Artistes of Cuttack’s Sanskruti Vihar group stage the play Srimati Samarjani at Rabindra Mandap in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, May 26: A folk play by a theatre group from Cuttack won over the hearts of theatre enthusiasts in the city.

The play presented in the format of a traditional Odia ballet was based on legendary author Fakir Mohan Senapati’s famous work Patent Medicine and was staged as part of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR)’s Horizon Series at Rabindra Mandap on Sunday evening.

Titled Srimati Samarjani, the dance drama was adapted by dramatist Gopal Chhotray and directed by Narayan Singh.

The story was a humorous social satire, in which Sulochana, wife of middle-aged Chandramani Patnaik, was the protagonist.

Sulochana righteousness and is soft-hearted woman. But her husband is a womaniser and drunkard.

It offends Sulochana, so she strictly believes ‘spare the rod and spoil the husband.’

But despite her regular attempts at reforming him, Chandramani never quits his habits. Once however, Sulochana finds he has fever and feels sorry that she always disrespects him by beating him up with a broomstick. But the moment she decided to quit hitting her husband, she finds out that her husbands has not given up his old habits.

Sulochana decides that the broomstick thrashings are his “patent medicine” to cure his bad habits.

The play was replete with humour, music and dance sequences. The dialogues, in format of songs, were the highlights of the folk play presented by the artistes of Sanskruti Vihar from Cuttack.

The audience enjoyed and appreciated the actors and the overall execution of the play.

“This plot never gets old for Odia theatre lovers. You always enjoy the quarrels between wife and husband. Even in traditional ballet style it was extremely entertaining and the artistes has a good comic timing,” said Biswaranjan Bhoi, a regular viewer at Rabindra Mandap.

The Horizon Series has been hosting a wide variety of traditional and classical performing art events in both Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. “Through the folk drama presentation we wished to remind viewers of the traditions of Odia stage,” said Minakshi Mishra, director ICCR, Odisha chapter.