Press Release

Summer Drama Festival ’10 kicks off on Friday, July 2. The three-day theatre festival will offer a wide variety of exciting plays.

• Veteran actress, Mohini Mathur shall be conferred Raja Kaul Rangkarmi Puruskar on July 2.

New Delhi, July 1, 2010: The Three Arts Club, one of Delhi’s oldest theatre groups, is organizing a three-day theatre festival on July 2–4, 2010 at Shri Ram Centre, New Delhi. A wide range of plays belonging to different genres will be staged.

The festival opens with Dhong, a play written in 1956 by Ramesh Mehta but still very relevant today. A satire, with all the classic comedy elements – mistaken identity, avaricious people and a complex love plot – it attempts to unmask people who wear a dhong in their hearts.

On Saturday, two one-act plays: Ek Tha Budha and Paanch Lakh will be staged. The former, a children’s play, is a story of a lazy old man who is granted wishes by three fairies. The play is filled with plenty twists and turns.

The second one, Paanch Lakh, will offer a humorous take on how beliefs and unconscious wants make us believe in irrational ideas.

The festival will close with Aparichit. Based on Camus’ cult literary work, The Stranger, this is a dramatic story of a man, who does not conform to social norms. Coinciding with the 50th death anniversary of Nobel laureate Albert Camus, Aparichit will revisit one the most renowned novels (L’Etranger or The Stranger/The Outsider) of the last century. The play seeks to explore what Camus termed as “nakedness of man when faced with the absurd.”

To sum up, the schedule for the festival is:

July 2 @ 7.30pm
Dhong (Comedy/satire)
Writer: Ramesh Mehta
Director: Saurabh Bhatnagar
Producer: Anuradha Dar

July 3 @7.30pm
Ek Tha Budha (Children's play)
Writer: Ramesh Mehta
Director: Shalini Singh
Producer: Anuradha Dar

July 3 @8.15pm
Paanch Lakh (Comedy)
Writer: Ramesh Mehta
Director: Saurabh Bhatnagar
Producer: Anuradha Dar

July 4 @7.30pm
Aparichit (Drama)
Writer: Abhishek Kumar
Director: Shalini Singh and Abhishek Kumar
Producer: Anuradha Dar

The theatre festival will also see Mohini Mathur, veteran actress being conferred with the Raja Kaul Rangkarmi Puruskar. The 77-year-old actress has performed in various Three Arts Club’s productions including the widely popular Dhong, Bade Aadmi and Under Secretary during the 60s and 70s. The Raja Kaul Rangkarmi Puruskar was instituted in 2009 in the memory of R.M. Kaul, founder member of Three Arts Club, to honour artiste who have significantly contributed to the theatre movement in Delhi. Previously, the award was conferred to Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardee Ramesh Mehta.

Founded in 1943, the Three Arts Club is a theatre group that has entertained and enthralled audiences for 40 years. It is credited with an important role in establishing the culture of drama in Delhi. Luminaries such as Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr. Zakir Hussain, Shri Charan Singh, and many more have graced its plays. The Club also has the distinction of being one of the first ones to give a platform to women on the Delhi stage. In 2008, the Three Arts Club was revived by Anuradha Dar on the 25th death anniversary of founder member, R.M. Kaul.

Curtain raiser: Times of India (Saturday, June 19, 2010)

The Hindu, Metro Plus, Delhi. Date:14/05/2009

Three cheers! curtain raiser

Nandini Nair talks to Anuradha Dar of the Three Arts Club

Sepia Times (from left) Bhushan Sethi, Ramesh Mehta, Uma Sahay and Om Sharma in an undated photo of a Three Arts Club production

It was the year that Mahatma Gandhi was arrested. The same year Casablanca released. In 1943, a group of government employees also decided to start an amateur theatre group in the hill station of Shimla. Three Arts Club, like the B ritish government, would follow winter, from Shimla to Delhi and back. Founded by Om Sharma, R.M. Kaul and Devi Chand Kayasth, it is said to be one of the oldest theatre groups of the country. It entertained both king and commoner. If Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr. Zakir Husain and Charan Singh were part of its audience, so were the clerks and office secretaries.

Last year on R.M. Kaul’s 25th death anniversary, the group made a successful comeback at Shri Ram Centre after a gap of 25years. Proving that last year’s festival was no blip on the stage, it returns with its Summer Drama Festival, over this weekend. This year an award, instituted in the name of Raja Kaul (as R.M. Kaul was affectionately called), will be presented to Ramesh Mehta, playwright, actor and director who was also conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award 2008. He became the group’s pillar when he joined in 1948. M.N. Kapur, who was Modern School’s principal for 30 years, was also responsible for “taking Three Arts Club to a new height,” says Anuradha Dar, daughter of R.M. Kaul who blew life back into the group.

Flipping through black and white photos curling at the edges, she points out the famous actors and leaders of the day. In a particularly telling photo, M.N. Kapur introduces Nehru to his daughter, a small girl with a bright face. She grew up to be Anuradha Kapur, Director National School of Drama.

Today, Dar cannot recall why it was called Three Arts Club. “I haven’t been able to find the genesis of the name,” she says, adding, “Maybe it was because of the three people who started it. I don’t know.” Instead of trying to trace faded meanings, the group has its own interpretation. Today, Three Arts Club stands for music, dance and drama.

Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Future Perfect Anuradha Dar

Vivid memories

Her recollections of the group’s heyday, however, are still vivid. She recalls people rehearsing at home and sets strewn across the garden. She remembers the constant stream of tea and pakoras being served to tired actors. She adds, “As kids, we (her siblings and Mehta’s children) used to distribute brochures in the auditorium.”

The group has taken from the past but has not been hemmed in by it. Following the group’s principles, this year too they have focused on amateur talent. Saurabh Bhatnagar, who acted last year in “Bade Aadmi” has directed all three productions this year. He says, “We welcome new people. I’ve found old people are tough to mould. They are more set in their ways. It’s easier for me to work with newcomers.”

Satire and comedy used to be the groups’ forte. Today, they have also branched into social themes. The plays at the upcoming festival include “Ek tha Raja” a comic fantasy written by Badal Sarcar, “Bade Aadmi”, a Ramesh Mehta comedy and “Mundan” a drama on AIDS awareness by Dr. Jitendra Sahay. If “Ek tha Raja” is a light caprice about a king going broke, “Mundan” aims to break stereotypes on AIDS.

Gandhi-ism is struggling to find a modern context. Casablanca has not found a new audience. But Three Arts Club is once again ready to take the stage.

May 15: Ek Tha Raja (Comic Fantasy) Writer: Badal Sarcar Hindi Adaptation: Ravindra Nath Bahoray Director: Saurabh Bhatnagar

May 16: Bade Aadmi (Comedy) Writer: Ramesh Mehta Director: Saurabh Bhatnagar

May 17: Mundan (Drama, AIDS Awareness) Writer: Dr. Jitendra Sahay

Director: Saurabh Bhatnagar

Entry is free For invites call 9999311612

Venue: Shri Ram Centre, Time: 7:30p.m.

© Copyright 2000 - 2008 The Hindu

URL: http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mp/2009/05/14/stories/2009051450320100.htm