Bharatendu Natya Utsav, a tribute to the father of modern Hindi literature as well as Hindi theatre – Bharatendu Harishchandra is ongoing at Kamani Auditorium, Mandi House. Organized by Sahitya Kala Parishad along with Delhi Government the festival will be being held at Kamani Auditorium, Mandi House until 12th December 2019 and the last two days will be organized at LTG Auditorium, Copernicus Marg.
The 6-day long festival, being organized for the past 4 decades, showcase the works of eminent litterateurs with some promising contemporary writers and directors. On the first day of the festival, the audience saw the play ‘Seediyan’ written by Daya Prakash Sinha and was directed by Arvind Singh.
On the second day, musical play ‘Ram Ki Shakti Pooja’ was featured which was directed by Prathibha Singh. This poem was written by great poet Suryakant Tripathi Nirala in the year 1936 with the war background of famous Indian epic Ramayana. The poet Suryakant Tripathi Nirala was a poet, novelist, essayist and story-writer. The play begins with a war scene where the invincible Lord Rama is getting frustrated as his all-powerful war wining efforts are failing. He sees that Goddess Shakti is protecting Ravana who is worshiping her. On the suggestion of his chieftain, he prepares himself for the worship of Goddess Shakti and Hanuman brings 108 blue lotus (Neel Kamal) as offering to Goddess. Lord Rama starts his pray and when he was about to finish his worship, Goddess Shakti appears and hides away one of the blue lotus. When Rama finds that the last 108th blue lotus is missing he becomes upset. In the state of despair, he remembers that his mother used to call him Rajeevnayan and says that your eyes are blue lotus, my son. With this Rama takes an arrow and decides to take out one of his eyes to offer the 108th blue lotus. At that time Goddess Shakti appears and holds his hand and announces his worship successful. She absorbed in Lord Ram and Ravana gets defeated.
Prathibha Singh, the director of this play, is an exponent of Lucknow Kathak Gharana and is Creative Director-Secretary of Kala Mandali. She has been awarded Scholarships from Sahitya Kala Parishad, Kathak Kendra and fellowship from Ministry of Culture. Andher Nagari, Bagiya Banchharam Ki, Kharu Ka Khara Kissa, Benaras Ki Subah Se Awadh Ki Shaam Tak, Ram Ki Shakti Pooja are her widely acclaimed musical directorial works.