LARKANA: The 15-day Sindhi drama festival concluded on a high note at the open air theatre of the Arts Council of Pakistan here the other day with judges adjudging Golian golian ma lahan the best of the 15 plays staged over the fortnight.

Sindh Minister for Culture Syed Sardar Shah who was chief guest at the concluding ceremony held here late on Sunday night announced that a similar festival would be held in Karachi soon but prior to it a series of drama festivals would be organised in all divisional headquarters to promote culture and encourage performing arts in the province.He said that stage dramas based on famous characters of Shah jo Risalo would be staged at Bhit Shah on the annual Urs of Shah Abdul Latif Bhital.

He invited artists associated with all fields of art to stage Moomal Rano in Thar and assured them of government support because, he said, they were assets of the province.

Later, the minister donated a cheque for Rs1 million to the Arts Council of Pakistan, Larkana, in recognition of its services for the promotion of arts.

Secretary of Culture Ghulam Akbar Leghari said that Larkana was the capital of dramas where art and artists were loved andrespected.

Writers and art lovers always owned their culture and people, served andsupported cultural activities and helped preserve archaeological heritage, he said.

Haji Munawwar Ali Abbasi, convener of Larkana Awami Ittehad, said that it was exhilarating to see cultural activities going on uninterrupted and lauded the efforts of Arts Council and its members who had contributed greatly towards keeping artistic traditions alive.

Abdul Sattar Khuhawar, vice chairman of Arts Council, and others also spoke at the ceremony.

A panel of judges who had watched all the 15 dramas adjudged the best the play Golian golian ma lahan (Let me search again and again after my beloved but let me never find it) written and directed by a senior playwright and dramadirector Ayoub Gaad followed by Imdad Channa`s Hik galam hikro maan (me alone with my pen) directed by Badar Soomro and Nijat written by Mujeeb Burdi and directed by Al(bar Balouch. They were given cash prizes of Rs30,000, Rs25,000 and Rs20,000, respectively.

Haidar Qadri and Kajool Sindhu received awards for the best male and female artists for their marvelous performance in Golian golian ma lahan while shields of honour were given to all the directors of dramas and awards to other artists in different categories.

A large and jubilant crowd witnessed the colourful concluding ceremony which ended with folk songs and dance performances.What made the play Golian golian ma lahan so special was that it had only two actors in its cast who played all the roles in the story.

Prominent Sindhi TV drama and stage actor Haider Qadri (Adarsh) played the role of a lover and husband, who intensely loved a woman but was acutely aware of the fact that she did not reciprocate his true love.

Actor Kajool Sindhoo (Moomal) played five roles as sister, beloved, wife, prostitute and mother. The main theme of the play was how worldly love led a sincere soul to mystic love. The dialogues were interspersed with selected poetry of Sindh Shah Abdul Latif Bhital which gave the play a very solemn effect.