Comfort Woman

New Delhi: The six-day 13th Mahendra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) Festival starts, here from Friday.

The awards in 13 categories declared on April 18, 2018. Jury members are Amal Allana, Lillete Dubey, Neelam Man Singh Chowdhry ,Rajat Kapoor, Ranjit Kapoor and Shobha Deepak Singh

After five days of rigorous watching of 335 plays, the selection committee consisting of well-known names like Bharati Achrekar, Chandradasan A, Swaroopa Ghosh, Vikram Phukan and Vivek Mansukhani shortlisted the following nominations in 13 categories.

Best Play:

  • Caucasian Chalk Circle directed by Chandra Keerthi B. and produced by Theatre Artistree (Bengaluru [Karnataka], 1 hour 40 mins, Kannada)
  • Comfort Women: An Untold History directed by Ranhang Choudhury and produced by Abhigyanm (Guwahati [Assam], 1 hour 15 mins, Assamese)
  • Higuita – The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick directed by Sasidharan Naduvil and produced by Remembrance Theatre Group, Alumni Campus Theatre, Christ College (Irinjalakkuda), (Thrissur [Kerala], 1 hour 15 minutes, Malayalam)
  • Hojang Taret directed by Oasis Sougaijam and produced by The Umbilical Theatre (Imphal [Manipur], 1 hour 05 minutes, Manipuri)
  • Item directed by Kshitish Date and produced by Natak Company (Pune [Maharashtra], 1 hour 45 minutes, Hindi)
  • Karuppu directed by Koumarane Valavane and produced by Indianostrum Theatre (Pudducherry [Tamil Nadu], 1 hour, Non-verbal)
  • Moimonsingha Geetika directed by Goutam Halder and produced by Naye Natua (Kolkata [West Bengal], 2 hours 10 mins, Bengali)
  • Muktidham directed by Abhishek Majumdar and produced by Indian Ensemble (Bengaluru [Karnataka], 2 hours, Hindi)
  • Nona directed by Jino Joseph and produced by Lipin Ajaya Ghosh (Calicut [Kerala], 2 Hours, Malayalam)
  • Shikhandi – The Story of the In-betweens directed by Faezeh Jalali and produced by National Centre for Performing Arts in association with Fats The Arts (Mumbai [Maharashtra], 1 hour 30 minutes, English)

    Caucasian Chalk Circle

Best Director:

  • Abhishek Majumdar – Muktidham
  • Chandra Keerthi B. – Caucasian Chalk Circle
  • Faezeh Jalali – Shikhandi: The Story of the In-betweens
  • Goutam Halder– Moimonsingha Geetika
  • Jino Joseph – Nona
  • Kshitish Date – Item
  • Koumarane Valavane – Karuppu
  • Oasis Sougaijam – Hojang Taret
  • Ranhang Choudhary – Comfort Women: An Untold History
  • Sasidharan Naduvil – Higuita: The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick

Best Stage Design:

  • Jino Joseph  (Nona)
  • Kishore Barman & Hem Kr. Talukder (Comfort Women: An Untold History)
  • Ravi Chaudhury (Item)
  • Vasanth Selvam (Karuppu)

Best Light Design:

  • Anmol Vellani (Muktidham)
  • Dimple Kr. Das (Comfort Women: An Untold History)
  • Koumarane Valavane (Karuppu)
  • Sajas Rehman & Abid P.T. (Nona)
  • Sourav Poddar (Hojang Taret)

Best Innovative Sound Design:

  • Barnali Choudhury & Yachinur Rahman (Comfort Women: An Untold History)
  • Goutam Halder (Moimonsingha Geetika)
  • Jean Jacques Lemetre (Karuppu)
  • Pradeep B V & Praveen B V (Caucasian Chalk Circle)
  • Sathyajit (Higuita: The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick)

Best Costume Design:

  • Dyuti Ghosh Halder (Moimonsingha Geetika)
  • Malaika Choudhury (Shikhandi: The Story of the In-betweens)
  • N.C. Malemnganbi (Hojang Taret)
  • Varsha Devi & Rimjhim Deka (Comfort Women: An Untold History)
  • Vidya V & Vedavathi V (Caucasian Chalk Circle)

Best Actor in a Lead Role (Male):

  • B. Jiten Sharma (Hojang Taret)
  • Goutam Halder (Moimonsingha Geetika)
  • Sainath Ganuwad (Item)
  • Sandeep Shikhar (Muktidham)

Best Actor in a Lead Role (Female):

  • Dipti Kachare (Item)
  • Gargee Dutta (Comfort Women: An Untold History)
  • K. H. Sanatombi (Hojang Taret)
  • Mahnaz Damania (Shikhandi: The Story of the In-betweens)
  • Ruchi Raveendran (Karuppu)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male):

  • Akshay Joshi (Item)
  • Ashwini Kumar Chakre (Muktidham)
  • Krishnanunni P.  (Higuita: The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick)
  • Tushar Pandey (Shikhandi: The Story of the In-betweens)
  • Vikrant Dhote (Shikhandi: The Story of the In-betweens)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female):

  • Archana Vasudev (Higuita: The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick)
  • Ipshita Chakraborty Singh (Muktidham)
  • Srishti Shrivastava (Shikhandi: The Story of the In-betweens)

Best Original Script:

  • Abhishek Majumdar (Muktidham)
  • Faezeh Jalali (Shikhandi: The Story of the In-betweens)
  • Jino Joseph (Nona)
  • Ranhang Choudhury (Comfort Women: An Untold History)
  • Sasidharan Naduvil (Higuita: The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick)

Best Ensemble:

  • Caucasian Chalk Circle
  • Comfort Women: An Untold History
  • Hojang Taret
  • Nona
  • Shikhandi: The Story of the In-betweens

Best Choreography:

  • Dr. Sangeetha Rajan (Shikhandi: The Story of the In-betweens)
  • Jino Joseph (Nona)
  • Mani Bharathi (Karuppu)
  • Oasis Sougaijam (Hojang Taret)
  • Ranhang Choudhury (Comfort Women: An Untold History)

    Nona

The 10  plays shortlisted would be staged on various evening during the festival.  The plays are  Muktidham(Hindi), Comfort Woman(Assamese) , Karupu(Non-verbal), Higuita(Malayalam) , Hojang Taret(Manipuri), Nona(Malayalam), Caucasian Chalk Circle(Kannada) , Moimonsingha Geetika(Bengali), Item(Hindi), and Shikhandi(English). New Delhi’s Sri Ram Centre, Sri Ram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, Kamani Auditorium will host these plays.

In the 13 years journey of META, in fact, 11,500 theatre productions, 5000 artistes, approximately 300 various themes covered across 28 different state have come together on one stage.