Remembering Rabindranath Tagore, a two-day theatre festival is being organised in city. The fest began from Tuesday at Ravindra Bhavan.

The fest got underway with the performance of Rabindra Sangeet by Rennie Kala Samooh. It was followed with the dance drama ‘Shapmochan’ which was written by Rabindranath Tagore. Both the performances were directed by Rina Sinha.

It is to be noted that the two-day fest is being organized by Rabindranath Tagore Amateur Group, Bhopal.

To begin with the performances, Rennie Kala Samooh performed. The band performed 10 compositions of Tagore before the audience leaving them enthralled. The Band played compositions including Ekala Chalo…, Amar Bela…, Jag Bitai…, Manjhi Geet… and many more compositions were presented by group.

Followed by this, was the dance drama Shapmochan. Rabindranath Tagore’s renowned Dance Drama Shapmochan is the story of Sourasen and Madhushree, who were born on earth after being banished from lord Indra’s Court.

Sourasen, a handsome musician in Indra’s court, failed to keep the beat with Urvashi’s dance, being unmindful about Madhushree’s delay in returning from worshiping the Sun God. lord Indra was angry and cursed Sourasen to be born on earth as an ugly looking person. When Madhushree returned and heard about the punishment, she requested lord Indra not to separate her from Sourasen and desired the same punishment for herself. lord Indra agreed and maintained that only if Madhushree fell in love with Sourasen’s inner beauty in his reincarnation as an ugly person on earth, would both Sourasen and Madhushree be redeemed back to heaven-‘Shapmochan’.

On account of lord Indra’s curse, Sourasen and Madhushree were born in different kingdoms as King Aruneshwar and Princess Komalika. Aruneshwar, once accidentally seeing the picture of Komalika believed in having a relationship with her in their previous life. Aruneshwar proposed to marry Komalika which was accepted by her father.

However Aruneshwar, being concerned of his ugly looks, sent his Veena as his embodiment for the marriage. After their marriage, when Komalika reached Aruneshwar’s palace, she observed that Aruneshwar meets her only during night. She insisted him to show his face to her but Aruneshwar used his skilful dance, soulful music and sensitive words to deny her that right. Finally Komalika managed to see Aruneshwar’s face and she was shocked and astonished. She cried and felt cheated by Aruneshwar and deserted his palace.

later, one day when she heard the beautiful melody of the Veena being played by Aruneshwar, she was mesmerized and realized that someone’s qualities and inner beauty are far more important than outward appearances. She followed Aruneshwar’s music and got reunited with him thereby being redeemed to heaven.

The dance drama was beautifully presented leaving the audience mesmerised.