Bharat Natya Sanshodhan Mandir turns 121

In 1895, on the day of Dussehra, the group put up their debut performance with two short plays - ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Krishna Krutya Pradeep’.

Bharat Natya Sanshodhan mandir

In the year 1894, a young drama enthusiast named Dattatray Atmaram Phatak, who later became popular as Dadasaheb, collaborated with a few like minded people and established a drama group in a school at Vishrambaug Wada. To give an edge to their group over other existing ones, they gave it an English name and called it Students Social Club. Soon, a room in the Wada was taken on rent by the young artistes who used it for their play rehearsals.

In 1895, on the day of Dussehra, the group put up their debut performance with two short plays – ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Krishna Krutya Pradeep’. As the years passed, Students Social Club underwent several changes and evolved in terms of art as well as structure and later donned a new name in early 1950s — Bharat Natya Sanshodhan Mandir.

“We are using the 121st year as the launchpad for our activities that will mark our 125th year celebrations. The manifesto of our initiatives that will kick off from Dussehra, the day we began our artistic journey 120 year ago, has been launched Wednesday,” says Ravindra Khare, the trustee of Bharat Natya Sanshodhan Mandir, which is located at Sadashiv Peth and has been a witness to various cultural, social and educational activities for decades. Among the popular theatre competitions held at Bharat Natya include Purushottam Karandak one-act-play competition, Firodiya Karandak and Maharashtra government’s drama competition. Besides, it also houses some valuable and rare records of the Marathi theatre, thousands of personalities who have been associated with it in different capacities, their detailed documentation in the form of books, pictures, photographs, films and tapes.

Elaborating the activities on which the work will begin, Khare shares that work on two books will begin under the supervision of city-based writer Shyam Bhurke. While one book in Marathi will chronicle theatre across the world, the other will be in English that will record the theatre in India. Another interesting initiative, he says, is the plan to showcase 125 productions of Bharat Natya Sanshodhan Mandir across the country and a few international performances too. “We will begin shortlisting the plays to be performed as well as the cast. It’s an ambitious project hence we are beginning the work from this year,” says Khare.

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