Artistes of Tulasi Cultural Association from Kendrapara perform Kurukshetra ra Thikana at Rabindra Mandap in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 3: When Jagu smiled, the audience smiled and when he wept, the audience also went teary eyed. Such was the impact of play Kurukshetra ra Thikana that revolved around the character Jagu.

Written by litterateur Ramachandra Behera, the play was presented by Tulasi Cultural Association in their three-day theatre festival going on at Rabindra Mandap.

The story began on a happy note with the audience meeting Jagu, a naive villager, who brings up an abandoned and orphan children as his own despite poverty.

Journalists from a news channel meet him and become so impressed that they telecast a special feature on him.

This starts generating funds from many international organisations for the welfare of the children that are sent to Jagu by post.

When the news spreads in the village, people from different fields, who had never cared to help Jagu, try and influence the innocent man and his wife Hema to hand over the money to them.

But the couple declines the money, since they are happy with whatever they have and never wished for more wealth. But the villagers get more and more greedy and finally attack him for the wealth that he had never even accepted.

Jagu dies in the closing scene but the echo of his children learning tables gives the tale a ray of hope.

“It was a very touching play and the artistes executed it brilliantly,” said Pramod Mohapatra, a viewer.

“To me the stage craft was impressive. The art director has done a good job,” said Aakash Swain, a college student.

While Pradeep Kumar Nayak played Jagu, Payal Behera played the role of Hema. Ratnakar Sahu created the stagecraft and Abhinna Routray directed the play.

“We are overwhelmed with the response of the audience. This is very encouraging since we have organised the festival to reach the audience. There are no auditoriums in Kendrapada but these artistes from that district have great talents,” he said.

“It has been a dream come true for us to act on a stage. We have been rehearsing since a long time. But there was no stage for us in Kendrapada. We are glad the audience liked our performance,” said artiste Nayak.

All the plays to be staged at the festival are written by Ramachandra Behera and directed by Routray, who is also a member of Bhubaneswar based theatre organisation Uttarpurusha. The festival will continue till Tuesday.