A dedicated theatre activist

Memi in a scene from Phulrani Aami Tia

Her mature performance combined with her enriched personality, very soon caught the attention of the TV directors. By 1988 she was cast in the popular BTV series Phirie Dao Aranye.

At first she started her theatre career as a member of Theatre (Arambagh). Later, along with some renowned theatre activists like Tabibul Islam Babu, she established a new group named Natyajan. In August 1997, she emerged as the first conveynor of the group.

In theatre her favourite directors are Jamil Ahmed, Aly Zaker, Abdullah Al Mamun and Nasiruddin Yousuff. But she gained further experience while working with Kuntal Mukharjee of India in her current production Phulrani Aami Tia. After Ferdousi Majumder, she is the only artiste of Bangladesh to have performed as a solo artiste. This production is a joint venture of India and Bangladesh. Memi's performance in the play has also been well appreciated by the Indian audience. Working with Kuntal Mukharjee and particularly with Tapas Sen she has been exposed to a different type of acting technique which the traditional stage performers in our country do not follow.

She says, 'We usually do not follow the lighting cues during acting, because it is said that in our country the lights will follow the performer. But this is a wrong concept. Master of light, Tapas Sen, suggested that the performers should follow the light and it is he who taught me how to face the light. According to him it is very important to focus a performer's movement and expression as well.' In theatre she admires Humayun Fareedy, Raisul Islam Asad, Aly Zaker, Asaduzzaman Noor, Khaled Khan, Azad Abul Kalam and Dilip Chaterjee. Her favourite female artistes are Ferdausi Majumdar, Suborna Mustafa and Tarana Halim.

At present she is directing the play Bhuboner Ghate, which belongs to her group Natyajan.