Loud expressions and over-the-top storylines, but a beloved folk art form with a dwindling audience.

Jatra, once a popular form of theatre for the masses but which lost much of its audience to TV and cinema, will find favour again in the steel city in January 2016.

The New Farm Area Durga Puja Committee in Kadma, after a 10-year hiatus, will organise two shows of jatra on January 9 and 10 on the Puja ground in Kadma to woo the urban crowd.

This time the New Farm Area Puja Committee has organised it with an aim to introduce it to teenagers.

"Nobody below 35 years is interested in jatra anymore as performances are very melodramatic. But when you watch it, you can feel the strong connection that it builds with its audience. The purpose to organise it here in the city is to let the youngsters - school and college going students - understand the subject," said Chitrodeep Bhattacharjee, assistant secretary, New Farm Area Durga Puja Committee.

"This is a social initiative of promoting folk culture," said Pallab Dalal, a member.

The two jatras will be performed by Calcutta-based groups Lokbandana Opera and Thakur Opera. The Lokbandana Opera will present Mon Bojhe Na Moner Kotha on January 9. Thakur Opera will perform Banglar Rangbaaj Bouma the next day. Bengali film actors Papiya Adhikari and Sayantika will perform in Banglar Rangbaj Bouma to be staged on January 11.

To ensure that more and more youngsters come, the organising committee have decided to issue family passes so that the whole family can come and enjoy the folk theatre. There is no other association which organise jatra in the steel city. Although the Jharkhand Sanskritik Kala Rang Manch in Bhuiyandih organised it till 2013, they stopped it due to fund crunch.