If the reactions of the audience at lTG auditorium, New Delhi are anything to go by, the storyline of the first Odia play Babaji is out and out relevant even in the present time.
Staged on the third evening of the 19th edition of Bharat Rang Mahotsav, organised by the National School of Drama, Babaji deals brilliantly with the topics like blindly following a Sadhu Baba, falling prey to Babas to exorcise tantrik misdoings and to get wishes fulfilled.
Padarabinda Nayak's Babaji is a sadhu in true sense. The obstacles a follower of truth faces are coming his ways. Forgetting all these, he makes it a point to make people aware against going to the pakhandi babas (fakes).
“The original length of the play is two and a half hours. But I have shortened it to one hour and forty five minutes,” said Dhirendra Nath Mallick, the director of the play. “However, I have kept the contents intact honouring the playwright,” he added.
As many as 27 artists of Satabdi Ra Kalakar, one of the premiere theatre institutions in Bhubaneswar, captivated the audience with their best acting effort. Playwright Jagan Mahan lala wrote the classic and had the credit for staging it for the first time in his auditorium Radha Kant Mancha at Mahanga, Cuttack way back in 1877.
In 1984, the Satabdi Ra Kalakar ventured to enact the classic again on stage, and since then including the recent production at Delhi being the ninth one, the theatre institution has successfully put on this particular play at various festivals.