Silence is one of the forms of communication which may sometimes become more eloquent than words and sounds. That silence has a strong voice is quite evident in the mime shows of Moinul Hoque, the acclaimed artiste of this form of art in the North East. Moinul Hoque, along with his co-artistes, has been performing Voice of Silence in the recent years, drawing the attention of the common audience to the art of mime, an art yet to be popularised and developed in the North East. Moinul Hoque, being the lone and devoted practitioner of mime in this region, has been offering education and training to the upcoming aspirants of this art in his Mime Academy. Moinul Hoque is a well known artiste for the mime lovers on the national and international stages. A mime show demands much concentration and wit from the audience, and Moinul Hoque has been tirelessly working on this aspect, which makes his shows unique and appealing.

The Mime Academy entertained the Rabindra Bhawan audience with their presentation Voice of Silence, in December last. The programme, consisting of three different mime plays, was designed and directed by Moinul Hoque. The first one was Hunger, a satire on racism. The director presented the racial disputes of our society in a symbolic way. In his struggle for survival, man cannot keep on practising spiritualism, religion, etc. This basic instinct can also unite the divided ones. This truth was reflected in Hunger. An internal flow of secularist and humanistic thoughts of the director was evident in Hunger, which moved the audience to the realisation of a much better world. Intrusion was the second play, based on the Bangladeshi immigration problem in Assam. The seemingly feeble and deformed immigrants are going to take over the administrative chairs of Assam in the near future, dethroning the political leaders who are now encouraging the illegal stay of the immigrants. The symbolic treatment in the scene of the immigrants getting strengthened after receiving the political support was a sign of innovation and artistry of the director. Govait Chor was the last play, where Moinul Hoque himself played the character of the ‘Govait Chor’ (an adept thief). Though the play was farcical, with humour and exaggerated events and activities, the message conveyed was that the bureaucrats and the leaders are the bigger thieves, stealing the wealth and welfare of the common people. The inability and lack of intelligence of the police department in finding out the criminals and accused persons was also exposed here through the character of the constable, played by Siddhartha Mukherjee.

The thematic concern of all these three plays reflected the social alertness of the director. The use of intellect and humour in each single movement and reflex, made the performance worth watching. Ratan Das faithfully worked with his music to bring out the essence of the silent movements and gestures of the actors. A few other artistes are also emerging as skilful mime performers, and the Voice of Silence indicated that.

Suresh Kumar