Ajo-Vibho-Kandalam Foundation awards presented

Vijayawada: The playlet ‘(A) Satyam’ staged by Sri Chaitanya Kalasravanthi, Visakhapatnam was ad-judged the Best Production at the 32nd Annual Festival organised by the Appajosyula-Vishnubhotla-Kandalam (Ajo-Vibho-Kandalam) Foundation.

The event conducted in association with Jashuva Samskritika Vedika took place from January 2 to January 4 at Makineni Basavapunnaiah Vignana Kendram.

Out of many entries, eight playlets were shortlisted for the final competition by Malleswara Rao during the preliminary round. The event featured a diverse range of themes and per-formances over three days.

On the first day the playlets ‘Annadata’ by Kalanjali, Hyderabad, story and script by Valluri Sivaparasd and directed by Kolla Radhakrishnam and ‘Vedantam’ staged by Sri Shirdi Sai Cultural Welfare Association, Anakapalli, story of Chalam script written by Margaseersha and directed by P Mutyala Rao were staged. Sahrudaya, Dronadula staged playlet ‘Work from Home,’ original story by KK Bhagyasri, script by Addepalli Bharat Kumar and directed by D Mahendra.

On the second day, ‘(A) Satyam’ was performed by Sri Chaitanya Kalasravanthi, Visakhapat-nam, story drafted by Sridudha Moduga, dialogue written by P Mrutyunjaya Rao and di-rected by Balaji Nayak. ‘Anaswaram’ by Sri Krishna Art Theatre Arts, Vijayawada, story and script by Satyanarayana and directed by DV Chandrasekhar was performed. Mythri Kala-nilayam, Vijayawada has showcased the playlet ‘Brahmaswarupam,’ story and script by Snigdha and directed by TV Purushottam. On the final day, Aravinda Arts, Tadepalli performed ‘Vidakulu Kavali,’ for which the story was written by Potturi Vijayalakshmi, script by Valluri Sivaprasad and the playlet was di-rected by Gangotri Sayi. The playlet ‘Devaragam’ was staged by Sowjanya Kalasravanthi, Uttarandhra.

It was written by Saleem and adoption and direction by KKL Swamy.

The judges, MC Das, S Narasaraju, and K Santarao, announced the results, awarding ‘(A) Satyam’ as the Best Production. Balaji Nayak received the Best Director award, while Leel-amohan was honoured for Best Music for the same play. The Second Best Production and Best Makeup awards went to ‘Devaragam,’ with S Ramana recognised for his makeup work.

Other key awards included Best Script given to Snigdha for ‘Brahmaswarupam,’ and Best Stage Design awarded to S Ramana for ‘Vedantam.’ Acting awards were conferred on Chen-chu Punnaiah (Annadata), Jyothi Rani (Vedantam), P Balaji Nayak (A) Satyam), P Varaprasad (Anaswaram), and TV Purushottam (Brahmaswarupam). Special Jury Awards were present-ed to Srija Sadineni and Mahendra.

The awards ceremony was presided over by Dr DNS Murthy, while Dr Appajosyula Satyana-rayana, Chairman of the Foundation, honoured the winners.

Despite the success of the event, the audience felt that the lighting issues due to LED usage in most of the playlets af-fected visibility and audience experience during some performances.