Awishkar, to commemorate the 18th death anniversary of one of its founders, the late Mr. Arvind Deshpande, is going to celebrate the 18th Arvind Deshpande Smriti Mahotsav (18th Arvind Deshpande Memorial Festival).

The festival will begin on the 3rd of January, 2005 and will go on till the 12th of January, 2005. The programmes will be held at the Awishkar Cultural Centre auditorium at Mahim, as well as at the new theatre auditorium at Dadar Matunga Cultural Centre.

The festival will feature five new plays produced by Awishkar in the past year, and also new plays presented by other theatre groups like Maharashtra Cultural Centre, Lalit, and Working Title.

A special attraction of this festival are the one act plays- KAALOKH and TICH TI DIWALI, presented by students of D.G. Ruparel college. Both these plays have won prizes at various competitions held this year.

The Awishkar festival believes in encouraging young talent and provides them with a platform to do so. Following is the festival schedule:

The festival schedule:

Monday, 3rd January, 2005
Time: 7.30 PM
Venue: Awishkar Cultural Centre, Mahim

Inauguration of the festival done at the hands of the famous producer-director of the Hindi stage, Mr. Feroze Khan.

Followed by:"Marathi Gazal"

Presented by: Mr. Bhimrao Panchale



Tuesday, 4th Janurary, 2005
Time: 7.30 PM
Venue: Awishkar Cultural Centre, Mahim

S.E.C.D. School, Santa Cruz Presents

SHAHEED SIPAHEE MANGAL PANDEY

Nominated as the Best Children's Play at the state level competition held by Natyashala, the play is presented by physically handicapped children. The duration of this play is 15 minutes.

Writer: Ramesh Pawar
Director: Pradeep Joshi
Sets: Tyabiha Sheikh
Make up: Ranjana Kakade
Costumes: Akshata Kubal, Tejaswini Sawant
Music: Sujit Panchal
Artistes: Akbar Sheikh, Seema Kori, Ghanshyam Gupta, Pradeep Sharma, Khalid Ahmad, Mubarak Sheikh, Shaheen Sheikh, Jyoti Kapardar, Ramkumar Gupta, Prakash Hiwale, Tanaji, Rajkumar.