In expressing homage to recently demised eminent Indian filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh, theatre troupe Swapnadal will stage Rabindranath Tagore’s “Chitrangada” at the Studio Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Saturday evening.
“Chitrangada- A Crowning Wish!” is Rituparno’s latest released film which is considered to be his most personal and groundbreaking movie. The film correlates the real materialistic daily life with Tagore’s Chitrangada. Through this film, the rebellious director tried to establish the fact that our identity is our wish which we can choose and we can even choose our gender.
Tagore’s play revolves around the princess of Monipur “Chitrangada” who has been brought up like a prince and was trained with all the techniques of war. One day, she meets legendary hero Arjuna while he was visiting Manipur. Seeing him in action, Chitrangada falls in love with him. But Arjun refuses her.
Being refused, Chitrangada, who has also been termed as Kurupa in the story, approaches to the god of love Madan and begs for beauty. Pleased with her prayer, the god of love blesses her with a new formation, granting a beautiful appearance as Shurupa for a year so that she could impress Arjun.
Chitrangada upholds the fact that the beauty of soul and spiritual strength are eternal human qualities rather than external beauty through symbolic portrayal of some legends of the epic Mahabharata.
Swapnadal’s production, directed by Zahid Repon, is full of dialogues in verses with infusing of Tagore songs from the dance drama version of “Chitrangada.”
