Lokhitavadi mandal bags regional round

Nashik: The much awaited results of the divisional round of 55th Maharashtra State Marathi theatre festival were announced by the Directorate of Cultural Affairs, Maharashtra State on Monday. The play 'Ya Hi Walnawar' (On this turning point) presented by Nashik's Lokhitavadi Mandal has been selected to represent the centre in the final round. Lokhitavadi Mandal won at the district level for the second consecutive time.Last year, the group's play 'Na Hi Vairen Vairani' had not only represented the Nashik Centre but also had won the first prize in the final round of the state festival.
"We were confident we will feature among the top three plays of the festival. We want to focus on winning the first prize in order to represent Nashik in the final round. We have excelled in almost every field with prizes in direction, light effects and set designing. Two of our artists have won state citations for excellent acting performances," said an elated Hemant Deshpande, director of the play.
Written by Mukund Kulkarni, the play was based on the short story 'Roads of Destiny' by O' Henry. Deshpande used many new theatrical tools in this play, for example, the characters were bringing props to the stage themselves at the beginning of each act.
R M Group's 'My Dear Shubhi' earned the second place among the plays from Nashik. Written by Nagpur-based writer Niranjan Markandeyawar, the play was an abstract suspense thriller. "The play had won first prize at the Nagpur centre two years ago when a team from Nagpur had performed it there. I am happy to see that the subject is still fresh and appeals the audiences," said Markandeyawar.
R M Group also won four other prizes in individual categories for this play. Mainly Amateurs, another group of young theatre activists won the third rank for their play 'Ya Valnawar'.
Theatre groups celebrated their victory and congratulated each others on Monday for the successful festival. Table: The list of winners and individual prize winners from Nashik centre
Winners at Nashik centre at a glance
Production:
First: Ya Hi Valanawar by Lokhitavadi group
Second: My Dear Shubhi by R M Group
Third: Ya Valnawar by Mainly Amateurs group
Direction:
First: Hemant Deshpande of Lokhitavadi Group
Second: Prashant Hire of R M Group
Light Effects:
First: Prabodh Hingne of Lokhitavadi group
Second: Ravi Rahane of R M Group
Set Designing:
First: Kiran Samel of Lokhitavadi Group
Second: Shailendra Gautam of K K Wagh College
Make-up
First: Manik Kanade of K K Wagh College
Second: Sujay Bhalerao
Silver Medal for Acting
Mahesh Dokfode of Mainly Amateurs
Laxmi Pingle of R M Group
State Citation for best acting:
Madhavi Jadhav, Pallavi Patwardhan, Rasika Pund, Shital Thorat, Narendra Datey, Shaunak Gaidhani, Sachin rahane, Vishal Rupawate, Bhauso Salvi.