Indo-Bangla troupe stage Alibaba and 40 Thieves

“Bandi Bandar Roopka tha”, a new name given to the famous Arabian Nights tale, is a novel fusion dance production inspired by South Asian, African and modern dances forms in 3D projection format, the Indian dance troupe head, Sukalyan Bhattacharya, said. Shibli Mohammed of the Srishti troupe in Bangladesh said, “It is a huge production which incurred Rs 40 lakh to mount it”. 

“We had done rehearsal for three months in Dhaka where Sukalyan, a dear friend of ours, also participated with his own group,” Shibli, who played Alibaba, said. Popular Bangladeshi stage actor Shamim Ara Nipa, who portrayed the role of Marjina, said, “The joint production has the feel of a Broadway musical and an effort to bring back fantasy element in our lives.” 

Nipa said she was a little apprehensive about the response of the Kolkata audience to the show, but after the show was over we found there was no difference between Dhaka, Chittagong, Kolkata and for that matter any city. “Some works are universal,” she commented. 

Nipa had earlier performed in Rabindra Sadan, the premier state-run auditorium, 30 years back in Tagore’s dance-drama ‘Chitrangada’. “We have done several dance productions based on Tagore’s works as well as works of Kazi Nazrul Islam and folk culture”, she said.