It will not be an exaggeration to say that the year 2011 was the year of celebrating Tagore, marking the Nobel Laureate poet’s sesquicentennial birth anniversary. Following the joint India-Bangladesh birth anniversary celebration plan, a remarkable number of cultural programmes featuring music, dance and theatre were organised with participation of leading artistes of the country.
This is thanks to the Tk 100 crore in block allocation by the ministry of cultural affairs to stimulate the country’s cultural arena in 2010. With the fund many cultural programmes highlighting Tagore festivals and 14 theatre productions based on Tagore’s works were premiered. An international Nazrul conference, SAARC folk dance symposium and first Dhaka international theatre festival, among others, were the major events also organised with the financial support of the government.
Besides government funded programmes, leading cultural organisations celebrated Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary by organising colourful programmes throughout the year.
The yearlong Tagore celebration began with a joint programme organised by Bangladesh and India a day before the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore on May 7. The programme in Dhaka was inaugurated by prime minister Sheikh Hasina while the programme in Delhi was launched by the Indian premier Manmohan Singh.
The yearlong programme showcased performing art shows, film screenings, exhibitions of original prints and paintings by Tagore, seminars and conferences, among other things. The programmes also featured a Tagore tourism package called Rabi Tirtha. It offered a guided tour of five sites connected to the memory of Tagore in Bangladesh and India.
Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy also organised festivals presenting music, dance and an exhibition marking the birth and death anniversaries of Rabindranath Tagore. Similar programmes were also organised by Bangladesh Rabindra Sangeet Shilpi Sangstha and Chhayanaut in Dhaka. Several other cultural organisations also organised such programmes in other district towns throughout the year, such as Dui Bangla Rabindra Natya Mela oragnsied by the theatre troupe Prangoney Mor.
The biggest arrangement of its kind, however, was by Surer Dhara at the end of the year as part of its yearlong programme celebrating Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary.
The three-day programme at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre was inaugurated by Sheikh Hasina. The major attractions of the event were music presentation by over one thousand singers, theatre performances, recitals, dance performances, dance drama performances, lyrical drama performances and seminars. Tagore’s Gitobitan was launched in an audio format at the festival.
The theatre arena also remained vibrant throughout the year bringing out Tagore productions. Fourteen out of 19 theatre productions that premiered in Dhaka were based on Tagore’s works. Funded by the government, 11 Dhaka based troupes and three troupes from outside Dhaka premiered plays based on Tagore’s stories. Moreover, three Dhaka based troupes premiered self funded productions highlighting Tagore.
These Tagore based plays were repeatedly staged in the big theatre festivals organised throughout the year. Besides such festivals, theatre festivals celebrating 40 years of independence and victory also created a buzz among cultural connoisseurs. Children’s theatre festival organised by Bangladesh Shishu Academy, National Theatre Festival, organised by Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation in association with Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, and Ethnic Minority Theatre Festival organised by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy were also some major festivals in 2011.
In fact, Bangladesh Shilapakala Academy remained vibrant throughout the year organising different types of cultural programmes across the country. The biggest was a month-long programme featuring cinema screenings, theatre productions, music, exhibition and dance marking the 40 years of victory of the country.
The year was also a special one for Chhayanaut and the Goethe-Instititut, Dhaka: both the organisations celebrated their 50th anniversary through colourful programmes.
Internationally acclaimed artistes such as Bryan Adams, pundit Jasraj, Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Akshay Kumar, Sharmila Tagore and Soumitra Chattopadhyay performed in Dhaka.
Partha Pratim Majumdar’s receipt of the Knight award, the highest French award in the cultural arena, as the first Bangladeshi was also a great occasion to celebrate. And for the second time Ramendu Majumdar was elected president of International Theatre Institute worldwide in the ITI world congress held in September 2011.
-With New Age input
