Adapted and directed by Tonmoy Karmokar, the play however gets an anti-war flavour. Shudarshan Mukhopadhyay is the set-designer while Gautam Dey is the light designer.

Nagorik Natyangon honours 7 backstage workers

Theatre in our country is not yet popular enough and the approach to theatre by the groups is still amateur. In the present scenario, people are only aware of actors who appear frequently on the TV screen. They seldom come to know about the dedicated and talented backstage workers without whose contribution theatre could not run at all. Even the theatrical groups have not yet focused on these artistes so much what they were supposed to. This is for the first time that 7 backstage workers have been honoured together in a drama festival.

Nagorik Natyangon honoured Neelotpal Kar, Kamaluddin Kabir, Nasirul Haq Khokon, Saidus Saqlain, Aminul Islam Liton, Rahul Anand and Md. Saidur Rahman Lipon in the evening of the first day of 2004. Lucky Inam hosted the event.

Neelotpal Kar received the honour for his outstanding contribution as a light designer from the beginning of the country's theatre practice. Professionally a diploma engineer, Neelotpal Kar is the author of a book on light designing titled Manchalok, which is a text in the drama departments of some Universities.

Kamaluddin Kabir is a renowned set designer, who is also a part-time teacher in the Department of Drama and Music at Dhaka University and Assistant Editor of the Bangla daily Bhorer Kagoj. Another light designer Nasirul Haq Khokon received the award for his artistic supremacy in the field at present. His latest work to decorate the historical Lalbagh Fort has been praised by everybody.

Saidus Saqlain was given the honour for his translations of many famous foreign plays. Rahul Anand was honoured for his contribution in music composition as well as set-and-costume designing. The other two awardees were Aminul Islam Liton, another backstage worker, and M Saidur Rahman Lipon, a designer-cum-actor.