As the red curtain rises, you find yourself in Ratnakar's forest densely filled with trees wildly entangled by creeping plants. You would panic at the look of the terrifying robbers of scary getup. Only by close observation do you realize that the robbers were little children, because they are section one students of Sunnydale School who performed "Balmiki Pratibha", the first dance drama written by Rabindranath Tagore. The show took place on April 2 at the main auditorium of the National

. Theatre Hall of Bangladesh

| Shilpakala Academy.

The play started after the inauguration, with lighting of candles by Chief Guest HT Imam, Political Advisor to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accompanied by the school's principal Tahzin Ahmed.

"It was a mind-blowing performance that made me extremely happy" said HT Imam after watching the one-hour play. He said he was amazed by the spontaneous performance of a difficult Bangla musical dance drama by the young students of an English medium school, which changed his preconceived idea about the English medium culture as a whole.

Imam thanked the students, and congratulated Zarrin Zara in the role of Balmiki for her fantastic performance and Mir Parian Mehbub for his excellent presentation as the anchor

Moved by the remarks of the Chief Guest, Principal Tahzin Ahmed said that there is a prejudice in the society against English medium education sector, but it has probably passed the acid test now. “The school

has a culture of observing special days including Independence Day, Victory Day, International Mother Language Day, Pahela Baishakh and so on, and we do not spare any national occasions," she said.

She thanked the participating students of middle section one, which is second to fifth grade, for their hard work and their guardians for their wholehearted cooperation. She also expressed gratitude to the teachers and staff of the school for their efforts to make the programme successful.

"Balmiki Pratibha" is a dance drama that musically tells the story of Ratnakar, a thug who transformed himself into sage Balmiki, who composed the Hindu epic Ramayana. One night, robber Ratnakar and his comrades captured a girl to be sacrifices before goddess Kali. The girl's crying, however, melted Balimiki's heart and he released her. Gradually he lost interest in cruelty and began to wander in

the forest until one day he saw a hunter killing two innocent love birds. He uttered a curse for the hunter that happened to come out in Sangsrit, the language of gods that he never learnt. Balmiki renounced Kali when he found forest nymphs worshiping an image of Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom. He also refused the approach of Laksmi, the goddess of fortune. His penance was rewarded and Saraswati appeared before him in the image of the girl he had released before. The goddess offered him the veena and blessed him with music.

The Sunnydale presentation of the drama was directed by Swati Sarkar, dance being directed by Agnes Rachel Paris, drama directed by Mitul Rahman, music arranged by Nirupam Swarma, and total coordination done by Zebunnesa Mahmud. The drama accommodated 33 students in dance section and 21 in background voice.