Theatre Art Unit staged its acclaimed popular play “Amina Shundori” at the National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on August 20 at 7pm. Based on a 300 year old folk lore “Nachhar Malum O Bhelua Shundori,”from the Chittagong region, the play had been adapted by late theatre activist SM Solaiman and directed by Rokeya Rafiq Baby.
The play focuses on love, dedication and agonies in the lives of ordinary women in our society. It showed how difficult and tough it is for a single woman to survive after being abandoned by her husband, in a male dominating society. The primary theme of the play is woman’s love, sacrifice and affection and the dishonesty and misuse of a woman in the backdrop of a patriarchal societal structure. The play was success to present, how a woman struggled in a cruel and greedy world. It addressed questions about the progress of women’s position even after so many years.
The play saw a full house audience on Tuesday evening. It’s an evidence of dramatic portrayal that weaves sadness, pain and dilemmas of women in a traditional melodramatic narrative form.
The play has been portrayed by three Aminas rather than one, above all, Anika Mahin Eka with her melodious and rich singing skills brought out the feminist theme genuinely. The male characters also did a fairly good job in playing the negative role successfully.
As “Amina Shundori” is a folk art and musical drama, there was perfect in depth singing, and high energy levels of the performers amused the audience a great deal. Lighting and set added more life in the performance. Shahinur Rahman designed the set and Faiz Zaher was in charge of lights.
Women are being considered mediocre to men and traditional to absurd norms are issues that are still relevant to our society, took the focus point of the show. Woman’s honest love and man’s dishonesty and betrayal is still universal factors in the male subjugated social order. Though, the story is 300 years old, modern women of this century can also relate to it, as it tells a heartbreaking story of a woman’s sacrifice and the betrayal she got it turn for her loyalty.
The tragedy is that, after being neglected by her husband, Amina Shundori, the protagonist in the play, still awaits his return from Myanmar. She becomes very lonely and starts to feel desolate.
In Myanmar, Nachhar marries a local merchant’s daughter named Ekhin and does not seem to be bothered about Amina’s life. The play reaches its apex when Nachhar by luck finds Amina at Bhola Sawdagar’s house. Instead of showing her gratitude for her patience and trust, he becomes suspicious of her purity and honesty.
