Hemanth Utsav 2017 by Abhyasa International Residential School at Shilpakala Vedika

Abhyasa School known for Mega Annual Cultural theater performances which became the talk of Bollywood, Tollywood and Hyderabad's Theater & Cultural circles, hits up with yet another Mega Dance and Drama Cultural Extravaganza. This time it’s on Demonetization, the most talked about subject. The play was performed as part the of Hemanth Utsav 2017 at Shilpakala Vedika on Sundya. This dance drama on cashless society was performed in the presence of 2000 guests, parents and teachers.

Harshvardhan Rane, Bollywood and Tollywood Actor; Dr.Roddam Prabhakar Rao, IPS, Retd. Director General of Police , Andhra Pradesh, Chairman Abhyasa governing body. And Vinayaka Kalleetla, CEO & Founder Abhyasa International Residential School graced the function.

It was held as part of the school’s annual cultural day—Hemanth Utsav, this mega theater performance on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's highly debated initiative banning old Rs 500 & Rs 1000 notes, involving 400 students, is the largest student stage performance of any school at least in this part of the country.

“No child will be left behind - That is Abhyasa School’s philosophy. All the 400 students of the school will participate in the dance drama on Demonetization, the journey from Unconscious to Conscious,”says Vinayaak Kalleetla, CEO & Founder of the Abhyasa International Residential School.

The Dance & Drama enacted by 400 children on a single stage for over 60 minutes involving yet another 60 students behind the stage and an equal number in the pre-production works, leaves no child of the school behind, making Hemanth Utsav the bench mark Annual Event for all schools to follow.

School Annual Days of most of the schools are expectedly routine. But, Abhyasa School's Hemanth Utsavs, are always very different. For several years now, the subjects and the themes have always been topical and contemporary with a lot of social value & public interest in them. Their Musical, Theatre and Opera performances have become a buzz in social & cultural circles and have always been the talk of the town. Over the years now, Abhyasa has become a name to reckon with for these mega theater performances.

The Annual shows of Abhyasa School are always different for these reasons:

01. Magnitude as it always involves all the four hundred students and no student is left behind.

02. They are always topical and contemporary… Like “Demonetization—Journey from Unconscious to Conscious” this year; on "Intolerance" last year in 2016; on “Swachh Bharat” in 2015; and a multi-lingual, multi-cultural colorful Opera ‘100 Years of Indian Cinema' in 2013; “Agar Anna”, a multilingual play on Anna Hazare’s crusade against Corruption in 2012, a take on the “Right to Education Act” in 2011 are testimonials of this.

As per this tradition that Abhyasa follows, the theme of our annual festival this year is based on "Demonetization—Journey from Unconscious to Conscious" as our centerpiece, informs Vinayak.

“While all of us would like to live more consciously, the reality is that we spend most of our time living unconsciously. Perhaps, we made decisions in life long ago & we are still acting upon, even though the conditions in and around our lives have changed… Most people don't want to change along with changing times, even though change is the only thing that is constant in this world. The concept of demonetization itself denotes Unconscious living! People who are refusing to accept demonetization can just be termed as frogs living in the well. They think that they are doing a favor to the government by voting politicians to power but in fact they will be favoring the government not just by voting, but actually by paying fair taxes,” says Vinayak.

The event will convey a very good message to society:

People evade tax and amass wealth. For example when they go to buy goods & services without a bill, the customer chooses to pay cash, causing loss to the national exchequer. Later they blame the government for bad roads and many other things... Similarly, people accumulating money for their children & grandchildren should remember Kabir’s saying: "Poot kapoot toh kyun dhan sanchay… Poot Sapoot toh kyun dhan sanchay…" which means "Why accumulate money for an unworthy progeny ?... Why accumulate wealth for a worthy progeny – who is worthy enough to do it himself " Accumulating wealth for unworthy children is the prime reason for the increase in crime rate in our country.

"We use these skits, dramas and theater performances to build Confidence & Creativity in our children. By choosing topical and contemporary subjects, we make our students socially aware and conscious so that they not only perform, but also imbue values that arise in the stories that they create” says Vinayaak.

“Drama improves academic performance too. It requires lot of intelligence to act & perform. Numerous students have demonstrated the correlation between theater involvement & academic achievement” he says.