A scene from Meraj Fakirer Maa staged on Sunday at the Centre Public Library.— Snigdha Zaman

A six-day inter-university theatre festival organized by American International University of Bangladesh began on Sunday at the Sawkat Osman Auditorium of the Central Public Library.
Besides AIUB, three universities— Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University and Northern University—along with Abdullah Al-Mamun Theatre School, the academic wing of the troupe Theatre, are participating in the festival.    
International Theatre Institute worldwide president Ramendu Majumdar inaugurated the festival and praised the students’ efforts to be involved with theatre, despite of their academic pressure. Acclaimed theatre director Golam Sarwar, as special guest, was also present at the inaugural session presided over by Manzur H Khan, director of AIUB office of students’ affairs.
The inauguration ceremony was followed by staging of AIUB Drama Club’s production Meraj Fakirer Maa, a much acclaimed play of distinguished theatre troupe Theatre.
Written and directed by late theatre icon Abdullah Al Mamun, Meraj Fakirer Maa highlights a debate between fundamentalism and progressiveness.
AIUB theatre club’s production, however, is directed by Shubhra Barua Talukder. It was the first public show of the play.
It is definitely a challenging task for the amateur young theatre activists of the drama club to stage the public show of a very popular production of the contemporary Bangladeshi theatre scene acted by renowned performers like Ferdousi Majumdar, Abdul Quader, Tropa Majumdar and others of the popular troupe Theatre. 
It is true that AIUB Drama Club members had no lack of enthusiasm, but it was not enough to satisfy the thirst of the audience, who went there to get something new and innovative from the young troupe members.
‘The performance of Saim Bin Mujib in the role of the protagonist [Meraj Fakir] was appreciable. Otherwise, the whole production has disappointed me as I saw the original production,’ Saddam Hussain, an audience told New Age. 
New Age is the media partner of the event which will continue till July 9.