The Manipur government has not taken significant steps for promoting and preserving art and culture of the state, said noted playwright and theatre director Ratan Thiyam.
He was speaking at the 5th Khundongbam Brojendro Theatre Festival, which began on Saturday at the JN Dance Academy auditorium.
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Khundongbam Brojendro Theatre Festival is organised every three years by the Khundongbam Brojendro Cultural Trust with different themes.
The theme of the festival this year is ‘Theatre crossing boundaries’.
The aim of the festival is to promote the art and culture of Manipur.
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“The government for the past several years has been claiming and taking pride that Manipur’s art and culture are being identified in the whole world,” he said.
“But the government has not taken any significant step to preserve and promote it,” Thiyam reiterated.
Lauding the effort, Thiyam said, “Brojendro has brought the idea of naturalism and realism in Manipuri theatre. The need now is to dig in deeper into his idea and philosophy.”
“The need is to find out who Bojendro was and how he was different from other playwrights,” Thiyam said.
Khundongbam Brojendro had written as many as 91 plays including 64 stage plays, nine shumaang leelas, 14 radio plays and four audio cassette plays of which 13 are published as books.
On the first day of the festival, Brojendro’s script “Karinungee Nupee Lonjaruba” was staged by Kanglei Living Arts, Uchiwa.
Theatre groups from Bangladesh, Tripura and Assam are also participating in the weeklong festival, which will end on January 24.