Chhayanaut hosts Nazrul Festival 1416
With much enthusiasm and fervour both from the audience and the artistes, Chhayanaut's two-day Nazrul Festival commenced on June 19 at the Chhayanaut Sanskriti Bhaban. On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Chhayanaut's life-time president Sufia Kamal, which fell on June 20, Chhayanaut organised the festival titled "Nazrul Utsab 1416. The poet-litterateur-activist was a devoted follower of Kazi Nazrul Islam.
The event started off with a group dance by the artistes of Chhayanaut. Veteran Nazrul exponent Sohrab Hossain inaugurated the festival by lighting candles. He was a given a wreath, an "uttorio" and books on behalf of Chhayanaut. Prior to the inauguration, a one-minute silence was observed in honour of recently deceased Language Movement veteran Gaziul Haque. Nazrul artiste Khairul Anam Shakil, general secretary of Chhayanaut delivered the welcome speech at the inauguration.
"Chhayanaut always celebrates the birth and death anniversaries of the National Poet with special programmes. To celebrate on a greater scale with a festival was our long-cherished wish. After we shifted to our new building, we have organised successful festivals on folk and classical music and on Tagore. We chose the birth anniversary of Chhayanaut's former president Sufia Kamal for the festival because she was a true practitioner of Nazrul's ideals of humanity, secularism and equality. The festival also intends to create a common platform for artistes and progressive thinkers all over the country, thus extending Chhayanaut's possibility as an organisation," said Khairul Anam Shakil.
Sanjida Khatun, president of Chhayanaut, presided over the ceremony. "Our intention is to enrich ourselves by the interaction of the guest artistes performing at the festival. I believe this kind of artistic interaction will set a momentum to the cultural movement of the country, which is based on our heritage," the president said.
The first performance of the event was a chorus, "Jaago amrito piyashichito" by the artistes of Chhayanaut. The first session included performances by Shahin Samad, Rezaul Karim, Rawshan Ara, Khairul Anam Shakil, Badrunnesa Dalia, Sumona Bardhan, Lina Taposhi Khan and more.
Nazrul artiste Sahahin Samad inaugurated the afternoon session on the first day. A one minute silence was also part of the event, this time in the memory of recently deceased Sarod artiste of the subcontinent Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, along with Language Movement veteran Gaziul Haque. Dithi Hasnat then presented a documentary on the life and works of Nazrul. Next, the child artistes of Chhayanaut presented two chorus performance, "Joi hok joi hok" and " Shukno patar nupur paye." Anindita Choudhury's rendition of the classical-based song "Rinik jhinik jhini bajey payela" set the mood of the audience into exploring the diversity of Nazrul's musical creations. Tanvir Ahmed was next with the song, "Badhu tomar amar ei je biroho," a melancholy song about the separation of two lovers. A dance number by Snata Shahrin and Tahmina Ferdous of Nrtityanchal with the song, "Mor ghum ghorey ele monohor" delighted the audience. The programme continued till late in the evening with a total of 40 artistes, both form Chhayanaut and invited artistes. Fatema tuz Zohra, Sadya Afreen Mallik, Ferdous Ara, Yakub Ali Khan, Khalid Hossain, Shelu Barua were among them. Asit Roy and Padmini Roy (Tangail), Gurudas Bhattacharya (Comilla) and Rahena Saha(Chittagong) were among the artistes who came from outside Dhaka. Dance performance by artistes Munmun Ahmed, Tamanna Rahman and recitations from Nazrul were also included at the event.
Pinu Sen Das and Gautan Sarkar on tabla, Iftekhar Hossain on keyboard, Pradip Kumar Roy on Mandira and Almas Ali on violin accompanied the artistes at the second sessions event.
The last day's event included a memorial speech on Sufia Kamal by Dr. Rafiqul Islam. A dance drama by the artistes of Chhayanaut titled "Shajol Shyam Ghano Deya" was the special attraction of the event, directed by noted dance artiste Sharmila Bandopadhyay. The event was inaugurated by seasoned Nazrul exponent Sudhin Das.
Comments