A Bangladeshi puppet production titled Tales of Bangladesh has won the Best Folk Puppet Musical Award at a puppet carnival held at Jakarta in Indonesia.
Tales of Bangladesh, a production by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy puppet team, was also nominated for the ‘Best Scenery Award’ at the Wayang World Puppet Carnival 2013, which continued from September 1 to September 8.
A total of 63 puppet teams from 46 countries comprising of about 300 puppet artistes participated at the festival.
Tales of Bangladesh, written and directed by Dr Rashid Haroon, is a compilation of a number of stories featuring the culture and lifestyle of the people of Bangladesh.
A team of ten members, under the supervision of Professor Dr Rashid Haroon of department of drama and dramatics at Jahangirnagar University, went to Indonesia on August 31. Traditional puppet artistes Khelu Miya, Jahangir Hossain and Shamim Miya operated the puppets. Kabir Hossain, Shyama Bhattacharya, Nowrin Nipu and Hridoy Bosak were the music and voice artistes of the team.
‘It was our first participation in the festival and it is great that we have own a prize at the festival. The prize will definitely inspire us to do even better,’ Haroon told New Age.
‘Puppet show is a neglected form of art in our country. However, gaining this prize proves that this art has it opportunities to take our country to higher heights,’ added Haroon, who also informed that he will try to engage educated youngsters in this form of art.
About 400 audiences enjoyed the show when the team staged its production at the Gingdu Kawtaman Peoyangan stage on September 7 at 11:00am local time. The team returned on September 09.
-With New Age input
