Dhaka Drama Festival 2004

The play deals with interrelationship of family life

Chandan Sen's play Daiboddho is an attack on present day materialism, which has become more explicit with advancement of technology.

Chandan Sen has staged the conflict between emotion and materialism through the relationship of a stepfather and a mother. In the play, the stepfather, named Gagan, represents the emotion while the mother represents the materialistic tendency of human beings.

Daiboddho presents the story of a family. Gagan is a truck driver who spends most of his time outside the house. Housewife Seeta and her daughter Jhinuk are mostly homebound. In her earlier life, Seeta was the wife of a doctor who is the real father of Jhinuk. For security reasons, Seeta took shelter in Gagan's house when Jhinuk was a three-year-old child. Seeta never accepts Gagan as her husband. Moreover, she thinks Gagan is harmful for her daughter as he drinks and frequently goes to the harlots. The reality is that Gagan considers Jhinuk as his own daughter. Jhinuk too is respectful of Gagan. But, Seeta is suspicious about their relationship.

Through the story of the couple, Chandan Sen has symbolically presented the widespread lack of emotion and mistrust which characterise the contemporary materialistic world. However, Chandan is hopeful of a positive change in his family. His stand is vindicated by Seeta's show of emotion at the end of the play.

As the director of the play, Arham Alo is realistic. He is greatly influenced by the typical direction technique of the directors of Kolkata. Sometimes, in course of the play, there is an obvious similarity between theatre in Kolkata and Dhaka. He has created the realistic interior design of a lower-middle-class house on stage by using an L-shaped one storied building and a kitchen opposite to it and a symbolic well at the corner at the backstage. His light design is also very simple.

Rina as Seeta appeared on the stage in a frayed temper. Like Rina, most of the other performers lacked the emotional touch. However, Taufiq, Munni and Mahmud played their roles quite well.

Rokeya Rafiq Baby
The portrait of a female theatre organiser
Assistant General Secratary of BGTF (Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation), Rokeya Rafiq Baby is the chief of the Theatre Art Centre. Though she was not very active during the festival, she thinks the function was reflective of the arduous efforts of the committee members. She said, ' We were trying to arrange a festival from last year; however, for the last few months personally I could not give enough effort for the festival. That does not mean that I am inactive in BGTF.

'In the festival my group Theatre Art Centre staged Golapjan by SM Solaiman. As I play the protagonist in the play, it requires a lot of stamina to enact the role.

'Golapjan is one of Solaiman's best plays. It superbly depicts the miserable life of the Dhakaia community (people living in Dhaka for generations).'

Ershad Kamol