Artistes stage the play Nilamadhaba at Rabindra Mandap in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 2: The mythological story of Nilamadhab, which is the prologue to the emergence of Lord Jagannath, has always found admiration whenever narrated.

On Sunday evening, drama lovers were mesmerised with a simple yet touching depiction of the age-old tale at the monthly cultural event Jagannathayana, organised by the state culture department.

When Lord Vishnu appears in King Indradyumna’s dream, he gets to know that the sabara community worships a tribal deity, Nilamadhab, near his kingdom.

The king sends his minister, Bidyapati, to locate the deity. The young minister reaches the sabara camp and wins their trust.

He even marries Lalita, the daughter of the community leader, Biswabasu.

The naïve community members trust Bidyapati, but he informs the king about the deity and they try to seize the idol. At the end, however, the Lord remains faithful to his devotees.

Using traditional techniques such as folk theatre, artistes of the Ebam Ame theatre group gave a vivid presentation of the timeless tale. Artistes Laxmidhar, Tapas, Surya, Gita, and among others, the children proved impressive while the dialogues, composed in ancient Odia, made a powerful impact.

Santosh Kumar Mohanty dramatised the story and Gobinda Mohapatra directed the play. Bijay Mishra was the music director and Prasanna Mishra choreographed it.

“We had consciously chosen the ancient version of Odia for dialogues and inserted words from sabara tribal language. The costumes were also inspired from folk theatre since Nilamadhaba is a play the audience love to watch in this format,” said a troupe member.

“It was performed well and the script was quite gripping. The story of Biswabasu and Indradyumna has always been captivating,” said Binita Murmu, a viewer. Jagannathayana is a monthly cultural event that is based only on devotional music or drama.