‘Birangana Kabya’ play to mark bicentennial birth anniversary of Michael Madhusudan Dutt

Dhaka University's Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, Department of Bangla, and Nazrul Gobeshona Kendro are set to jointly stage "Birangana Kabya", marking the 200th birth anniversary of legendary Bengali and playwright Michael Madhusudan Dutt.

Three shows of the epic play will be performed on Thursday at 5:00pm, Friday at 6:00pm, and Saturday at 6:00pm at Dhaka University's Natyamandal, consecutively. Dr. Shahman Shahriar, an assistant professor of the university is the director of the play.

The "Birangana Kabya" is a collection of poems treating the elegiac themes of love and the plight of women separated from their beloved. The play is centred on three chapters of the 11-eleven-chapter epic poem. As the poem advocates for the plight of individuality and femininity in women, the play incorporates ideas of eco-feminism in the play, blending it with regional and classical forms of theatrics.

Three teachers from Dhaka University's Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, Wahid Mollick Joly, Kazi Tamanna Haque Sigma, and Sumaya Moni, will be performing in the play.

Legendary Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt, commonly referred to as Mahakobi (epic poet) due to his tragic epic "Meghnad Badh Kavya," is regarded as a literary luminary, celebrated for his exceptional creative brilliance.

 
Madhusudan Dutt is widely considered to be one of the greatest poets in Bengali literature and the father of the Bengali sonnet. He pioneered what came to be called 'Amitrakshar Chhanda' (blank verse). His first attempt at blank verse was "Sharmistha" in Bengali literature.