Mughal Tamasha being enacted at Mahanadi festival on Wednesday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, April 21: Eight-year-old Sudarshan Padihari got an idea of the lifestyles of Mughal kings when he saw Mughal Tamasha, a play staged at the Mahanadi festival yesterday.

Youngsters like Sudarshan have been getting the opportunity to witness live performances of some fine dance forms and art at the festival.

Mughal Tamasha, a distinct form of folk theatre, is based on the visit of Mughal emperor (referred to as Mirza Sahib) to collect revenue in Bhadrak. During his visit, the emperor falls in love with a local woman from the milkmen community. He then tries to abduct the woman, but faces tough resistance from local residents. “It gives us immense satisfaction to see so many people appreciating our work. The Mughal Tamsha, which was dying a slow death, is gradually gaining popularity among the youth,” said director Badal Sikdar, whose group is the only one in the state to perform this play at the moment.

According to Sikdar, secretary of Sanket Cultural Association, Bhadrak, Mughal Tamsha was one of the oldest folk theatres that portrayed the multi-racial ingredients of medieval Orissa.

“The advent of different cultures made the Oriya culture rich. In fact, we use Oriya, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali during the play,” he said.

At present, 26 artistes of Sikdar’s cultural group have been working to popularise the art. Keeping the folk tradition alive, the group has staged shows at around 100 places across the country since 1988.

“Our play revolves around a number of characters, each of which has a relevance in the plot. We use different languages in the dialogues to bring alive the characters and communicate with the audience,” said a member of the group.

The ongoing sixth Mahanadi festival organised by Kind India Foundation has been a crowd-puller and the visitors have been appreciating the cultural programmes being staged every evening.

“Watching this drama was a new experience for me. The attires worn by kings and other people in the past, that I had seen on television only, were really interesting,” said Sudharshan.

“It is for the last couple of days that I have been coming to the festival which showcased a number of rich cultural programmes including the qawwali, which is also losing its popularity among the young generation,” said Kishore Sahoo, a member of the audience.

“The Mahanadi festival has emerged as one of the major festivals in the city. The huge crowd it is drawing speaks volumes about the success. We are happy that our effort in promoting art and culture has started to yield results as the artistes are eager to perform here again,” said secretary of organising committee Choudhry Satya Das.