Playwright Jatinder Brar’s birthday celebrated at Punjab Naatshala

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Amritsar, July 20

Theatre artists celebrated eminent playwright Jatinder Brar’s birthday at Punjab Naatshala, a theatre space founded by Brar that has now become the epicentre of cultural activity in the city. A Shiromani Natakar awardee, Brar completed 79 years of his life on July 18.

Talking about his source of inspiration, Brar said that Bhai Manna Singh alias Gursharan Singh, eminent Punjabi dramatist, was one of the biggest influences on his life. Brar wrote several plays during his college days and earned fame by staging them successfully. He started producing his own plays and though an engineer by education and profession, Brar founded Punjab Naatshala, the city’s first open air theatre space. Brar’s body of work includes a dozen full length plays including “Lohe Di Bhatti”, “Faasle”, “Kudedan Ki Jaai”, “Kadessan” and “Paydan”, the laught riot “Mirch-Masala”, “Saka Jallianwala Bagh” etc. He has written more than 40 short plays and received about 50 awards, including Punjab Gaurav, Shiromani Playwright, Punjab Sahitya Natak Akademi, Gursharan Singh Award and more.

He has been instrumental in nurturing talent like Bharti Singh, Kapil Sharma, Chandan Prabhakar, Rajiv Thakur and many other artistes from Amritsar.