As he stood on stage at the glittering award ceremony of the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) in New Delhi on Wednesday, Mohit Takalkar recalled the early days of his play Hunkaroo. “After the pandemic, actors were ready and excited to be on the floor again. We had four loose stories. We didn’t know where to start. The pandemic had been a compulsory pause and, in theatre, we know the importance of a pause. I said, ‘Let’s work for 15 days and, then, if we feel that we have nothing new to say, we will stop and go back’. After 15 days, we took a month-long break, came back and decided to work for another 15 days. Finally, we thought that we had something worth sharing. So, we decided to work a little more, then a little more and then, a lot more and that has brought us here,” said the Pune-based director.
Hunkaroo dominated the evening, winning half of the categories at one of most prestigious theatre awards in India. The play weaves three stories— by renowned Rajasthani writer Vijaydan Detha and contemporary writers Arvind Charan and Chirag Khandelwal — to speak of the power of hope in sustaining life. Hunkaroo won the META for Best Production while Takalkar took home the awards for Best Stage Design and Best Director. Vikrant Thakur won for Best Light Design, Devika Kale for Best Costume Design, Khandelwal and Charan for Best Original Script, and the entire team for Best Ensemble. As the packed hall gave it a standing ovation, the Hunkaroo team took position on stage and rendered a powerful section from the play.
The evening also belonged to another stalwart from Pune. Veteran Lavani performer Shakuntalabai Nagarkar won the META for Best Actor in a Lead Role (Female) for the play Lavani ke Rang. The play, by Mumbai-based Bhushan Korgaonkar, is an exploration of the Sangeet Bari tradition of Lavani. Scheduled late on Friday evening, Lavani ke Rang drew a houseful audience — with long queues outside Kamani auditorium – despite sudden rain throwing traffic out of gear. Geetanjali Kulkarni won the Best Supporting Actor (Female) award for the play.
The awards ceremony was an assertion that theatre was putting the pandemic behind and looking ahead to new and diverse ways of storytelling. The competition, in which 10 plays had been shortlisted from 395 entries from across India, had powerful names in the selection committee as well as the jury. The awards were given out by eminent names, such as musicians Pt Subhendra Rao and Saskia Rao-de Haas, dance guru Shobhana Narayan, film actors Adil Hussain, Saurabh Shukla and Manoj Bajpayee, and stars who are active on both the stage and screen such as Lillete Dubey and MK Raina. Jim Sarbh was the host at the event where Sushma Seth received the honour of a META for Lifetime Achievement on stage, cinema and television.
Among other notable winners of the evening were Victor Thoudam, who took home two awards —Best Choreography and Best Actor in Lead Role (Male) — for the non-verbal play he had directed with Bimal Subedi, titled The Departed Dawn. The play also won Moirangthem Biseshwar Singh the Best Innovative Sound Design award. “I am excited. I cannot find words. My tongue is tied,” said Singh as he received his award.
The other winner of the award for Best Actor in Lead Role (Male) was Santhosh Dindagur for Daklakatha Devikavya, an experimental play that was based on the epic poetry and stories of the important Kannada writer and founder-member of the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, KB Siddaiah. Bharath Dingri, who struck an immediate chord with the audience with his style of playing the Tamate drum, won the META for Best Actor in Supporting Role (Male).
By the time the curtains fell and the last cheers melted into the buzz of conversations, it was clear that theatre was back after the lull of the last few years. To borrow Husain’s words from earlier in the evening: “I believe that if we spend more money on art, the government will have to spend less on law and order.”
