Cultural competition in cultural capital

Cultural competition in cultural capital

Tarek Aziz

28 July 2019 12:00 AM

Practicing culture makes a man more humane, more creative, more sensible, more industrious, and consequently, a complete human being. Jahangirnagar University (JU) has a unique harmony, where nature and culture are in complete harmony. The university campus has a mind-blowing natural view, on one hand, and the practice of culture is an inevitable part of this natural kingdom, on the other hand. People address the campus as the capital of culture. The campus proved the effectiveness of the addressing matter innumerable times, reflecting its activities in the cultural arena.

Muktamancha of the Jahangirnagar University campus is the place where a good number of cultural programmes are staged around the year, and it is famed for giving birth to a good number of eminent playwrights, poets, singers, as a whole, cultural figures of Bangladesh who are shining in not only Bangladesh but also in the global arena. These successes are not created overnight. Around a dozen cultural organisations have been working relentlessly in this university to nurture potential cultural talents. It would be tough to find out a day without a cultural programme in schedule. This tight schedule proves that the respective organisations put extensive efforts to quest up and rear up the cultural latent talents. In the continuity of last year, to quest up and boost up, the young cultural talents of Jahangirnagar Theatre (Auditorium), a drama-based organisation, organised an inter-department cultural competition-2019.

A total of 14 cultural teams from 14 departments took part in the two-daylong preliminary round on July 03-04, at Jahir Raihan Auditorium on the campus. From there, a total of 6 teams got the ticket to the final round. The performance of the final round was held at the Muktamancha on the university campus on July 21-22.

Each team gets a total of 10 minutes for stage preparation and 20 minutes for performance. The performance of the finalist 6 team was outstanding and mind-blowing, and the themes of the respective teams were also enthralling. Each team tried to elucidate a thematic representation by dance, drama, recitation, song, mime, and use of light effects. The judges of the final round were Shubhashish Bhowmik, an eminent playwright of Bangladesh and a founding member of Jahangirnagar Theatre, Professor Md. Kamruzzaman of Zoology department, and Associate Professor Anisa Parvin of History department. Shubhashish Bhowmik disclosed the results of the Inter-Department Cultural Competition-2019 around 10.00 PM on Monday night.

Bangla Department clinched the title of the competition, whereas the Chemistry Department and Fine Arts Department occupied 1st and 2nd runner up respectively. The organizers awarded Ashik-Un-Nabi, a second-year student of the Economics department as the best spectator.

Besides, Jahangirnagar Theatre staged a drama ‘Chilekothar Shepai' of Akhtaruzzaman Elias on Tuesday night. The novel ‘Chilekothar Shepai' was written in the context of the mass up revolt in 1969. The young playwrights of Jahangirnagar Theatre give the dramatic format of the novel. This was the 3rd time they staged the drama at Muktamancha, and it is the 93rd production of Jahangirnagar Theatre since its inception in 1980.  

“We are trying to quest up some young cultural talents through organising this type of cultural competition. Jahangirnagar Theatre is working for producing creative playwrights since its inception. We will try our level best for hunting and rearing the young talents so that they can uphold the culture of Bangladesh in the global arena and snatch the victory for Bangladesh”, said Anan Afsana Azad blissfully, the Joint Organising Secretary of Jahangirnagar Theatre. 

The writer is a student of the Chemistry Department at Jahangirnagar University. He can be reached at tarekju45@gmail