Mysuru: Bahuroopi begins, focus this time is on gender equality

Mysuru: The much-awaited annual seven-day multi-lingual theatre festival, “Bahuroopi”, based on the theme of gender equality, kicked off in the city with the Kannada play, Sri Ramayana Darshanam staged by the Rangayana repertory Saturday evening.

A sea of theatre and art lovers flocked to the festival, which has on offer six Kannada and 12 Hindi, English, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujrathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Manipuri and Assamese plays, book and handicrafts fests, a Chithra Santhe, a poster expo, a food festival with a choice of delicacies from different regions of the state like north Karnataka, the Malnad and south Karnataka and folk art performances by troupes from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. In addition, experts from different parts of the country will participate in discussions on various issues related to gender equality on January 17 and 18.

As part of the fest, 24 movies in Kannada, Hindi, English, Persian, and Bengali will also be screened for film buffs.

Sunday evening will see a troupe from the Srujan Foundation, Mumbai, stage a Marathi play, “Eka Dhotarachi Goshta” and the Sanchari theatre group from Bengaluru will enact the Kannada play, “Sri Devi Mahathme.”

A media team from Chennai will stage the Tamil play “1084’s Mother” and Prashanth Narayanan Kalam from Kerala will present the Malayalam play, “Mahasagaram.”

Monday is also action- packed with the Samagam Rangamandal group staging a Hindi play “Agarbaththi,” the Asthithva Art Foundation from Ahmedabad enacting the Gujarati play, “Item” and the Kalaburagi Art Theatre group staging the Kannada play “Sadyakkidu Hucchara Santhi.”