The event will take place on tomorrow (February 14) at the Bangladesh Military Museum, beginning at 7:30 am with musical performances welcoming the arrival of spring.

Gallery Chitrak is currently hosting “In Search of Heritage: A Travel to Varendra”, a group exhibition by some of the country’s most celebrated artists, led by Professor Emeritus Rafiqun Nabi. The exhibition draws from their recent journey to the Varendra region of Chapainawabganj and surrounding areas.

Some cartoons now appear more as tools of self-promotion for specific parties rather than critiques of the system. With so much political drama unfolding, one question persists: why is there so little interest among cartoonists in tackling election-related issues through their art?

Dhaka, February 7, 2026 — On Saturday evening, Chhayanaut organised its much-anticipated Dance Festival at the Chhayanaut Auditorium. Held on 24 Magh 1432 at 6:15 pm (Bangladesh time), the programme offered a rich and soulful engagement with movement, rhythm, and heritage.

Dey played a central role in modernising jatra pala, working consistently to make the form socially relevant while retaining its folk roots. He later served for a long period as president of the Bangladesh Jatra Shilpa Unnayan Parishad, advocating institutional recognition and professional dignity for jatra practitioners.

The timeless tragedy Oedipus by Greek playwright Sophocles is set to return to the stage at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, as Driesshokabbo Theatre continues its regular run of the production.

In the cultural arena, veteran actress Farida Akhtar Babita, legendary late musician Ayub Bachchu, folk singer Islam Uddin Palakar, and pioneering rock band Warfaze have been selected for the prestigious award.

Directed by Azad Abul Kalam, the production approaches Tagore’s symbolic text through a contemporary lens, stripping away ornamental abstraction to foreground a blunt question: what happens when education trains conformity instead of thought?

Among the headline projects is “Ikka”, a courtroom drama pitching Sunny Deol against Akshaye Khanna. Deol plays a firebrand lawyer in a role that echoes his performance in “Damini” (1993), while Khanna takes the opposing stand. The cast also includes Dia Mirza, Tillotama Shome and Sanjeeda Shaikh, signalling a prestige legal drama aimed squarely at mass and OTT audiences alike.

Originally written in 1959, Pinter’s “The Applicant” examines the dehumanising structures of modern capitalist systems through the framework of a job interview. The adaptation highlights how institutional power often reduces individuals to objects of control in the name of discipline and professionalism.

From the outset, Rangamancha has taken on two parallel creative projects. One is a stage adaptation based on stories from Humayun Ahmed’s “Misir Ali” series, a psychological thriller that remains one of the most influential works in Bangla popular literature. Rehearsals for the production are already underway.

Dhanmondi Lake began as part of a natural water system before being reshaped through planning decisions that accompanied the growth of the neighbourhood. Over the decades, it has absorbed new roles as a recreational space, ecological corridor, and social meeting ground. The exhibition traced these shifts with care, presenting the lake as an accumulation of layers formed through use, intervention, neglect, and attachment.

Out of 7,125 submissions, only 60 films made the cut. Representing 44 countries, the list includes just one Bangladeshi entry, “Scarlet Echoes”, written and directed by young filmmaker Hemantaa Sadeeq. The film is set against the backdrop of Bangladesh’s historic July 2024 mass uprising.

The story follows Bhashan, a child found floating in the waters of the Ganges and taken in by a childless fishing couple from Koshdanga. After the death of his adoptive parents, the now-grown Bhashan begins to grapple with an unsettling question: what is his religion, and where does he belong?

Six plays will be staged across the festival, held under the theme “Andhar Katuk Monchaloke” (Let the stage light cut through the darkness), framing theatre as both artistic practice and social inquiry.

The book was launched today evening at the Crowne Plaza Ballroom in Gulshan-2, Dhaka, at an event organised by Archiconnect and attended by architects, academics, planners, students, cultural figures and members of the media, marking a significant moment for contemporary architectural discourse in Bangladesh.

Architecture does not have that luxury, or even wants it. It is meant to be entered, tested, and lived inside. "Parallels" leans into that truth, treating architecture as something that unfolds through experience rather than something completed at first glance.

The final drama, “Odyssey,” draws from Homer’s ancient epic of exile, survival and return. Reimagined for the stage, the production foregrounds Odysseus’s long journey as a metaphor for endurance and moral testing, allowing a classical text to speak to contemporary experiences of displacement, uncertainty and perseverance.

As part of the opening day’s events, legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s classic film “Heerak Rajar Deshe” was screened on Saturday at 6 pm at the Bhoirobee office in Dhanmondi.

Rooted in the enduring conflict of human existence, the play navigates birth, death, crime and the impossibility of true communication through a careful interplay of dialogue and silence. Using symbolic and aesthetic devices, it examines how language both connects and fractures human relationships—how what is spoken often fails, and what remains unspoken carries its own weight.