Theatre
পায়ের আওয়াজ পাওয়া যায়
Not translated into English
Syed Shamsul Huq · 1976
Synopsis
A village in northern Bengal, in the last days of the 1971 war. The matbar, the notable on whom the whole life of the village depends, has supported Pakistan in the name of Islam and called on the villagers to resist the liberation fighters. But the army's tents and cannons have disappeared, the soldiers have left, and the footsteps of the fighters can be heard approaching: the villagers gather and call the matbar to account, and he defends himself with fresh ruses, while his daughter, brought up to believe everything about her pir, begins to ask questions.
Context
The author wrote the play in Hampstead, London, from 1 May to 13 June 1975, in a single sweep, without division into scenes. He handed the manuscript to Ramendu Majumdar and Abdullah al Mamun during a stay in Dhaka in 1976; the Theatre troupe premiered it on 25 November 1976 at the Mohila Samiti hall, in a production by Abdullah al Mamun, who also acted in it. The book appeared only after this first performance.
Who it is for
A verse play, in the speech of the northern countryside; it is best to know what the razakars were, auxiliaries of the Pakistani army in 1971.
Prizes and reception
The first original verse play of independent Bangladesh, performed more than two hundred times, it is regarded as the major play on the war of liberation.