Mulakkaram adjudged the best play at Bengali drama contest

Lucknow: The 59th All India Prakash Chandra Ghosh Memorial Full-length Bengali Drama Competition, organised by the Bengali Club and Youth Committee, Lucknow, concluded with the prize distribution on Thursday.The competition started on Dec 20. Around 16 teams staged plays in 19 days. Barrackpore Chakkanathalia Prayas Natya Gosthi, West Bengal, won best production for the play Mulakkaram. The award included a cash prize of Rs 10,000.
The play also swept several other awards - best director went to Randhar Rai, best actress to Mousumi Sarkar, best supporting actor to Sumit Saha, and second best supporting actress to Rashmi Bose. Suhan Basu won the best actor award. President of Bengali Club, Arun Banerjee, said, "This drama competition shows the heritage of Bengal written by Bengali writers and playwrights. This comes once in a year so people of Lucknow get the chance to witness the richness of Bengali theatre and art". Delhi-based theatre group - Japonchitra - secured second position for its presentation "Paap". Written by Samaresh Basu, the play won a cash prize of Rs 7,000. Sujan Basu was adjudged the second best director. Kolkata's Harinavi Drishya Kaavya Samiti came third for its play Sampatti Samarpan winning Rs 5,000. Delhi's Room Theatre finished fourth with the play Nishkriti based on the story of Rabindranath Tagore. The award included Rs 3,000 cash. Delhi's Dakshinayan Natya Sanstha came fifth for its play Paper dot com securing Rs 2,000. The jury comprised former directors of Bengali Club drama team Mukul Bandhopadhyay, Utpal Kumar, Indrajit Mitra and Prabir Kumar Dey. Additional chief secretary, Amit Kumar Ghosh, was the chief guest at the ceremony and Gautam Palit, project director, Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation, guest of honour. Bengali Club president Arun Kumar Banerjee, vice-presidents Amit Ghosh and Enakshi Sinha, officiating general secretary Trisha Sinha, treasurer Deb Bhattacharya, cultural secretaries Kaushik Bose, Ashish Bhattacharya and Tapan Samantho were present.