It's a festival that promises to bring five absorbing issues by five talented theatre directors on one stage. The second National Theatre Festival of Adakar Manch is back with an aspiration to create waves through theatre. “Since January, we’ve seen hectic theatre activity in the city and that’s such an encouraging sign and we are taking the creative movement forward,” Sahib Singh of Adakar Manch is busy with the preparation of the festival which begins on March 4. For the last 14 years, the theatre group has been taking theatre not just to cities all over India, but also to the interiors of Punjab. Sahib’s recently received the International Shiromani Rangkarmi award from a Canadian organization and the festival he says, is a celebration of this award. “We want the people of the city to enjoy various forms of theatre and this time we are also announcing two awards in the memory of two artists from our group, Garry Bhinder and Pushakar who lost their lives last year and these awards will be given every year,” adds Sahib.

The festival begins with ‘Man De Haani’ written by Ravinder Ravi and directed by Sahib and deals with the complex issue of search for a soul mate. The dialogues are in verse and live music and dance are the other highlights of the play. “All together, it’s a new theme and treatment,” assures the director. Another reputed director from the city, Davinder Daman, brings ‘Qatra Qatra Zindagi’, which revolves around the inner struggles and fight for existence of a writer and his teacher wife, both theatre workers. ‘Khirki Band Kar Dio’, a single woman’s struggle has been directed by Harvinder Kaur, while Vijay Tendulkar’s ‘Gidh’ will be directed by NSD’s Ramji Bali. “On the final day of the festival that’s March 8, Kewal Dhaliwal with ‘Mein Punjab Boldan’ will tell the story of Punjab, her land of five rivers, struggles for prosperity et al,” sums up Sahib.