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The 144th show of Ejan Munsir Poster by Natya Fauj was staged in the evening on November 20 at the Experimental Theatre Hall of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in the city.
   The play is written by Indu Saha and directed by Kazi Bata. The director also designed the stage and light and played the role of Inu Mullah.
   The plots of the play develop on the unsocial activities of Inu Mullah, who has been elected as the chairman of the villages. Throughout the play the villagers are made aware of the crimes he committed to be elected to the post.
   Presenting the current political situation of country, the playwright is able to send the message of social justice in the society.
   Their protest against the tyranny of the chairman and other political bigwigs is well demonstrated with powerful dialogues spoken by the performers. The dialogues written in a dialect of some south-western region of the country were very down to earth. The use of local slang and humour made it all the more interesting.
   As in the other social plays, the audience sees the victory of justice over evil. The villagers revolt against the chairman under the leadership of a young man, named Titumir who is labelled as a communist by the powerful tyrants. Inu Mullah puts false allegations on Titumir and throws him in jail.
   Without Titumir, his followers become leaderless and the chairman gets the golden opportunity to continue his torturous reign.
   After three and a half years, Titumir is released from jail and takes a stand against Inu Mullah. The play could have ended here with the message clearly delivered. But the playwright unfortunately continues with the story, unnecessarily making it lengthy and taxing the patience of the audience.
   When Ejan Munsi (SM Khalekuzzaman) says, “to reach the goal, one has to go all the way and face many hindrances…’, the audience gets the moral of the story.
   On the other hand, when Titumir writes from the jail to his sister Padma (Nazma Aktar), “The world is full of jungle and there are many wild boars, ferocious foxes and poisonous snakes. She should protect herself from them…’, it tells of the situation of the society and makes the audience aware of it.
   Kazi Bata’s performance was an excellent and his set design and lighting were very effective. He was able to distinctively presented two classes of the society using two houses, one made of brick and the other made of tin and bamboo.
   The lighting was very effective when going from one plot to the other. The sound system was good but the recorded music certainly could have been better.
   Almost everybody in the cast performed well. But the performance of Titumir should have been much stronger and livelier.

Although the term ‘Baroque’ is not a familiar one in the local music scene, there still exists a sect of music connoisseurs who still nurture and relish the genre, the origins of which can be traced to between 1600 and 1750 in Europe. One can at least presume this after attending the Baroque musical concert by a German classical ensemble Leipziger Barocksolisten on November 20 at the National Museum; it was a part of the group’s South Asian tour. The Goethe-Institut of Dhaka, in co-operation with Panchashwar, organised the concert.
   The selection and compilation of the works were varied and arranged interestingly; a performance of Arcangelo Corelli’s Sonata in D opened the concert. Alongside finely spun and effective sonorities, the playing was marked by a marvellous interplay between the members of the Leipziger Barocksolisten that continued all evening.
   Here were connoisseurs at work, who had not just mastered the notes and technical demands of their instruments, but had also grasped them from within and recited them accordingly. They showed themselves to be musicians fully capable of embodying the carelessly employed designation ‘artist’ in all of its breadth, width, and depth.
   In 2000 some of the leading musicians of the famous Leipziger Gewandhausorchester got together and founded the chamber music ensemble Leipziger Barocksolisten as an addition to their repertoire of concerts and opera. With their founding 5 years ago, the Leipziger Barocksolisten established a chamber orchestra that immediately ranked among the leading international ensembles specialising in Baroque music.
   The members of this orchestra, who perform on old instruments that have been restored in modern times, are unified by their tone, with its minimal vibrato and its sources in the original instrument tradition. The results are lively renditions of Baroque works that are worlds apart from the sterile tones produced by many other Baroque ensembles. Peter Wettemann (Trumpet), Stefan Arzberger (Violin), Thomas Hipper (Oboe), Thomas Reinhardt (Bassoon), Tobias Martin (Contrabass) and Johanna Dorothea Franke (Harpsichord) make up the six member ensemble.
   The extraordinarily modest entry of the musicians, their relaxed manner of playing while standing, and their capacity for establishing contact with the public heightened the other qualities of the concert through a cultivated sense of togetherness, both on the podium and in the concert hall. They performed with a sense of elegance that made the most breakneck tempos seem utterly effortlessness. The audience applauded in force, for which the musicians acquiesced with several encores.
   They also gave fresh and joyful performances of Baroque music with the recitals of works by Johann Friedrich Fasch (Sonata in G Minor for violin, oboe, bassoon and basso continuo), Joseph Bodin de Boismotier (Sonata in E Minor for violin, bassoon and basso continuo), Gottfried Finger (Sonata in C for trumpet, oboe and basso continuo), Johan Pezel (Bicinium 75 for trumpet, bassoon, basso continuo), Georg Friedrich Handel (Sonata in C Minor for violin, oboe, basso continuo ), Johann Sebastian Bach ( Sonata in G for violin and basso continuo), George Philipp Telemann (Quartet for violin, oboe, bassoon and basso continuo) and Johann Wilhelm Hertel (Concerto in D for trumpet, violin, oboe, bassoon and basso continuo).
   Holger Fraider, Charge d’ Affairs of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, and Torsten Oertel, director of Goethe-Institut Dhaka, were present on the occasion. ‘Music travels without any borders and boundaries and plays a very important enhancing role to understand another culture, as it has a unique language that can be understood by people from different cultures and races,’ said Holger Fraider. ‘This performance of Baroque music will definitely help to bridge the cultural gap between our two nations.’

Sargam, a popular musical magazine, organised a reunion on the occasion of Eid and a musical soiree featuring the songs of yesteryear recently at its auditorium. The programme was presided over by Quazi Rownaq Hossain, editor of Sargam and attended by eminent musicians.
   Masood Ahmed and Manju Saha delighted the audience with their melodious rendition of old Bengali songs accompanied by Nurul Islam on tabla and Ashrafuzzaman on guitar.

The regional competition of Bengal Bikash for Chittagong region was held on November 18 and 19 at the Theatre Institute on KC De Road in Chiitagong.
   One hundred and ninety six participants took part in this two day competition.
   Seven contestants in the Rabindra Sangeet category, six in the category of Bangla songs by three major Bengali poets, six in Nazrul Sangeet category, seven in modern songs and five contestants in the folk song category have been
   selected to compete in the next round.

Director and gothic kingpin Tim Burton (Batman, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Planet Of The Apes) gives Washington Irving's classic period-folklore-horror a gothic touch.
   Depp (Nick Of Time, The Astronaut's Wife) plays Ichabod Crane, a streetwise New York City police constable who brings with him modern crime-solving techniques to investigate the brutal murders that have severed the peace in the lazy, hazy town of Sleepy Hollow.
   But it'll take more than science to make sense of Tim Burton's juiciest villain yet - the Headless Horseman (Walken, Oscar Winner for Best Supporting Actor, The Deer Hunter, Pulp Fiction, The Last Man Standing).
   Crane arrives to find the victims beheaded and their heads missing. It is then brought to his attention the story of the Hessian Horseman - former German mercenary who got a kick out of decapitating the locals during the War of American Independence.
   And somewhere though not explained, he lost his head. Now his ghost - the Headless Horseman is believed back to instill fear into the hearts of the townfolk. As Crane investigates, he begins to discover the eerie truth behind the town's killer.
   HBO
   9:30pm
   Starring
   Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Christopher Walken