Manthan'17, India's Largest Street Play Festival. - DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

Philanthropy and social change work are at their best when they are driven by your values and connected to what you care about most. With the urge to bring change in the society and love in the hearts of theatre artists, Manthan – India’s largest street play festival organised by Verve – The street play society of Shaheed Sukhdev college of business studies finally completed its 10th edition.

This year Manthan reached 45+ cities including Bhopal, Chandigarh, Solan, Manesar, Jammu, Raipur, Vellore, Amarkantak, Coimbatore etc. crossing 21 states of India, with around 15 performing for Manthan. Being the 10th edition we celebrated Manthan Mahotsav under the concept of “Manthan Mahotsav” which was introduced last year, encompassed performances by 40+ teams in 10 cities of the country at the same time, i.e. between 2-6 PM on March 4, 2017. Running after ultimate excellence in theatre, Manthan reached out to international locations of Kaduna in Nigeria, Kathmandu in Nepal and Bèlum in Brazil. Summed up with 2500+ artists performing for Manthan on the streets only for a motive of resolution of change.

The closing ceremony of Manthan was celebrated on 1^st April, 2017 and it was incredibly beautiful, chaired by the salient, the founder of Manthan Ms. Aparajita Bharti. She shared her idea and the howling journey of Manthan. All the Delhi University Theatre teams amassed to celebrate the essence of street theatre. The ceremony started with a slam poetry event, artists from the theatre teams showcased their talent and shared their thoughts and feelings by the medium of poetry, the poetry was really awesome. They thanked Manthan for giving them opportunity to share their feelings and thoughts. The poetry was followed by a Qawwali by Sultani Brothers of Nizam Chishti fame, who engaged the teams and everybody in beautiful sufi music and set the stage on volcano, everyone was enjoying the Qawwali, the claps didn’t stop till the Qawwali ended. That night was unforgettable, all present there enjoyed a lot. Manthan’17 ended in utmost prosperity and the organising team, Verve, is overwhelmed with the entire national response.
“We are very sad that it had to come to an end but it’s time that we part our ways. But before that we want to thank all the Manthan Leaders and teams for their help and support, it would not have been possible without them. The closing ceremony had been a great success.” Said Vipul Babbar (member of the organising team )

Manthan’17 ended but the struggle never ends, stab in changing the society will be constant.