Artistes of Narkeldanga Swapnil Sanskritik Sanstha, Calcutta, performs Kobikonkal, a Bengali play, at the competition. Picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

Rourkela, Jan. 1: The 24th All-India Multilingual Drama and Dance Competition concluded here on Sunday. The 10-day cultural extravaganza, which was organised by Spandan, hosted theatre troupes that came from various parts of the country.

On the inaugural day, the host team held an exhibition. Written and directed by Samar Mudali, who is also the general secretary of the organisation, Pupa, an Odia play, was staged. It narrated the story of two girls — Anya, the daughter of a doctor and Shradha, the daughter of a rickshaw puller.

Anya is diagnosed with cancer and her doctor father is helpless as she is in the final stage of the ailment. After her death, Shradha hands over an audiocassette to the father of the deceased. The cassette has the voice of Anya, who pleads her parents to look after Shradha and consider her as their daughter.

“Pupa is that stage where a larva transforms into a butterfly. Similarly in the play, the attitude of the parents transforms after they realise the big heart their deceased daughter had, and who cared more about her friend than her health. The play left many members of the audience in tears,” said the 55-year-old director of the play. Mudali has directed more than 35 plays. Two more Odia plays were staged the next day.

Two women-centric Hindi plays — Alibaba Chalisa and Shobha — were staged during the festival. Kobikonkal, a Bengali play staged by the artistes of Narkeldanga Swapnil Sanskritik Sanstha, Calcutta, showed how the music and the literature of Rabindranath Tagore was misused.

Another play, Shri Shri Jagannath ki Ratha Yatra, was staged by a Manipuri troupe named Cosmo Drama. The play narrated a period tale of two Odia priests, who visited Manipur and was asked by the King of Manipur to create a chariot and conduct the Rath Yatra there. As time progressed, the younger generation demanded that such rituals that are complete waste of time must be stopped, but the Brahmins of the place did not budge and the car festival continued to be celebrated with gusto.

Throughout the week Bengali, Odia and Manipuri plays kept entertaining the audience. The cultural soiree, which featured a couple of plays everyday in the evening and other cultural events such as song, music and dance competitions in the afternoon, concluded with a folk dance competition and valedictory session.