Artistes from across state to collaborate for 13-day show on Guru Nanak Dev’s life

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 3

Joining the grand scale celebrations of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, city-based theatre person and president of Punjab Sangeet Natak Academi, Kewal Dhaliwal will be producing a light and sound show. To be held in collaboration with Punjab Arts Council and Punjab Sangeet Natak Academi, the show will be held for at least 10 days at Company Bagh.

“The light and sound production we are working on will be based on Baba Nanak’s life and his ideology. It will engage over 100 artistes from across Punjab and will be performed continuously over the period of 10 days. We held a similar light and sound show earlier as well while celebrating Prakash Utsav and this time the idea is to go grand as the 550th Prakash Utsav celebrations began a year ago with a series of events,” said Dhaliwal.

He also expressed desire to hold a 13-day theatre festival dedicated to Baba Nanak at Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan. “We have also planned a series of 13 plays that will be staged in a 13-day long theatre festival. The stories have been picked up from the life of Baba Nanak and resonate with his ideology and principles. We will be touring 13 cities in Punjab that have historical relevance with Guru Nanak Dev, including Dera Baba Nanak, Batala, Sultanpur Lodhi, with the production teams and I hope we can get required clearance as I wish to hold the festival in Kartarpur Sahib, Pakistan, as well.”

Dhaliwal’s theatre group Manch Rangmanch will also work in collaboration with Ajoka Theatre from Lahore that was founded by late Pakistani theatre personality Madeeha Gauhar. “Shahid Nadeem will be preparing a play based on Baba Nanak’s life as well,” said Dhaliwal.

The show will highlight the concept of ‘kirt’ or self reliance as propagated by Guru Nanak Dev.