Bhubaneswar: A satire on how people blindly believe so called self-proclaimed babas and end up being the soft targets of them was presented through a play ‘Uttaradayada’ at Rabindra Mandap in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.
Written by Dr Narayan Chandra Sahu and directed by Dr Prasanna Kumar Mishra, the play was staged on the concluding evening of Uttar Purush’s three-day theatre festival.
Uttar Purush was founded 55 years ago and, over the years, it has managed to establish itself as one of the prominent theatre groups in the state.
The story revolves around a family longing for a child for posterity.Though married for 15 years, Bikram (Shatabdi Ranjan) and his wife Devi (Mama Biswal) are not blessed with a child.
His brother Baikuntha (Goutam Kumar Sundarray), sister-in-law Kamini (Sweta Rath) and his grandfather are always praying for a child in the family.After coming to know that a godman named Baba Nityananda (Abhishek Nayak) has come to the town, Kamini goes to him, narrates her family’s worry before him.
On a fixed day, Baba, who claims to be an incarnation of Radha, along with his disciples reach Bikram’s house to perform some rituals to get Devi rid of jinxes, if any. The family convinces Devi to spend three nights with Baba Nityananda in a closed room. During the period, the baba forcefully establishes physical relationship with her.
Days later, Devi gives birth to a baby boy, bringing happiness to the family. But, she is not happy. She is desperate to unmask the baba. For this, she seeks help of a Crime Branch inspector (Pradyumna Upadhyay). Eventually, she, without waiting for the law to punish the baba, avenges herself on him by offering him a glass of poison-laced milk. To be sure of his death, she even strangulates him with his scarf.
The message was loud and clear that people shouldn’t believe the fake babas and fall prey to them.
Despite some flaws, the theatre lovers enjoyed the play till the last scene.
The flaws were, first, when the Crime Branch inspector visited Devi’s house to discuss with her, it was night. But no change was noticed, neither in light nor in music (means night sound effects), to make it feel as night.
Second, this reviewer failed to understand why the director had different style of entries for the baba and his disciples. Had the disciples’ entry been the same as the baba, it would have been more appealing.
Third, a team of policemen arrived at Devi’s house to arrest her but without a lady police.
However, all the artistes tried their best to give justice to their respective characters. The cast had some ten actors who acted before the audience for the first time. These debutant actors had participated in Uttar Purush’s workshop that started on September 5 and continued till September 29.
Pratap Rout’s music, Seemanta Mohanty’s light design, Mama’s dress and makeup and Trimurti’s stage design contributed to the success of the play.
On this occasion, felicitated Utkal Karate School and theatre personality Haren Sahu with Chief Patron Samman and Uttar Purush Samman respectively.
