Without illustrating any war scene, horrifying incident of numerous abductions, terrified imagery of burning villages and the vision of freedom fighters, a theatre is constructed in the backdrop of the Liberation War of 1971 with a flamboyant humorous rural life depicting enjoyment, grief, love and thievery. Theatre Department of Udichi staged a play titled Bou Basanti at the Experimental Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on April 21 in the capital. The play is written by Ratan Siddique and directed by Azad Abul Kalam.
The theatre portrayed an atypical story of the time-line which existed but rarely revealed in any form of art presentation or literature, while the 38th staging of the show saw a huge crowd as it is established as one of the popular plays of the troupe.
The comedy depicted the period between March to December of 1971 and portrays the simple people of a periphery community. Badar and Manu are cheeky thieves who never gets caught. Badar loves a girl named Rizia who is the daughter of a beggar named Motaleb. Sekandar, the son of the village chairman punishes Badar and Manu by throwing them out of the village for their misdeeds. The condemned thieves leave their dwelling and begins residing in another village at Halim’s house.
Halim is the person who has a daughter named Jyotsna who is fascinated by films, maintains many affairs and is greedy for wealth. When the liberation war starts Moina, a fisherman of the village joins the Pakistani Army and fights against the freedom fighters. The lives of villagers are disrupted a bit but at the end the audience saw the life remains same as before in the rural Bengal.
Numerous songs were used to create the ambiance of the theatre while a radio is used to portray patriotic songs of the Liberation War and the declaration of independence.
The central philosophy lies within the maiden and final act of the drama. In the maiden act, an assistant of a tailor shop suddenly makes a flag of Bangladesh when everyone else was making flags of Pakistan. He is critisised and humiliated by his co-workers for his deed. The concluding act shows that after liberation, one of the assistants again deliberately made a flag of Pakistan and receive similar treatment from his fellow workers. The contrast shows that during the time when Bangladesh was part of Pakistan, there were people who craved for liberation and afterwards, there are people who is against the separation. The writer of the play resembles the sentiment in his speech: “The story of the play started in East Pakistan and ended in Bangladesh. While we were under the reign of East Pakistan, Bangalees were desperate to be free of the tyrannical rule. In liberated Bangladesh, few miscreants still exists who want to deny the outcome of the glorious war. This political message is focused in the backdrop of the rural people’s life.”
