Bhubaneswar: Comedy play ‘Abhinetri’ was staged by the students of the Drama Department of Utkal University of Culture Thursday at Rabindra Mandap, Bhubaneswar. Directed and designed by Debabrata Pattanyak the play made the audience cry with laughter.
Plot: Three bachelor brothers, named Bhima, Nakul and Sahadev request their eldest brother Yudhisthir to get marry so that they can have a bhauja at home. Yet, to everyone’s astonishment he intimates that he has secretly married months ago. So, it is time now to invite the elder brother’s wife to the home. However, the three brothers don’t want to keep relation with the lady. In the meanwhile the girl manages to win hearts of the three brothers. Now, everybody want a celebration at home to make the girl happy when she says that it is not possible. She reveals that she is just an actress (Abhinetri) who was hired by Yudhisthir to act as his wife, since he was not in a mood to marry. The three brothers are shocked to hear it. Now they want that although she is an actress, they have started seeing her as their sister-in-law (bhauja) and hence she should marry. Finally, the girl marries the elder brother and the family lives happily ever after.
Telling about the play the director said, “I believe in a statement of the great German theatre practitioner and playwright Bertolt Brecht, the main proponent of the genre named epic theatre. He has averred that even if a drama is old, if it can convey a message to the contemporary society, it is a strong plot to be stage in any time period. ‘Abhinetri’ is an old drama. But believing in this notion I decided to stage it. I kept everything simple so that it can convey the message with ease.”
‘Abhinetri’ is the Odia version of a famous Bengali play titled ‘Baudir Biye’ (Wedding of sister-in-law) written by Shailesh Guha Niyogi. The Odia version (Abhinetri) has been translated by Dilliwar Maharana. Music of the play was scored by Shakti Prasad Mishra while Priyadarsini Swain lent voice to the songs. The set was erected by Pragnyadatta Sahoo while lighting was operated by Sanjay Pradhan.Make-up was done by Sushanta Pradhan and Jagadish Prasad Moharana managed the costume.
Actors in the play were Dharmashis Behera, Jagadish Prasad Moharana, Ayushman Das, Nilakantha Parida, Aditya Kumar Jena, Soumya Ranjan, Binod Mahakur, Pragnyadutta Sahoo, Rakesh Kumar Parida, Subhasmita Singh and Barshabasini Barik.
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Ms Kalinga