Haryanavi Folk Theatre 'Saang' struggling to survive

Hisar, November 26 (UNI) The once popular form of the Haryana folk theatre, Saang, is struggling for survival and requires prompt government help to regain its old glory.

The Saang folk drama genre has a rich heritage of traditions and knowledge characteristic to the Haryana countryside and must be preserved in its pure form, Anup Lathar, Director, Youth Welfare and Cultural Affairs at Kurukshetra University told UNI.

''Our purpose is to keep the originality of folk art intact and see the Saang reach the international forums,'' he said.

One has to adopt the latest technology of the music instruments to survive but the basics of the old art must be preserved, stressed Mr Lather, the yesteryear actor who said he shunned Bollywood to work on promoting Haryanavi culture and folk art.

''I do not want that the exclusiveness of this art may gets diluted in the global flow as has happened to the Punjabi folk. The sanctity of the ethnicity is in its specialty,'' Mr Lather said.

He said the University would soon launch a website on Haryanavi art and a laboratory has been established in the university to work on the various aspects of folk music, folk theatre and folk songs.

A state-level Folk Drama festival will be held at Kurukshetra in the first week of February. A five-day journey will be undertaken before this festival which will begin from the village of Pandit Lakhmi Chand, the noted folk singer and writer of Haryana, he said.

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