A scene from jatra pala Swamir Chita Jolchhe staged at the Experimental Theatre Hall on Tuesday. — Ali Hossain Mintu

Only one troupe staged jatrapla on the concluding day of the four-day Jatra festival organised by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.  Piyash Jatra Unit from Kishorejong presented their production Swamir Chita Jolchhe on Tuesday at the Experimental Theatre Hall.
Scheduled two more troupes of the concluding day programme, however, did not perform.
The academy organised the festival to select jatra troupes from across the country to be registered as mentioned at the recently announced rules for jatra pala, traditional theatre, formulated by the government.
The judges of the festival were SM Mohsin, Sarah Ara Mahmud, Milan Kanti Dey, Liaquat Ali Lucky, Mamunur Rashid, Professor Afsar Ahmed and Tapash Sarkar.  
Eleven troupes had been invited by the academy to perform in the festival.
Swamir Chita Jolchhe, directed by Fatima Ara Ratna and written by Nirmal Bhattacharia, depicts the dark side of extra marital affairs through portrayal of a newly married couple where the husband gets killed in the end because of his wife’s having affair with another man.
A remarkable number of audiences enjoyed the show featuring some light entertaining songs including Amader jatra holo shuru, Aar kichhu chaina ami and Tumi jodi sukhi hou.
‘The aim of the pala is to depict the bitter reality of the society,’ MA Kuddus, an artsite of the troupe, told New Age.
He also expressed his enthusiasm for being able to perform at Shilpakala.
Shihabuddin Ahmed, a businessman, enjoyed the show. ‘I watched a jatra once in a village. It is nice to watch jatra pala in the capital’, he said.