Nargis Chowdhury (centre) leads artistes of Padatik Sangeet Sangsad during a rendition. Photo: Mumit M.

Theatre troupe Padatik Natya Sangsad Bangladesh celebrates its 32nd anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, the troupe arranged a colourful programme at the National Theatre Hall, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) on January 23. Theatre performances, music, dance and more were the highlights of the programme.
The programme started at the corridor of National Theatre Hall, with dhol beats and notes of flute. Kutubuddin Jang Chowdhury, founder president of Padatik, gave a brief speech. He thanked and greeted the audience through his speech.
Members of Padatik Sangeet Sangsad -- led by Nargis Chowdhury -- rendered songs from two of Padatik's plays, "Ma” and “Shojon Badiyar Ghat”.
The programme also included couple of dance performances by the Agartala (India) based troupe Nalanda Nrityacharcha Kendra.
The main programme started inside National Theatre Hall. The organisers invited 32 well-known artistes from different fields of the cultural arena. The artistes -- from theatre, music, dance and recitation -- came to the stage, each carrying a candle.
Chief guest at the programme, Ramendu Majumdar, eminent theatre personality and president of ITI Worldwide, led the artistes' procession towards the stage. In his speech, Majumdar lauded Padatik's efforts and symbolised the lighting of candles as enlightening people from the darkness of prejudice and bigotry.
Among other artistes attending the event were: (from theatre) Lucky Inam, Traupa Majumdar and Mannan Hira; (from music) Fahim Hossain Chowdhury, Sadya Afreen Mallick, Mita Haque, Lily Islam and Sujit Mustafa; (from recitation) Hasan Arif, Kazi Arif, Laila Afroz and Mashkur-e-Sattar Kallol and (from dance) Laila Hasan, Sharmila Bandyopadhyay, Munmun Ahmed and Tamanna Rahman.
In his speech, Selim Shamsul Huda Chowdhury, chief of Padatik, hoped that his troupe could work together with all artistes. “As theatre is a composite sector, highlighting music, recitation, dance and other art forms, I hope we can work with artistes from other sectors in future,” said Chowdhury.
Members of Nrityam, led by Tamanna Rahman, staged a dance with the Tagore song “Anandalokey Mangal Alokey.” The Agartala based troupe Nalanda performed a classical dance.
Different cultural organisations greeted Padatik with flowers on the occasion.
Later, Padatik staged its latest production, a mimo-drama, “A Day's Tale” at the venue. Directed by Raj, the play featured a fusion of mime and theatrics.