The New Nation - Internet Edition

Art & Culture Report

Theatre group Padatik Natya Sangsad celebrated its 31st founding anniversary on January 21 in the city with amid festivity.

Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University AAMS Arefin Siddique inaugurated the festival as chief guest at the Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) of Dhaka University.

President of Bangladesh Group Theatre federation M Hamid, members of Padatik, among others, were present on the occasion. Members of the theatre group also brought out a procession and marched the city roads.

The organisers held its main programme including a discussion at the Nilima Ibrahim Auditorium of the Mahila Samity on Natak Sarani at Bailey Road in the city in the evening. After the discussion, the group staged Palli Kabi Jasim Uddin's timeless tale 'Beder Meye,' directed by Irene Parvin Lopa.

The play is a saga of a gypsy girl, named 'Champabati.' Her life changes forever when the village headman abducts her. Despite avid appeals, her husband Gaya fails to rescue her and leaves the village.

Padatik Natya Sangsad was founded on 21 January in 1978 in Dhaka by the former workers of Kalantar Natyagosthi (1976). Padatik began its activities with the motto 'Let drama be the weapon for the struggle of life, let drama be the expression of life'. The objective of this group is to enrich our culture and to sustain the spirit of the War of Independence.

Padatik's first performance was Jasimuddin's Sojan Bandiyar Ghat, which was staged in 1978 at the British Council Auditorium. The group then staged 'Kabar,' a play based on a poem by Jasimuddin, in the same auditorium.