The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : ‘Bhagabat Ubacha’ focuses on existing communal tensions

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 03, 2007
ePaper

Other States

Other States - Orissa

‘Bhagabat Ubacha’ focuses on existing communal tensions

Staff Reporter

Staged as part of annual celebrations of Kalatirtha
The set has been designed by cardboard boxes

BERHAMPUR: Kalatirtha, an amateur theater group of the city celebrated its annual function on Saturday night at Kavisurya Rangamanch of the city by staging a play on communal harmony ‘Bhagabat Ubacha’.

A veteran theater personality, Upendra Dash of Shergarh in Ganjam district was honoured at the function that preceded the play. A teacher by profession, Mr. Dash is well known for his efforts to keep alive the traditional lyrical theater of Orissa.

‘Bhagabat Ubacha’ was written by Laxminarayan Samantray and directed by Nalinilochan Panigrahy. The writer and the director had tried to make the dialogues of the play as contemporary as possible as some of the dialogues were pointed at the recent events occurred in connection with Bangladeshi writer, Taslima Nasrin.

It was a story of an inter-religious romance between a Muslim girl and a Hindu boy, whose families are neighbours. Although both families are good friends yet they could not accept their relationship.

The writer also tried to delve into the issue of fundamentalism among youths who are being misguided into terrorism, as a backdrop of the main story.

Highlight

The highlight of the play was the stage designed by Kedar Apta. He could recreate two neighbouring houses looking distinctly different on the stage as they were owned by families of different communities. A large banyan tree was the connecting link as well as the barrier between these two houses. Mr. Apta had created the set out of thrown away cardboard boxes at a very low budget. According to noted theater personality, Raju Padhi, the play was in semi-opera style and amateurism of the actors could be sensed at many points.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States