Prokrity O Puran Desh Natok Festival

Desh Natok Theatre festival closes today with the performance of the group's Nityapuran

Preview
Masum Reza, director as well as the playwright of Nityapuran, a drama based on the mythological epic Mahabharata, show class struggle through Ekalobya's character, the low caste hero of the epic. The play has a little philosophical flavour in its analysis of the psychology of women and the hero as well. The legendary characters in the play like Arjun and Drawpodi are not presented as mere gods or goddesses in Masum's play. The roles rather analyse human traits in all ages. Nasirul Haque Khokon designs the light while Kamaluddin Kabir does the set designing.

Hat Hodai: the play represents life of people living along the coast

Dhaka Theatre staged Hat Hodai on February 26 at the Public Library Auditorium as part of the drama festival arranged by Desh Natok.

In Hat Hodai, the playwright has successfully blended Sufism with the narrative technique used in the Arabian Nights to portray the life of the inhabitants of the alluvial lands in the greater Noakhali regions. Anar Bhandari, the central character, represents these people and all other characters in the play are developed in relation to Anar Bhandari.

However, the play maintains all the requirements like songs, narration, and others that are characteristic of the Bangla drama trend.

Director Nasiruddin Yousuff's compositions go well with the trend he has followed. His players have played all over the stage. However, in his edited version, some characters, such as the younger son of Anar Bhandari, are not well developed. The reason behind the clash between two brothers remains quite incomprehensible.

Afzal Hossan's symbolic set successfully represents the different stages of a person's life. However, the reddish set as the presentation of the lifestyle of the inhabitants of the shore area does not follow the connotation of the symbolic colours. The group thinks that the colour represents the lighthouse, but in reality the colour is more yellowish than reddish.

It is really tough to design a good light setting without using any 'general light' and Rafiq Mahmud's failure has again proved it. The light operator could not coordinate the lighting cues with the acting cues.

Because of the lack of rehearsals and so many substitutions, the pace of the play has decreased. Even the renowned stage artistes failed to prove their calibre. Raisul Islam Asad could not maintain his role as Anar Bhandari. Sometimes, it seemed that he was Raisul Islam Asad himself not the character Anar Bhandari. Shimul, known as 'Manchokushum', was equally flop. However, Shahiduzzaman Selim's performance created humour among the audience but the charismatic artiste has got the potential to do better.

Child artiste Sanjana's bold appearance on the stage can be an example for the substitute-performers.