‘Khona’ reaches milestone 99th show
Theatre collective BotTala will stage the 99th performance of its long-running and widely discussed production “Khona” on Thursday, January 29, 2026, at the Experimental Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
Written by Samina Luthfa Nitra and directed by Mohammad Ali Haider, “Khona” revisits a familiar figure from Bangla folklore with uncommon rigour. Drawing on the legend of Lilaboti—known to generations as Khona—the play reclaims an astrologer whose agricultural knowledge survived not through texts, but through oral wisdom passed down as “Khonar Bochon”.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. 
Set roughly fifteen centuries in the past, the narrative refuses the comfort of historical distance. Instead, it uses Khona’s story to interrogate questions that remain unresolved: how women’s knowledge is dismissed, how class and authority shape truth, and how power silences voices that challenge it. The play’s central argument is unambiguous—oppression often begins at home, long before it becomes institutional.
The plot follows Mihir, a gifted astrologer expelled by his father Barah after a professional misjudgement. His wife Lilaboti soon proves her own intellectual authority, restoring Mihir’s standing and earning recognition at the royal court. Her agricultural predictions bring tangible benefits to farmers, unsettling established hierarchies. Barah’s response is not reform but appropriation. He claims her work as his own. When she resists, he orders Mihir to sever her tongue. From that moment, she is known as Khona—“the one who cannot speak.”
The violence is not played for spectacle. Instead, the production treats it as a structural act: the literal erasure of a woman whose knowledge threatens inherited power. What remains is memory—fragmented, communal, and persistent.
Since its first staging before thousands at Central Shaheed Minar during the centenary of International Women’s Day, “Khona” has travelled widely, drawing sustained audiences at home and abroad. Its endurance owes less to nostalgia than to its disciplined refusal to soften its politics. Gender, class, and authority are examined not as abstract ideas but as lived systems with consequences.
The cast for the 99th performance is expected to include Samina Luthfa Nitra, Kazi Ruksana Ruma, Evan Riaz, Taufique Hasan, Sheuti Shahgupta, Pankaj Majumdar, Kamaruzzaman Sayed, Hafiza Akter Jhuma, Abdul Kader, Rishadur Rahman Rishad, Layeka Bashir, Palash Nath, Sanjida Yasmin, among others.
As it approaches its hundredth show, “Khona” stands less as a revival of legend than as a reminder: silencing does not erase truth—it only forces it to find other ways to survive.
Comments