The four-day theatre festival ‘Arunachal Rang Mahotsav’ began at the Srimanta Sankardeva International Auditorium in here on Wednesday.
To showcase Arunachal’s rich history through theatre, four plays are scheduled to be performed over the course of four days. The four-day festival was also held in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata last month.
Speaking during the opening ceremony, Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu hailed the initiative under the leadership of Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein and said that the festival with its four plays, directed by National School of Drama (NSD) alumni and presently an assistant professor in the reputed institute, Riken Ngomle, will showcase to the world the state’s transformation from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) era to contemporary times.
“When I first saw ‘Arunachal Ek Safarnama’ at Itanagar, I was spellbound. I didn’t know that our state has such a rich history. For the lack of proper documentation, our rich history still remains unknown to the world. Even we, the natives, are unaware of important historical events that occurred in our land,” the Chief Minister said.
He termed the festival — held across four major cities of the country — as a sincere initiative of the state government to tell the world about the rich history of Arunachal Pradesh.
Congratulating the theatre team put together by Ngomle for successfully performing in four cities, Khandu said the youth of Arunachal and the northeastern states are super talented, but they need platforms to explore.
He informed that the state government is in touch with the NSD to collaborate in honing the skills of the local youth and provide them with proper platforms.
The first play — ‘Chowpha-Plang-Lu’ — was performed on Wednesday which revolved around the history of the state in 1839 when it became the harbinger for the revolution that was to come almost two decades later in Indian mainland, which came to be known as the first Independence movement of the country.
The play featured over 130 artistes and narrated the tale of migration and uprising of great Tai Khamtis in 1839. It unraveled the story of Khamti leaders such as Phara Taka, a follower of Buddha who migrated from Myanmar and became the ruler of Sadia (presently Assam) and Lamtanga (presently Arunachal).
Besides ‘Chowpha-Plang-Lu’, the festival’s other three plays are ‘Arunachal Ek Safarnama’, ‘PojuMimak’ and ‘Ninu 80’.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, eminent theatre personality Dulal Roy, Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra Society Secretary Sudarshan Thakur, among others, were present on the occasion.
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