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In Focus

Pantomime Movement: Silent soldiers of the stage

Nadia Sarwat
Pantomime, the performing art form where silence speaks, has not yet received much attention from the mainstream audience in our country. Several individual artistes and organisations are currently working to promote pantomime, including Partha Pratim Majumder. Zillur Rahman John and Kazi Mashurul Huda. Most of them are based in Dhaka though. In this context. Chittagong-based organisation Pantomime Movement' is an exception. The group is doing a commendable job in popularising the art form not only in Chinagong but all over the country as well.
"Mime is a movement to us." says Rezwan Rajan, president of
Pantomime Movement, who considers himself and his comrades a group of silent soldiers. Since its establishment in 1995, Pantomime Movement has become a pioneer in the country as a performing group that con-'I’sldtrs'the medium a means to relate to greatersocial causes.
Being an art form, which needs no language to communicate, mime can appeal to anyone from anywhere in the world. Thus, mime has a universal language, and Pantomime Movement wants to use it to raise awareness against social injustice. Also notable is the organisation's efforts to take the art form outside the proscenium, and on to the streets.
So far, the organisation has held over 300 performances -street shows and on stage, workshops on mime, and festivals. The organisation became a member of Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation in 2004. Pantomime Movement also works for Non Violence International, an international agency generating social awareness.
The successful National Mime Festival 2009, organised by Pantomime Movement to celebrate its 14th anniversary, can be considered a milestone for the group. The three-day festival was held in Chittagong last March, featuring performance by artistes and
groups both from Chittagong and Dhaka. President of ITI, Ramendu Majumnder and theatre personality Azad Abul Kalam inaugurated the festival. Eminent theatre personalities hailed the event as an important step in Bangladeshi pantomime.
Debangshu Hor, Rezwan Rajan, S.H. Simon, and Mainul Shaon were the founding members. Later, Golam Mustafa Hero, Solaiman Mehdi, Sagar Chowdhury, Rashed Anwar, Pramal Dey, G.M. Mahiuddin, Nur-E-Akbar, Shilpi Dasgupta and others joined the group. Currently, Rezwan Rajan and Raj are two important figures in the group whose innovative direction and experimental productions are popularising the art form both in Chittagong and Dhaka.
"Living In Love," "Devil's Defeat," "Drugs," "The Nature," "An Innocent Death" and "Freedom" are some of the regular productions directed by Rezwan Rajan. Raj also works as a guest director for several theatre troupes. Padatik Natya Sangs.id, Dhaka has had several staging of the production, "A Day's tale, " directed by Raj. "Fantastic Dolls," "Vagrant’s Titbits,” "The Controller," and "Me vs. Myself" are some other notable works by Raj.
Despite several limitations in practicing and promoting mime, Pantomime Movement has set an example through their works. Already moving beyond its hometown, the troupe is looking forward to take its activities to a height of internationalism.