Bhubaneswar, Jan. 31: The works of eminent playwright Prafulla Rath took the centre stage at the 18th edition of the Kalinga Natya Mahotsav held here at Rabindra Mandap.

The national-level multilingual drama festival organised by city-based theatre group, Satabdira Kalakar, aims at bringing to the fore works of the state's prominent playwrights.

The fest began with the staging of the play Mu Baha Hebi by theatre group Ebam Ame. The play directed by Sachi Das revolved around a woman whose husband left her as he was dissatisfied with the dowry. But, the girl decided to fight back and went on to become a popular personality and utilised her looks to choose the groom of her choice.

The play that attempted to bring out the emotions that Rath tried to convey in his writing was appreciated. "I have read the original play and must say the director has done justice to it. The images of a woman trying to overcome hurdles and secure her dignity in the society has been nicely played out," said 27-year-old theatre enthusiast Monalisa Tripathy.

The next day, Utsav theatre group from New Delhi staged Saba Padichhi in Hindi. The play titled Bebas Laash in Hindi was directed by Sukumar Tudu. The play portrayed the emotional story of a street dweller and how there was no one to put his body to graves after his death.

At the festival, two of Rath's plays were staged in Bengali and Sambalpuri. While Chari Chhaka was staged in Bengali by Dum Dum Sabdho Mugdho Natyo Kendra from Calcutta, E Jugara PWD was presented by Sree Cultural Association from Sambalpur.

The festival, which had started in 1986 as a children's fest, later evolved into a platform for multilingual plays. Since the past two years, the focus has been to highlight the works of an individual playwright.

In 2014, the plays of Ratiranjan Mishra were staged and in 2015, the works of eminent playwright Pranabandhu Kar hogged the limelight.

"There are a number of playwrights in our state who have not got their due and people do not event know about them. The festival is an attempt to encourage theatre groups to stage plays scripted by such writers," said founder of Satabdira Kalakar, Dhira Mallick.

The theatre festival began on January 27 and concluded yesterday.