Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 551 Wed. December 14, 2005  
   
Culture


Victory Day Celebration
Siraj-ud Dowla staged at Liberation War Museum


The Liberation War Museum has arranged a week-long cultural programme, titled Victory Celebration 2005. The function, which began on December 10 at the museum premises, is being held to celebrate our 35th Victory Day.

The cultural programmes include musical soirees, stage plays, movie screenings, jatra, concert and others. Discussions on different topics at the beginning of programmes each day are an added attraction.

On the third day (December 12), the programme began with the discussion, titled National duty based on the spirit of Liberation War from youth's point of view, steered by economist Sayeed Ahmed.

Following the discussion, popular Nazrul singer Khairul Anam Shakil rendered songs of Nazrul, DL Roy and Sachin Dev Burman.

The last attraction of the third day's arrangement was a jatra pala, Siraj-ud-Dowla. Professional jatra artistes of popular troupe Desh Opera with their typical rhythmic high-pitched voice modulation presented the historical events of the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The unfortunate last Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, Siaraj-ud-Dawlah (played by Sultan Selim) fought gallantly to protect the Independence of his country from the avaricious British East India Company and its local collaborators.

Sachin Sen Gupta's jatra pala featured the events of conspiracy in a way that the audience could relate the historic British collaborators, such as Mir Zafar, Jagat Sheth, Urmi Chand, Rai Durlav, Ghoshoti Begum and others with the Pakistani collaborators during our Liberation War in 1971.

Certain dialogues in the jatra pala, such as, "Dark clouds of uncertainty loom over the sky of Bengal" reflect the uncertainty in March 1971.

However, the difference between the jatra-pala historical play and our Freedom Movement is that Siraj-ud-Dawlah's story ends with tragedy whereas our Liberation War is the story of a Victory.

Milon Kanti De is the director of the pala. Rikta Sultana in the role of Lutfa, Dulal Ghosh in the role of Mir Zafar, Purobi in the role of Aleya and Milon Kanti De in the role of Golam Hossain were impressive.

Picture
Sultan Selim (L) and Milon Kanti De of Desh Opera present Siraj-ud Dowla