Romance and tragedy on stage

Renowned dance school Nrityanchal staged their folk dance drama "Mahua" on October 26 at the National Theatre Hall, as part of the ongoing Ganga Jamuna Theatre and Cultural Festival, being held at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA). 

"Mahua" is based on a ballad from Mymensingha Geetika, a collection of folk ballads from the region of Mymensingh. Compiled by late Shahidul Islam, the production has been directed by Shamim Ara Nipa.

Though the dance drama meets a tragic end, it delineates an innocent and powerful love story between the protagonists Mahua (enacted by Shamim Ara Nipa) and Noder Chand (donned by Shibli Mohammad). A group of snake-charmers visits Kanchanpur, a peaceful village where Noder Chand, son of a zamindar, falls in love at first sight with the stunningly beautiful Mahua who also reciprocates it.

Mahua's father Homrah, along with the troupe, flees as he comes to know about the love affair. Following much effort and pain, Nader Chand finds his beloved and the duo decides to elope. On their way, the duo is attacked by Mahua's gypsy community. Humra forces Mahua to stab Noder Chand, but Mahua commits suicide with the knife. Chand also takes his life with the same knife. The audience experience a bit of Shakespearean tragedy that appears at the end of the play "Romeo and Juliet".  

The chemistry between Shibli-Nipa (above) and the colourful chorus pieces made “Mahua” an enjoyable production. Photo: Sheikh Mehedi Morshed

The music for the production deserves credit thanks to the beautiful rendition of songs by Kiran Chandra Roy, Sadi Mohammad and a female artiste while the dancers' mesmerising display of folk dance earned many hearts. The grace and enamoured expression of Mahua stood out. To signify every climax of the dance-drama, the light design, artistic direction, restless recital of sitar in the music part and the dancers' -- especially Shamim Ara Nipa's -- performance played an immense role to stage the production successfully.    

At the end of the dance-drama, all the cast and crew together with coordinator of Nrityanchal Muhammad Jahangir took the stage. 

October 26 marked the sixth day of the 10-day festival, organised by Ganga-Jamuna Natyautsab Parshad that is staging a total of 30 plays by 30 troupes from Bangladesh and India, as well as open-air performances by 53 organisations.