also broadcasted on youtube along with several awards in different regions.

One Act Play ‘Paru Natak’ was based on a serious issue of rural areas which is an unmarried girl. Unmarried girls in rural areas were considered as burden for the family. The play show cased the problems relating to the issue when a girl does not get married in the society and what things occur in the life of the girl. The play won 5 awards in one competition itself. Later on, the same play was translated into Hindi and the group entered into the Hindi Drama field. ‘Bhayratna’ an another one act play written by Raoba Gajmal won many prizes such as for the best writing, best set preparation and also for the best acting. Overall, the play won the third prize in the competition. ‘Barbadya’ won the 3^rd prize and also because of that play, Rameshwar Devre won a gold medal for acting which was a great thing for the team. ‘Bhet’ was the first Bal Natya which came first in many places of Maharashtra.

‘Bhakshak’, one act play written by Raoba Gajmal was the record breaking play as it set a record of winning 6 times in a row in different festivals within one year. The play was based on a situation where leopards used to enter the villages  and farms for a complete year and its consequences. The play tried to show that an imbalance was being created in the nature and that it was being disturbed greatly. Also it was shown that the main reason for the invasions by animal was nothing but the reduction in the count of trees in jungles and hence they were not able to survive properly in their own habitat. The main objective was of the team was to make people think about it and to think the responsible body, may it be, government, humans or animals. According to team it was necessary to make people think on who the Bhakshak (hunter) really is. It was presented as a question mark in front of the society on the stage. This play took 3 months to pen down and then in total 6 months to get over with the final practice.

Hence, theatres in Aurangabad have been flourished well and are advancing to the next level of plays and dramas.