A comedy-horror play ‘Ballabhpur Ki Roopkatha’ left the audience in whirls of laughter. The play was staged at Madhya Pradesh State Tribal Museum here on Friday, marking the regular series of plays under Abhinayan.
The play is a classic story by Badal Sircar and it was directed by city’s young director Prateek Sharma.
This play is based on the ancient history of the city of Ballabhpur. Bhupati Rai, the grandson of Ramapati bhuyan carried their legacy and still has a 400 year old palace. Now his financial conditions are not so good and he’s planning to sell the palace, but he is unable to do so because the palace is haunted.
There is no single person left in town from whom he hasn’t taken credit, and in order to settle the dues he wants to sell the palace and shift to Kolkata, where he wants to set up dentistry with one of his
friends. After several attempts, he somehow manages to get a buyer.
To impress the buyer he pretends to be the Royal King and takes help of his creditors to become his royal staff. Now the confusion starts when Mr. Haldar, the buyer visits the palace.
Haldar is fond of old things and he comes to buy the palace. When Haldar realizes that this palace is not 200 years 400 years old then he consulted his wife and bought the palace for Rs 10 lakh. When he returns with his family, due to a road accident he come back to the palace again. When he reaches the palace, he meets Raghupati, a cursed ghost.
The comedy ensues when Haldar’s daughter mistaken Raghupati as Bhupati and falls in love with him. Her mother discovers this and asks Haldar not o buy the palace. later, Bhupati discloses the truth. Haldar’s friend Choudhary is invited to visit the palace. As soon as Choudhary encounters with Raghupati he frees him from the curse.
The play was well presented and well prepared. The scenes and dialogues of the play were impressive and the play was much enjoyed by the audience.