Kosli Naat Badi - The Week Long Kosli Drama Fest Starts 15 Jan at Balangir

To promote Kosli drama and to give further boost to Kosli language, a State-level drama festival, Kosli Naatbadi, will be held at Sadeipali in Balangir district from January 15 2011. The main purpose of organising the festival is to revive the regional Kosli Theater, which is facing a lot of challenges these days.

SITE Cultural Society will organize this state-level Kosli Naatbadi. It is infact the oldest Kosli drama fest in Orissa.The Kosli festival will stage the play in colloquial languages.

With the winter still on, it is a wonderful season for theatre lovers to flock together and enjoy the dying art of the area as well as skills of artistes from other parts of the state. SITE secretary Srikara Mishra said since it is the harvest season, the farmers and labourers are in the mood to celebrate. It is the best time for any cultural body to offer this kind of entertainment. "Our objective is to showcase the local flavour of land through these plays to enthrall the average audience. Apart from that, we will also felicitate outstanding artistes and plays too," said Mishra. In the seven-day long festival, 22 plays will be staged.

A theatre lover, Sashi Sekhar Panda, said the organization is making a rare effort to revive the theatre culture in the region. "Although there were doyens of drama here in Balangir, there have been no opportunities like this. This effort will definitely help improve the theatre culture in Balangir and contribute greatly to India's theatre potential," said Panda.

Last year following Kosli dramas of 22 different cultural outfits of eight districts were showcased. Khapara (Balangir), Ashra (Baragarh), Dalari (Bhavanipatna), Remu (Baragarh), A Phula (Bheden), Paiaan (Mahada), Sagharsha (Khtkhatia), Bimbadhar ra Katha (Padampur), Akuha Manar Bhasa (Sonepur), Annapurna (Balangir), Kaanali Patar (Boudh), Annath Ashram (Belpahad), Mun ra Aakar (Balangir), NaaT (Balangir), Laaja (Balangir), PalataBahga (Sambalpur), Agathkatha Kehehez (Baragarh), Phalsa Phul (Kalahandi), Haldipali ra KeluRam (Sambalpur), Rath (Padampur), Naatua (Sambalpur) and Udelia Utpath (Baragarh).

Welcoming all the Kosli people to be a part of the Kosli Naat Badi and feel proud to promote the Kosli cultural heritage

Balangir based cultural organisation “Bhumika” to host Mathkhai Mahotsav, from January 23 to 27.

Courtesy:- The Telegraph

Balangir-based cultural organisation Bhumika is all set to host Mathkhai Mahotsav, a multilingual theatre festival from January 23 to 27.

The five-day festival will showcase some of the best plays from across the country. Two Hindi and one Marathi play will be part of the fare.

President of the organising committee of the festival, Chitta Ranjan Dash said apart from staging plays from other states, the organisation would try to revive rural theatre, which was dying fast.

“This time we are focusing on the revival of rural theatre. Apart from the plays that will be staged every evening, rural artistes will also be provided the platform to stage their plays,” Dash said. The theatre festival will open with Koshali play Ukhi, written by Vinod Pasayat and directed by Suresh Chandra Sahu.

Pendish theatre group from New Delhi will stage Hindi play Sarkari Feminism written by Anuradha Marwa and directed by Sanjaya Kumar on January 24. On January 25, Marathi play Ajantha written and directed by Milind Inamdar will be staged by Srujan theatre group of Mumbai. On the fourth day of the festival Oriya play Chaitu will be staged by Pyayas theatre group of Rourkela. Nirman Kalamanch of Patna will stage Hari Shankar written by Srikant Kishore and directed by Sanjaya Upadhyaya.

Rural artistes will mostly perform mythological plays that are dying. They will perform plays such as Karna Badha, Laxmi Purana, Sita Chori and Ushabati Harana. On the opening day of the festival, the Natyajyoti flame will be taken out in a procession from the Mathkhai hill near Balangir. “The festival is named after Mathkhai hill as it symbolises the rich heritage of Balangir,” said Byasadev Nanda, secretary of Bhumika.