The fever of the prestigious Purushottam intercollegiate one-act-play competition has reached its crescendo and the two-day final round of the competition is getting underway today in the Bharat Natya Mandir.

The results of the competition will be declared tomorrow and the winners of this high status trophy will be felicitated on Thursday, September 9 in a grand ceremony. The competition is organized every year by the Maharashtriya Kalopasak Mandal.

The colleges vying for this year’s trophy include The MIT College of Engineering, Sinhagad College of Science, Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, College of Engineering Pune, Vishwakarma Institute of Information and Technology, Marathwada Mitr Mandal’s College of Commerce, Pune Vidyarthi Griha’s College of Engineering, ILS Law College and Sinhagad College of Engineering.

Vishwakarma Institute of Technology are presenting a play called “To Maajhi Vaat Pahat Asel”. The play deals with the increasing suicidal tendency among the students which is the topic on the anvil at the moment. The play would be staged today. Other one act plays to be performed in the final include “Farmville”, “Udyachi Sakaal Mast Ahe”, “Jag Javal Bival Yetay”, “Sign Out”, “http error 404- page not found”, “Jhaapad”, “Vaat Pahatechi” and “Naav”.

Like every year, eminent people in the field of drama are judging the entire competition. Judges of the competition were talking to the correspondents on Friday. According to them, issues related to the world of the youth have been the concern of this year’s plays. Judge Shubhangi said, “Contestants focused on contemporary issues- fromm social networking to student suicides, from tribalism to environmental conservation and Naxalism.

Youngsters today are trying to relate to such issues. In addition to a heightened sensitivity towards certain issues, students show how familiar they are with the technical aspects of staging a play.”
Understanding of and awareness towards the issue being dealt with was the other criterion used in the selection of the finalists.

When the correspondents asked judge Arvind Surya about the entire selection process he said, “Apart from the way in which the actor developed his character, we also judged him on the basic focus. The coordination that the actors had on stage and clarity in speech were given due importance. The overall performance this year has been better than last year. One could see how much energy and time was spent on the subjects that were portrayed.”

Judge Nitin Shrotri gave more importance to the directorial skills of the play. He said, “Dialogue delivery, intonation, expression and body language were some of the parameters used for selection. Only the best made it to the finals.”

All the theatre lovers in the city are eagerly awaiting the results which are now just a few hours away.

-Yogesh Sapre