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Kanthoshilon: A 20-year journey

Promoting recitation as an art form

NOVERA DEEPITA
CuLTuRAL and academic orientation are both necessary inputs to increase the literacy rate of the country. With such a motive Kanthoshilon, one of the leading recitation groups of the city, started its journey in 1984. Some enthusiastic cultural personalities like Naren Biswas, Biplob Bala, Mir Barkat, Sirajul Islam and Golam Sarower, lead by the veteran Tagore exponent Wahidul Haque, established Kanthoshilon as a school to train people interested in recitation.
Talking about the group's beginning, the founder executive member Golam Sarower said, 'In the beginning we just trained the students as recitors. About 60 students were given orientation in recitation.' The selection is done through tests. The classes are held at the Teachers Students Centre (TSC) of Dhaka university. Noted theatre activist and member of Shambhu Mitra's group Bahurupi, Mohammad Zakaria inaugurated the first course. Wahidul Haque is still actively involved with the group as the Principal. The chairpersons of the group at different periods were venerable personalities like poet Shamsur Rahman, painter Kamrul
Hasan and litterateur Syed Shamsul Haque.
Golam Sarower said, 'The courses are being conducted regularly following academic system.' The four-month orientation course covers 80 students followed by written tests and viva. The evaluations are categorised in three classes like Samman (Honours), Shapholya (Success) and Jathariti (As usual). Among 80 students, the trainers select 20 for the three-month advanced course. Again these students face a viva. Evaluating their perfor-
mance, both theoretical and practical, and by the recommendations of the trainers selected students are accepted as the group members. As the group is committed to promote Bengali culture they use all the terms in Bangla regarding their performance and training.
Besides planning, all the activities of the whole week, the weekly meeting, attended by the members only, also include some extracurricular activities and culture oriented tasks like exchanging notes about recently
read books, poems or novels.
As Kanthoshilon's aim is to promote recitation countrywide, they send teachers and trainers in different groups to zillas around the country. The members are also sent to the suburban areas as directors of different productions by cultural groups. 'We have also planned to spread the practice of recitation in the schools outside Dhaka,' said Sarower.
Kanthoshilon also has a theatre wing that stages plays. The most successful productions by the group are, in recitation: Shishutirtha, Rather Rashmi, Rabi Thakur Kabi Thakur, Taposiy O Tarangini and Anamni Angana; and among plays: Putal Khela adapted from Ibsen's A Doll's House, Bhritya Rajaktantra, Amina Madinar Golpo and others.
The success of the group is shared by the performers who are promising names in the present cultural arena. Among them, Zahirul Haque Khan, Nasiruddin, Jharna Sarkar, Ahsan Deepu, Enayet Kajol and Nayla Tarannum Kakoli are the most noteworthy. The next venture of the group is Ibsen's Master Builder in drama section and Raja O Rani in recitation wing.