A theatre fest has started in city from March 16 with new troupe 'Spardha' taking the lead. Ministry of Cultural Affairs and Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy are also providing support for the seamless arrangement. The theatre festival is chiefly for Spardha's first production 'Jibon O Rajnaitik Bastobota.' It was premiered at 7.30pm. The drama is based on a novel by the same name by Shahidul Jahir. The two hour long drama showcases acting of twenty different artistes mostly newcomers from different universities and theatre troupes. Forerunner of theatre education in the country and advisor of Spardha, Syed Jamil Ahmed thinks that few other novels have held up the true picture surrounding the Liberation War the way Shahidul Jahir's one has.

'Jibon O Rajnaitik Bastobota' takes a post-modern pragmatic and somewhat primitive approach towards the Liberation War of 1971. In the drama Abdul Majid, an Old Dhaka resident sees his sister taken by War Criminals and later left to die after mutilation on the banks of the river Buriganga in the finals days of the war. Seven other families also saw deaths at the hands of the same War Criminal gang. The leader of the gang obviously fled the area after the end of the war. But after getting general amnesty from the government he returns to the same place to visit his former victims. One Freedom Fighter even declares that he holds no grudges against the terrorists as the state itself has pardoned them. But Abdul Majid is not assured. He has named his newborn daughter after his martyred sister and as soon as the returned War Criminal learns about it Abdul Majid starts suspecting that history might repeat itself. So does the people of the area seeing the ever present tides and turns of 'realistic politics.'