The theme dealing with the five essential elements — earth, water, fire, air and space — has been choreographed by many reputed dancers already. On June 5, Padatik presented Panch Tatwa at Swabhumi under the direction of Chetna Jalan. The production comprised Western-style dance and Kathak. The Western form was choreographed by Soujit Das and Kathak by Nayanika Ghose. The latter was more successful in imparting body language to the theme than the former. Das seemed rather confused about his creations and the music chosen for vayu (air) couldn’t depict the theme. The programme was organised by the International Association for Human Values and the Youth Wing of Art of Living to mark the World Environment Day.

Sulagna Mukhopadhyay

Naksa from Gobardanga presented a one-act play, Atmaja, at Sisir Mancha on May 31. Bijoy Bhattacharya’s play warns parents of the dangers of pressuring young kids, and may well serve a social purpose among some sections of spectators. A couple bickers over their little daughter’s education: the father wants her to study in a Bengali-medium school and become a doctor; the mother insists on the English medium and a chartered accountant’s profession. But Ashis Das directs with poor stagecraft (the set becomes a minefield for the cast) and uneconomically. Long, unconvincing daydream sequences alternate with unrealistic domestic squabbles. The father capitulates; the mother turns villainess and forces the girl to memorise for her admission test, with disastrous results.

Ananda Lal

What happens when the love of the Mother Earth is not reciprocated by human beings? This question has been raised by choreographer-dancer Sukalyan Bhattacharya through his dance form. The piece titled The Journey to the Oasis of Peace (Rabindra Sadan, June 3) dealt with the turmoil of the present world. Bhattacharya has created a new vocabulary for himself, absorbing the different genres of dance. The entire performance handled a poem, How fragile we are, and some popular modern Bengali songs. Eminent actor Indrani Halder took centre stage with Sukalyan in most of the dances and to some extent conveyed the ideas of the choreographer. Playing with tempo, the dancers built layers of sound , rising to a crowd-pleasing crescendo. But the song Prithibi amare did not match the context.

SM