META: Mohit Takalkar’s Hunkaroo sweeps prestigious theatre award; Lavani artiste Shakuntalabai Nagarkar wins Best Female Actor

Hunkaroo dominated the evening, winning half the categories at one of India’s most prestigious theatre awards. The play weaves three stories— by renowned Rajasthani writer Vijaydan Detha and contemporary writers Charan and Khandelwal — to speak of the power of hope in sustaining life. Hunkaroo won the META for Best Production.

Winning speech of Hunkaro for the award for tbst production. (PR handout)

Mohit Takalkar stood on stage at the glittering award ceremony of the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) in Delhi on Wednesday and recalled the beginning of his play Hunkaroo. “After the pandemic, actors were ready and excited to be on the floor again. We had four loose stories. We didn’t know where to start. The pandemic had been a compulsory pause and, in theatre, we know the importance of a pause. I said, “Let’s work for 15 days, and, then, if we feel that we have nothing new to say, we will stop and go back”. After 15 days, we took a month-long break, came back again, and decided to work for 15 more days. Finally, we thought that we had something worth sharing so we decided to work a little more, then a little more, and then a lot more and that has brought us here,” said the Pune-based director.

Lillete Dubey and M.K Raina presented the award for best original script to Chirag Khandelwal & Arvind Charan for Hunkaro (PR handout)

Hunkaroo dominated the evening, winning half the categories at one of India’s most prestigious theatre awards. The play weaves three stories— by renowned Rajasthani writer Vijaydan Detha and contemporary writers Charan and Khandelwal — to speak of the power of hope in sustaining life. Hunkaroo won the META for Best Production. Takalkar took home awards for Best Stage Design and Best Director. Vikrant Thakur won the Best Light Design, Devika Kale took the award for Best Costume Design, Chirag Khandelwal and Arvind Charan for the Best Original Script and the entire team was on stage for Best Ensemble. As the packed hall at the Capital’s Kamani Auditorium gave them a standing ovation, the Hunkaroo team took position on stage and rendered a powerful section from the play.

The evening also belonged to another stalwart from Pune. The veteran Lavani performer Shakuntalabai Nagarkar won the META for Best Actor in a Lead Role (Female) for the play Lavani ke Rang. The play, by Mumbai-based Bhushan Korgaonkar is an exploration of the Sangeet Bari tradition of Lavani. Though scheduled late on Friday evening, with a sudden rain throwing traffic out of gear, Lavani Ke Rang had drawn a houseful audience — with long queues outside Kamani auditorium. Geetanjali Kulkarni won the Best Supporting Actor (Female) for the play.
The awards ceremony was an assertion that theatre was putting the pandemic behind and looking ahead to new and diverse storytelling. The competition, in which 10 plays had been shortlisted from 395 entries from across India, had powerful names in the selection committee as well as the jury. The awards, too, were given out by eminent names, such as dance guru Shobhana Narayan, film actors Adil Hussain, Saurabh Shukla, and Manoj Bajpayee, and stars who are active on the stage and screen such as Lillete Dubey and MK Raina besides musician duo Pt Subhendra Rao and Saskia Rao-de Haas. Sushma Seth received the honour of a META for Lifetime Achievement on stage, cinema, and television.

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Award presented by Manoj Bajpayee for the best production to Hunkaro (PR handout)

Among the other big winners of the evening, hosted by Jim Sarb, was Victor Thoudam, who took home two awards —Best Choreography and Best Actor in Lead Role (Male) — for the non-verbal play he had directed with Bimal Subedi, titled The Departed Dawn. The play also won the Best Innovative Sound Design award for Moirangthem Biseshwar Singh. “I am excited. I cannot find words,” said Singh as he received his award.

The other winner of the award for Best Actor in Lead Role (Male) was Santhosh Dindagur for Daklakatha Devikavya, an experimental play that was based on the epic poetry and stories of the important Kannada writer and founder-member of the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, KB Siddaiah. Bharath Dingri, who struck an immediate chord with the audience with his style of playing the Tamate drum, won the META for Best Actor in Supporting Role (Male).
By the time the curtains fell and the last cheers melted into the buzz of conversations, it was clear that theatre was back after the lull of the last few years. As Adil Husain had said earlier in the evening, “I believe that if we spend more money on art, the government will have to spend less on law and order.”

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Dipanita Nath

Dipanita Nath is interested in the climate crisis and sustainability. She has written extensively on social trends, heritage, theatre and startups. She has worked with major news organizations such as Hindustan Times, The Times of India and Mint. ... Read More

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