The second edition of Ganga-Jamuna Theatre Festival ended on Monday at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in an ordinary manner.
The six-day festival staged 18 plays by 17 local theatre troupes and one by an Indian theatre troupe. The local troupe Dhaka Theatre staged Binodini as a replacement to the scheduled Indian troupe Rittik which could not participate on Sunday in the festival due to unavoidable circumstances.
Ganga-Jamuna Theatre Festival, an ‘expansion’ of a Kolkata based festival having the same name, was organised by Anik and has been functioning for the past 17 years.
Last year, theatre activist in Dhaka formed a committee and organised the expansion of the Ganga-Jamuna Theatre Festival with participation of local and Kolkata based troupes.
Last year, the festival was arranged by the Bangladesh Parshad in association with Anik. This year it has been arranged in association with Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
‘It was Amalesh Chakraborthy, chief of Anik, who requested the Bangladeshi participants in the Kolkata based festival to oragnise an expansion of the festival to Dhaka,’ Golam Kuddus, the convener of newly formed Ganga-Jamuna Natyautsab Parshad, told New Age.
The second edition of the Kolkata based festival in Dhaka, though the primary plan was to organise a festival just once, created a mixed response on the local audience and theatre activists.
The activists involved with the organising committee found the festival fruitful and popular and announced to continue the Indian theater festival here in Dhaka.
The initiative has also been welcomed by the Kolkata based Anik Theatre. ‘I thank BSA and all others who have spontaneously helped and worked for the festival,’ Amalesh Chakraborthy told New Age.
But some leading and young activists proposed to modify the name to give a ‘distinctive and logical’ identity.
‘Both Ganga and Jamuna Rivers flow through Bangladesh and India so the title is also suitable for organising a festival of the troupes of the both neighbouring countries, which have similar traditions. So I don’t see any problem with the name,’ Golam Kuddus told New Age.
‘It is no longer an Indian/Kolkata based festival. It is not even an expansion of the Kolkata based festival now. We have made it ours,’ Golam Kuddus furthered.
Ramendu Majumdar, worldwide president of International Theatre Institute, said, ‘I welcome such a festival. It will make our theatre arena more vibrant and colourful.’
But, his peer another thespian Ataur Rahman said, ‘I appreciate the initiative of organizing festival featuring the local and India troupes regularly here in Dhaka. But it could have been, in fact, should have been organised with a different name to indicate that this is a different festival.’
The audience, on the other hand, appreciated the diversity presented in the festival. ‘This type of theatre festivals should be arranged regularly, and more plays by theatre troupes from other countries should be invited so that these festivals are more diverse in nature,’ observed Tamim Hasan a regular theatre-goer.
-With New Age input
