Madhobi

Tropa and Apon in a scene from the play Madhobi

Theatre (Bailey Road)'s current production Madhobi was staged at the Experimental Theatre Stage on July 8 as part of the ongoing drama festival arranged by BGTF.

What is women's identity in the society? They are traditionally treated either as daughters or wives. Are they born only to perform the household duties and satisfy the males? Madhabi, originally a Hindi play by Bhisham Sahni and translated into Bangla by Ashis Goswami, confronts these questions.

The story shows the plight of Madhobi: no one cares about her emotions. Madhobi's father, Jajati, to prove himself the greatest philanthropist in the world, sacrifices his daughter to Galab. Galab too, in turn, sells his wife to three kings for 800 horses with which to pay his mentor's dues to his guru Bishwamitra. Even Bishwamitra oppresses Madhobi to some extent.

In direction, Ramendu Majumdar has successfully unfolded the story of the play. In some choreographies he has been traditional in his approach. More compositions could be applied to create the dramatic sequences.

Mustafa Monwar's set design is simple but artistic. Changing some stagecraft Monwar has created different sequences in the play.

The best part of the show was Nasirul Haque Khokon's light designing. He was able to symbolically express the emotions of the artistes through colour effects. Debojit Bandopadhyay's music compose was upto the mark.

Joglul Alam's performance as King Dibodas had a successful comic approach. As the titular character of the play Tropa Majumdar performed well. Apan Ahsan as Galob needs to develop his skill in co-ordinating with the bold performance of Tropa. Fumbling during delivering dialogues by some renowned artistes astonished the audience.