Pakistan is a stage for this Pune drama group

Pune : The Two-way diplomacy for strengthening Indo-Pak relations has taken roots in cultural arena. City of Pune is also contributing to this process in its own way. A drama group from here has received an invitation to perform in Pakistan for consecutive third time and what’s more, the group is going to stage a Marathi play there this month.
‘Raabta’, an Urdu drama group will perform in Lahore for third time in a row. “Portrait’, a play written by Ratnakar Matkari will be staged on the occasion of a Drama Festival. The festival is organized every year in the memory of late Rafi Peer, who is considered to be one of the pioneers of the drama movement in South Asia. According to Syed Saeed Ahmed, the man behind Raabta, “We are going to stage `Portrait’ by Mr. Matkari on the 10th and 11th of November. A total of forty drama groups are participating in the festival and some three to four groups from India will be there.” But Raabta is perhaps the only group from India which is invited for third time, claims Mr. Ahmed.
A troupe comprising of Manasi Lonkar, Atit Bhandari, Adil Attar and Ashraf Khan, besides Mr. Ahmed himself will go to Pakistan for the performance. The group had previously staged ‘Jis Lahore Nahin Dekhya’ and ‘Naqab’ at the festival. Those plays generated a lot of response there. Of those plays, Naqab was written by Rafi Peer himself and its theme relates to the perils of Nuclear arms. The group has even staged the play in Delhi, Gujarat and even Bangalore.
This year, the organizers have invited the group for the festival on its own. Rafi Peer has eight plays to his credit and all these plays are in the pipeline for productions. Among these, seven plays are to be staged by Pakistani group and remaining one has been given to ‘Raabta’. These plays will be staged next year, informed Mr. Ahmed.