Cuttack: Written by Bhabagrahi Dash, play ‘Chhai’ was staged at the auditorium of Annapurna Theatre B Group in Cuttack on January 29.
Cuttack based theatre group ‘Theatre Abhijan’, in association with Annapurna Theatre B Group staged the play and held the audience in thrall. The magic of Akshay Kumar Rana’s direction was once again proved.
The play has an interesting plot, taking inspiration from the an incident of noted philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurthy, with lively characters tailor -made for the present generation audience.
The play opens in a scene of the prayer room of ‘Shant Nilay’, an ashram where the inmates are in a prayer session. Swami Divyananda, who founded the ashram, is staying somewhere else.
Suddenly, the inmates receive the news of Swami coming to the ashram.
When the ashram was set up, it used to be a hut. During the absence of Swami Divyananda, a local minister take control of the ashram, get a double-storey building in place of the hut. He runs all sorts of illegal activities from the ashram.
The minister makes arrangements for a grand welcome of Swami Divyananda.
But Swami Divyananda arrives at the ashram secretly. He is taken aback to see his ashram taking the shape of a building and becomes a den of vice.
He then takes a decision to dissolve the ashram. Before he could materialise his wish, the minister put a hit out on Swami Divyananda so that he can run his illegal activities freely.
After the death of Swami Divyananda, the minister set up a statue of Swami on the ashram premises. After his death, Swamiji is worshipped as God but under whose shadow the same illegal activities continue to flourish.
From the way the artistes delivered their characters, the hours spent on rehearsal was quite evident. The audience hooked to their seats till the last scene.
Last but not the least, Hemant Das, Deepak Das, Binay Das and the director of the play Akshay Kumar Rana need special mention for light, sound, light and stage design respectively.
It is pertinent to mention here that the play was staged under ‘Nataka Dekhantu, Mancha Banchantu (Save stage by watching theatre), an initiative taken up by Annapurna Theatre B Group, Cuttack. Under this initiative, a play is staged at the auditorium on 29th of every month.
Hats off to Annapurna Theatre B Group.
