Book launch and documentary screening at Gallery Chitrak

Guests at the book launch.

A book titled “Mro” was launched on February 13 at Gallery Chitrak in Dhanmondi. The book focuses on Kanak Chanpa Chakma's creative life and various aspects of the Mro community. For the last 17 years, Kanak Chanpa has been working on the Mro community. She has drawn 166 paintings on the community which focused on their lifestyle, religions, cultivation practices, culture and tradition. The book has been jointly published by Gallery Chitrak and Arzo Chalchitra.
Khalid Mahmud Mithu's 35 minutes documentary “Shopnoropon” was also screened at the programme. The documentary is based on Kanak Chanpa's own thoughts and concerns about the Mro. It features the life in its diversity of the Mro people of the Hill Tracts. There are only about 22,000 people in Bandarban.
Mijarul Kayes, Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Stephen Priesner, UNDP country director jointly unveiled the book. Mohammad Moniruzzaman, managing director of Gallery Chitrak, artist and TV personality Mustafa Monowar, Professor Emeritus Anisuzzaman, artists Rafiqun Nabi, Monirul Islam, Shahid Kabir, Abul Barq Alvi, Mohammad Iqbal; writer Ali Imam, among others, were present at the programme.
Some worthy reviews have added a significant aesthetic dimension to the book. Professor Syed Azizul Haque's informative article has added unique value to the book. He has striven to depict the major chapters of Kanak Chanpa's creative life, mode of expression and technique.
Social activist, writer and environmentalist Singyoung Mro has extensively written on the Mro community and the artist's fondness for ethnic society. The writer said, “I am mesmerised by Chakma's paintings. She has visited several Mro villages to paint them. As a result, the themes are not artificial. She has captured the Mro lifestyle and culture by being with them. Her paintings reflect their daily joy and sorrow, pangs of separation, tears, love and romance, valour, heroism, livelihood and more.”