Raja Himadri premiered

A houseful audience on Friday enjoyed the premiere show of Raja Himadri, adapted and directed by Khandaker Tazmi Noor from Greek Sophocles’ classic Oedipus, at the Experimental Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.

In case of adaptation, the talented director Tazmi has converted the characters, place and the plot of the Greek tragedy to give it a sub-continental touch suitable for the contemporary local audience.The storyline, however, remains the same.

In Drishtipat’s 21st production Raja Himadri, a huge set made of thin fabrics is put on the back stage to give an impression of the cloudy ambience of an imaginary Himalayan terrain Pragjotishpur where Himadri has been declared the king in gratitude for freeing the innocent people from the atrocity of the demon Sangramvi.The queen of the state Indrani, the widow of the former king Chadnrashekher, marries the new king.

An innovative presentation of the demon with a huge puppet having radiant eyes was enjoyable. The performance, however, got momentum as a blind seer appear onstage and after a hitting encounter with the king, accused the latter for causing disaster.

Such allegation led Raja Himadri to search for the deadly truth of his origin: Himdri killed his father, married his mother and had children by his mother.
In fact, to avoid such curse the young Himadri had fled Dambuk, where he had been groomed up as a prince.

The use of Indian classical music to create ambience for the tragedy in Raja Himadri’s life after knowing the cruel truth, deserves plaudit.
Costumes of the performers show a mixture of traditional tant and ethnic minority Khumi’s royal attires.

The unbearable pain oozing out from the blind Himadri got catharsis with the synchronised humming of Hridoy amar prokash by Zhuma Khan without any instrument.

Khandaker Tazmi Noor as Himadri, Marzana Barkatun Barsha as Indrani, Abdul Halim Aziz as Kattayan messenger and Mrinmoy Chokrabarty as blind seer performed well.

Earlier, cultural personality Kamal Lohani, Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation general secretary Jhuna Chowdhury, Bengal Foundation director general Luva Nahid Chowdhury, among others, spoke at the inauguration session.