Tales of Bangladesh, a production by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Puppet Team entertained the audience at the Studio
Theatre Hall of the academy on Monday.
The production participated at the World Puppet Carnival in Indonesia last month and won the Best Folk Puppet Musical Award. The production was also nominated for the ‘Best Scenery Award’. The show, 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. 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.
The show begins with a popular song of the yesteryears Ei kuley ami ar oi kuley tumi by the singers sitting adjacent to the puppet stage. The entry of four puppets – representing the young generation of the country and singing the timeless patriotic song Dhano dhanney pushpey bhora amnder ei basundhara – was welcomed with big applause from the audience. The show then evolves to a humorous conversation between the narrator Rashid Harun and a character named Korta (a puppet playing an old man who has lost his wife). In this humorous conversation, the narrator tactfully blames the puppet for its uninvited intrusion on stage.
The show then demonstrated the tales of thousands years of struggles of the Bangladehsis and way of life through portrayal of rice cultivation of farmers, villages and villagers, rivers, the Sundarbans, the language day, song of bauls, snake charmers and snake dance, of Bengali culture and a fairytale.
The audience were amazed to see the portrayal of a fight between a tiger and a crocodile, the perilous life of commoners of the Sundarbans, and a boat struggling to survive in a devastated storm. Convincing sounds of the storm or the roar of tiger appealed to the audience.
The dolls seemed well made when compared to that of the traditional puppet shows. The dolls, in colorful attires spontaneously dancing synchronised to soulful singing of the chorus created a joyful atmosphere in the hall. The chorus also presented few other songs including Teer hara ei nodi, Amader deshta swapnapuri, Joy bangla banglar joy, Salam salam and many others.
Earlier, Rashid Haroon informed New Age that this was their first performance after their return to Bangladesh from Indonesia.
A good number of audience including children enjoyed the show. One of the children, Shoumi Das, who is a student in class 5, informed that this is the first time she watched a live puppet show. ‘I really enjoyed the show because the show is full of music and dance,’ said Das.
‘I specially liked the fight scenes between a tiger and a man,’ said Rahin Islam, a little boy who came with his parents to enjoy the puppet show.
-With New Age input
