Prof Dr Avinash Kolhe explores the enduring legacy of Marathi musical theatre as Nehru Centre Mumbai presents its 34th annual festival, celebrating landmark Sangeet Natak traditions, playwrights, music and performances across four special evenings. 

The Nehru Centre, located at Worli, is an important cultural institution in the life of this multilingual, multi-religious mega-city called Mumbai. It was conceived in 1972 by late Rajni Patel as a living memorial to Pandit Nehru, a leader with diverse tastes in art and culture. Its foundation stone was laid by the then Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi.

The Nehru Centre has been organizing various cultural events, programmes, book releases and discussion forums since its inception. Its annual festival of Marathi Musical Plays is a much-awaited event which will be flagged off this year on 11th August 2026. This will be the 34th edition of this festival.

The festival will open with ‘Sangeet Padmarani’ to be presented by the Bharat Natya Sanshodhan Mandir, Pune, and the festival will conclude on Friday, 14th August, with ‘Sangeet Shantibrahma’ to be presented by Khalwayan, Ratnagiri. All four shows are free and passes will be available at the Nehru Centre from Thursday, 6th August, from 10 am onwards.

In 1990, Nehru Centre started its cultural wing to promote and host classical dance, music and drama festivals. Since then, it has been regularly hosting festivals and has been staging plays in Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, and English, alongside guest productions in regional languages like Punjabi, Konkani, and Kannada. Come Monsoon and every year Nehru Centre organizes Megh Malhar, a thematic festival based on Monsoon Ragas. Then there is the annual theatre festival. Last year in September, it held its 27th annual Theatre festival.

The Birth Of Sangeet Natak

Marathi musical [Sangeet Natak] plays have a rich history. Theatre historians maintain that in 1879, late Trilokekar’s ‘Nal-Damayanti’ was the first musical play. Annasaheb Kirloskar saw the commercial potential in this new genre and produced musical plays like Shakuntal, based on Kalidasa’s Abhijnan Shakuntalam. It was staged on 31 October 1880 in Pune and ran to packed houses for weeks on end. The success of Shakuntal started a new trend. Kirloskar’s Shakuntal had 209 musical pieces which consisted of a mix of Hindustani and Carnatic classical music and lighter music.

From Mythology To Social Drama

It must also be noted that initial musical plays were based on mythological stories, well-known to the audiences. The viewers had no problem understanding the storyline. With Sangeet Manapman began a new trend of the ‘social musical play’. Its first show was held on 12th March 1911 at the Ripon Theatre, Mumbai. Sangeet Manapman depicted the bravery of its hero Dhairyadhar. He is in love with Bhamini. This love story was penned by Krushnaji Prabhakar Khadilkar.

Four Musicals Take The Stage

This year, the Nehru Centre’s Marathi Musical play festival will have four plays beginning with Sangeet Padmarani, written by Ramesh Naik and directed by Sanjay Narhar Dole.

Next will be ‘Sangeet Anant Narad’ written and directed by Dr. Varsha Bhave.

The third play will be ‘Sangeet Matsyagandha’ written by veteran Marathi playwright, Vasant Kanetkar. This performance is directed by Bal Puranik.

And the last show will be Sangeet Shantibrahma, written by Dr Shrikrishna Joshi and directed by Manohar Joshi.

One must thank the Nehru Centre for such an annual feast. The idea is to preserve the rich heritage of musical plays and pass the baton on to the next generation.