Artistes perform Prahalad Natak in Rourkela. Picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

Rourkela, Sept. 30: Theatre lovers in Rourkela enjoyed a statewide fare of folk theatres at a three-day festival that concluded here yesterday.

Moghul Tamasha of Bhadrak, Bandi Butal of Sambalpur, Dwari Nata and Prahalad Natak of Ganjam, rod puppet of Keonjhar and Desia Nata of Koraput were staged at the festival organised by the Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi. On the inaugural evening, the audience were enthralled by the age-old Moghul Tamasha performed by the Bimala Natya Sangha of Bhadrak, which was followed by Bandi Butal presented by a theatre group of Sambalpur. Moghul Tamasha is a multilingual folk theatre with songs and dialogues in Persian, Urdu, Hindi, Odia and Bengali. It was inspired during the 18th century when the Marathas ruled Odisha.

Bandi Butal is from the basket of western Odisha theatre forms. Bandi happens to be the nickname of the sister of Chandrasen, who is the husband of Radha. Bandi, however, acts as a link between Radha and Krishna.

On the second day, Sri Jagannath Natya Sangha performed Bharat Leela, a form of Dwari Nata of Ganjam. The main theme of the play was taken from the Mahabharat and depicted the circumstances under which Arjun was made to accept Subhadra as his wife. Prahalad Natak by Sri Laxmi Nrusingh Natya Kala Sansad portrayed the life of Prahalad and the killing of his demon father Hiranyakashyap by Lord Krishna in Nrusingh avatar.

On Sunday, the rod puppet of artiste Maguni Charan Kuanr stole the show. He related the episodes of Krishna Leela, Mahabharat and Ramayan to social themes. “This is a good attempt to preserve and propagate dying art forms,” said Nirupama Samal, a theatre lover.