Atmahatya being staged at Bhanja Kala Mandap in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 2: Plight of struggling writers and artistes was highlighted in play titled Atmahatya at Bhanjakala Mandap in the city on Monday.

It was staged under the aegis of the cultural organisation Sanskruti O Sanskruti as a part of Natya Dhara, a yearlong theatre festival, organised by Odisha Natya Sangha.

The plot of the play was quite intriguing. A struggling writer, Chinmay Mishra, is admitted to a hospital with a serious disease but unfortunately he has no money for his treatment.

While another writer, Bigyan Mohapatra, aspiring to get acknowledgment through shortcut, visits the wife of the writer who is admitted to hospital and asks her to sell Mishra’s writings.

In dire need of money, the wife agrees to sell the writings for a good amount. Mohapatra publishes the works of Mishra in his name and gets recognition and receives a number of awards.

Yet another struggling writer Prakash Patnaik comes to know of the forgery that has happened and files a PIL in court. Truth prevails and he ultimately wins the case. Mohapatra is ordered to return all his awards and in a touching climax, he commits suicide out of guilt.

The play quite portrayed the plight of all those writers who fail to get recognition. On the other hand, the play skilfully showcases the condition of a few lucky writers who manage to get fame through paid articles and plagiarism.

“Not only writers, artists and players also face such situations in life. Those who have money, climb the ladders of success quite fast, while the skills of those who are truly talented, get diminished. But, honesty will definitely overpower someday,” said the young director of the play Pradipta Kumar Swain.

The actors impressed with their performance in the play designed by Haren Sahoo and written by Gopinath Barik.

“The play depicted the harsh realities of life. I could realise the frustration that struggling artists and writers have in their lives,” said a member of the audience Binita Patnaik.