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 Where Theatre breathes: A journey through Natak Fest at TMC, Ahmedabad - Bijoy Shivram e-mail: bijoyshivram@gmail.com Photos: Theatre & Media Centre, Ahmedabad April 19, 2025 In the heart of Ahmedabad's bustling urban sprawl, where concrete reigns and chaos often overshadows contemplation, a sanctuary quietly revealed itself - Theatre & Media Centre (TMC), a space so unexpected, so beautifully preserved, that one could scarcely believe it existed amidst the city's unrelenting modernity. This hidden gem became the soul of All About Natak Fest - 2025, a nine-day celebration of theatre, storytelling, music and memory. Curated with great vision and artistic integrity by Theatre & Media Centre, under the aegis of BUDRETI Trust, and supported by the Gujarat Sangeet Natak Academy, Urban Management Centre, Jalso, JG College of Performing Arts and NATAK, the Gujarati quarterly magazine dedicated to theatre arts. The ten days festival emerged as a rare confluence of performance and pedagogy, community and craft, heritage and imagination. Stepping into the campus of TMC was akin to stepping into another world - its architecture and natural setting offered a breath of repose, a theatrical quietude that gently cradled the vibrant energies it hosted.  
This edition, Season 3, unfolded with grace and fervour, bringing together performers from Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Mumbai, Bhopal, Hyderabad and Udaipur, featuring plays, workshops, storytelling sessions, classical music and dance performances - all designed to engage with the idea of Total Theatre. The inauguration itself was a ceremony of purpose and pride, with the presence of dignitaries like G.S. Mallik (IPS, Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad), Dr. Kumarpal Desai (Trustee, Vishwakosh Trust) and Utsav Parmar (Deputy Director, Doordarshan), who echoed the power of theatre as a mirror of society and as a timeless vessel for cultural expression. The performances that followed were thoughtful and diverse - ranging from Utatiyo TMC production, adaptations of Hasmukh Baradi's poignant texts like "Aur Phir Robaji Bole" to Bansi Kaul's direction of "Zindagi ek Zonk", from the layered female narratives of "Saavi" and "Gandhari" to the playful and imaginative "Oh! Shakespeare Aa Te Shu Karyu?" by JG College of Performing Arts and "Surya ki Antim Kiran Se Surya ki Pehli Kiran Tak" by Upasana School of Performing Arts - every evening carefully created to be both immersive and intimate. The inclusion of classical music and dance further broadened the sensory palette of the festival - Malini Vishwanath's Carnatic recital and Shivangee Vikram's Bharatanatyam presentation were meditative counterpoints to the theatrical high of the dramas, enveloping the space in artistic serenity.  Gandhari, Udaipur  Utatiyo, TMC production  Zindagi ek Zonk, Rang Vidushak Integral to the fest was the first-of-its-kind exhibition titled Stage and Stories, a living archive tracing the evolution of theatre spaces in Gujarat and India - from the ancient natya mandapas described in the Natyashastra to contemporary black-box theatres. Curated by Prof. Manvita Baradi, an architect, urban planner and theatre practitioner, the exhibition drew on years of research and embodied a rare confluence of scholarship and design. It was not merely a display, but an evocative storytelling of its own - featuring rare theatre costumes, set pieces, manuscripts, headgear and books from the Hasmukh and Jyoti Baradi Collection, displayed with reverence by the Theatre and Media Centre in memory of the legendary playwright, scholar and TMC founder, Hasmukh Baradi. One could sense his spirit animating every corner of the exhibit, his voice lingering in the archival pages and artefacts, his vision echoing through the detailed exploration of theatre history - from the dramatic finds of Dholavira in Kutch to the continued living traditions of the Koothambalams in Kerala.  Manvita, Jyoti and Hasmukh Baradi Workshops, held daily, provided spaces for artistic transmission and inquiry. Diana Raval's sessions on theatre movement and costume design opened the body and its expression; Preeti Das led an invigorating exploration of storytelling; Prof. Manvita conducted a session on theatre architecture that challenged participants to reimagine space as dramaturgy; and masters like Malini Vishwanath, Dr. Viraj Amar and Naishad Purani expanded understanding through music and story appreciation. Young learners found themselves in conversation with veterans like Kajal Oza Vaidya, Sunny Hinduja and Shinjini Rawal, whose workshops bridged classical methods and contemporary practice. The presence of Yogesh Trikmani, the ever-reliable force behind TMC, provided the festival its structure and flow, while Anika Bhosle, a final-year student from NID working on her thesis in exhibition design, added a youthful, design-conscious energy to the overall aesthetic. The festival was not a series of isolated events, but a sustained experience - one that honoured tradition while embracing innovation, that acknowledged the stage not merely as a platform for performance but as a site of cultural memory and inquiry. Each play, each interaction, each visual detail resonated with thoughtfulness. There was a palpable sense that everyone - from the performers and curators to the audience - was part of something larger, something sacred. In the end, All About Natak Fest 2025 stood as more than a festival; it was a reminder that theatre lives and breathes not just through scripts and actors, but through spaces, archives, communities, and questions. Somewhere, hidden in plain sight, TMC offered us a theatre not just to watch - but to belong.  Son of journalists K Shivram and Amni Shivram, the first Malayali woman English journalist, Bijoy Shivram is an accomplished Indian classical dancer trained in Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. A passionate promoter of the arts and a skilled graphic designer, he currently serves as the Vice Principal of JG College of Performing Arts and the Assistant Director (Operations) overseeing 17 JG colleges. He is also the founder of Preksha, an organization dedicated to the promotion of art and culture in Ahmedabad. Since 2020, Bijoy has curated the YouTube series 'Gurudakshina - An Ode to our Gurus,' celebrating the legacy of mentorship and tradition. |
