Bhubaneswar: ‘Nakshi Kanthar Math’, staged by Naye Natua, a Kolkata based theatre troupe, on September 28, the third evening of a national theatre festival held at Rabindra Mandap in Bhubaneswar, gave audience an engrossing viewing experience.
I had gone with little expectation, but the performance by Dyuti Ghosh Haldar blew me away.
Penned by poet Jasimuddin and published in 1928, the masterpiece is a tragic narrative of love between a dark skinned boy Rupai and a pretty girl Saju.
Going to strengthen their relationship, they get married. But the fate plays a cruel joke on them. One day, Rupai has to go to far-away land, leaving Saju alone. Saju spends days waiting for the return of Rupai.
Expecting Rupai will return one day, Saju stitches a Nakshi Kantha (an embroidered quilt), describing all the incidents and tragedies of her life. But Rupai doesn’t return, and Saju dies. Before her death, she tells her mother to put the kantha on her grave so that Rupai could feel her pain seeing it. On his return, he sees the kantha and mourns the death of her wife.
While the presentation style reminded audience of Nautanki style of Uttar Pradesh, Dyut, the sole narrator, succeeded in striking a chord with the audience. Her switching between the characters was excellent.
With the voice she is gifted with, she could create pathos, the falcrum of the play.
When it comes to stage craft, director Haldar needs mention. Simple arrangements of bamboo poles to denote palm trees in two villages and putting two puppets standing for Rupai and Saju went well with the audience.
Light and light projection by Debasish Chakraborty and Rajput Sengupta respectively, chorus by Prativa Roy and Spandan Banerjee and music by Goutam Halder and assisted by Satyajit Choudhary, Swajan Srijan Mukharjee, Jayadeep Biswal, Niroj Kumar Mandal and Swarup Mukharjee contributed a lot to the success of the play.
However, the turning up of poor number of audience for the show left me dejected. I wish more people should have watched the play. The poor attendance may be due to poor advertisement.
Odisha Natya Sangha organised the first national theatre festival on the occasion of its foundation day.
