Intrinsically, a tree gives shade. If it becomes desirous of giving shade when it is leafless; the desire is its true nobility. This is the message conveyed the Odia play, “Thunta Gachha Ra Chhai”, which was staged at the Rabindra Mandap here on the inaugural evening of the Manana Theatre Festival.
The story depicts characters of a family comprising a widower elder brother Sagaria, his daughter Kain, brother Akash and his brother's wife Asima. For the marriage of Kain, Akash and Asima, who are living in town, come to their ancestral village. Asima is in a state of misbelieve that her brother-in-law might ask them for marriage money as he is retired and old. In advance, she makes excuses telling that she owes thousand of rupees and Akash has urgent work in his office. She also manages to win over Akash. When the couple is about to leave on the penultimate day of the marriage, Sagaria comes with new clothes and an envelope. Asima fears the envelope may contain a list of marriage expenses. But to her utter surprise, Sagaria tells he has kept Rs 50,000 in that envelope to pay off her debts. Only then, Asima and Akash realise their fault. They apologize at the feet of Sagaria.
The marvelous presentation of characters with two separate scenic stages enthralled the whole audience.
The Manana Natya Sanstha, the host of the festival, staged the play. While Manaj Pattanayak was the technical director of the play, Ayaskant Swain made a debut with this production as a theatre director.
This year's Ratiranjan Samman, Chandrasekhar Nanda Samman and Gopal Chandra Pattanayak Samman were given away to Shankar Prasad Tripathy, Dr Sandeep Mahapatra and Dr Gauranga Rout, respectively.
At the outset, NSD Chairman Ratan Thiyam, actor Bijay Mohanty and Culture Secretary Manoranjan Panigrahi shared a brief meeting stage.