Bhubaneswar: ‘Housewife’, staged on the concluding evening of the three-day theatre festival organised by Vagdevi Literature Trust at Bhanjakala Mandap here on Monday, shows the ordeals of a daughter-in-law, who is a housewife, to change her greedy mother-in-law who wished her daughter-in-law should have been a working woman.
It was based on the story written by Er Ajay Mohapatra and adapted into play by Bijay Kumar Mohanty. Manu Pattanayak directed it.
It had all the ingredients of a successful play.
The play opens onto the dimly-lit drawing room of Sadanand (Manu Pattanayak), a retired person who has lost his vision in an accident.
As he is immersed in the philosophical songs of Odia films of his era, his childhood friend Dinabandhu(Sunil Pattanayak) enters and they start gossiping.
As the story progresses, audience comes to know that Sadanand’s family comprises three members- his wife Sulakshani(Nibedita Das), his son Siddharth(Gyanadip Khuntia) and he.Siddharth and Kajal(Priya Nandini), a girl from a poor family, are in love. One day, against his mother’s wish, Siddharth marries Kajal and brings her to his house. All starting from servant Gopi(Debendra Sundarray) to Sadanand, Dinabandhu and, of course, Siddharth are pleased with Kajal.
But, Sulakshani is not happy with this marriage. She wanted to have a working woman as her daughter-in-law. She with his evil-minded brother thinks out a plan and accuses Kajal of stealing her necklace. Not being able to tolerate the accusation, Kajal leaves the house and goes to her parents.
In the meantime, Siddharth marries for the second time, this time his wife Priyanka(Tushmita Patel) is a working woman. With the passage of time, Sulakshani gets fed up with her spendthrift daughter-in-law.
Meanwhile, with the help of a doctor(Krushna Chandra Mishra), Sadanand gets a donor’s eye and gets back his lost vision in one eye. When the doctor unwinds the bandage, Sadanand sees Kajal standing in front of her. It is then the doctor reveals that it is the efforts of Kajal for which Sadanand gets back his vision.
As Kajal is about to leave the place, another secret is unfolded. This time, Priyanka says she is not Siddharth’s real wife and is only acting as like that. She says Siddharth, Sritam (Suryanarayan Pradhan) and she, all are college friends, think out an idea to change the mindset of Sulakshani so that Kajal can return and live happily.
Their plan bears fruit and the family is reunited.
All the actors did justice to their roles and their portrayal of characters spoke volume of the time spent in rehearsal.Director Manu Pattanayak kept the stage design minimal and it remained same till the end. While the stage was designed by Trimurti, light design by Abhijit, music by Pratap Rout and makeup by Banchanidhi Pattanayak.
The presence of the theatre lovers in the auditorium till the last scene was a sign of success of the play.
The festival’s other two plays were ‘Chitra Pratimaa’ and ‘Jati Nandighosha’, staged at Rabindra Mandap on February 4 and 5 respectively.
