Shomoy Natyashampraday will stage its 26th production “Bhager Manush” at the Experimental Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy tomorrow at 7pm.
Premiered in 1997, the acclaimed play has been staged over 150 times so far. Mannan Heera has adapted the play from popular Urdu short story “Toba Tek Singh” by Saadat Hasan Manto.
The play satires the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 which brought immense suffering to the people living in the border areas of the two countries – India and Pakistan. The play highlights the “exchange agreement of the lunatics” between the governments of India and Pakistan, two or three years after the Partition. Directed by Aly Zaker, it shows many historical characters like Gandhi, Jinnah and others. They are represented as a contrast to those who are labelled insane by society. Legendary Sikh religious figure Tek Singh is featured as one of the central characters in the play. Singh strongly opposes the partition that has separated people of a nation in the name of religion.