Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Bharat Bhavan has been organising annual festival, Aadaranjali, to tribute to theatre doyen BV Karanth on his death anniversary on September 1 every year for around 20 years. However, Bhavan’s theatre repertory Rangmandal, a creation of Karanth, is lying defunct since 2000. Karanth was the founder-director of Rangmandal, which he headed from 1981 to 1986.
“Revival of Rangmandal will be real Aadaranjali to Baba Karanth,” said art director Jayant Deshmukh, a disciple of Karanth who was a part of repertory for 13 years. “I gave prime years of my life to Rangmandal and it is painful to see that it is non-functional for almost 24 years now,” Deshmukh told Free Press over the phone from Mumbai.
“If Bharat Bhavan really wants to pay tribute to Karanth, it should revive Rangmandal. Artistes associated with Rangmandal are spread from Manipur to Mumbai. But Bhavan never cared to invite them to its annual fest in remembrance of Karanth,” he said.
Another disciple of Karanth and member of Rangmandal repertory Prem Gupta said, “If the government wants, Rangmandal can be revived”. Theatre artistes said Bharat Bhavan was conceived as an international centre of excellence in arts and reducing it to a centre for artistes from Bhopal or Madhya Pradesh or even from India would be a disservice to the concept behind its formation.
Deshmukh said organising Rang Sangeet in memory of Karanth or recreating one his plays in its original form would be one way to remember the great personality. In February 2022, the then culture minister Usha Thakur had announced on the 40th Foundation Day of Bharat Bhavan that Rangmandal would be revived. Chief administrative officer of Bhavan, Prem Shankar Shukla, said process of Rangmandal revival was underway.
Glorious legacy
Rangmandal presented more than 1,000 shows of over 61 plays during its existence from 1981 to 2000 and had earned national fame for its excellent productions. Many theatre personalities including Peter Brook, Eugenio Barba, Fritz Bennewitz, Barry John, Badal Sircar, Ratan Thiyam, Niranjan Goswami, Astad Deboo, Bharat Sharma, Tapas Sen and Prabhakar Bhave had conducted workshops at Rangmandal. The artistes had the benefit of working with directors like John Martin, Kavalam Narayan Pannikar, Habeeb Tanveer, Bansi Kaul, Jaidev Hattangadi, Georges Lavadant, Alakhnandan, Shymanand Jalan, Rudraprasad Sengupta and MK Raina.
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