Kala Pahada: Play par excellence

Oriya play ‘Kala Pahada’ enthralled audience in Vizag with the histrionic talent of its actors.

July 14, 2016 03:47 pm | Updated 03:47 pm IST - Visakhapatnam

A scene from the play 'Kala Pahada'.

A scene from the play 'Kala Pahada'.

The annals of history are filled with love, treachery, intrigue, and desecration of the places of worship. One such is the 16th century tale of ‘Kala Pahada’ (Black Mountain) in Odisha which formed the theme for the eponymous Oriya play staged on the premises of Jagannath temple at Ukkunagaram Visakhapatnam. Artistes of Sanskruti Vihar Cuttack staged it.

In a taut treatment, this eight-scene narrative captured the life and dark deeds of Kalapahada in a theatrical format.

The story goes thus; Kalachand Roy, an orthodox Hindu and a staunch devotee of Lord Jagannath falls in love with a Muslim girl Jahannara belonging to ruling gentry in Bengal. In order to win her hand, he gets converted to Islam changing his name as Mohammad Farmal and becomes chief of Bengal army.

However, both practice their respective faiths individually. With catholicity of outlook both look perfectly made for each other. Kalachand gradually finds it hard to stay there and comes to Puri wanting to return to his native faith but in vain. Priests there refuse to accept him back into their fold saying there is no provision in Hindu scriptures for conversion or reconversion into its fold. When he forcefully tries to enter the temple they physically throw him out.

Enraged at being not accepted back into native fold and in resultant deep mental agony of identity crisis of being neither here nor there, he turns into a terrible being and comes to be known as ‘Kala Pahada’ unleashing ruthless desecration and destruction of Hindu temples across Odisha causing heavy bloodshed, much against the pleas of his wife not to be inhuman towards the people of any faith and places of worship. Disgusted at his ruthlessness she deserts him.

Mukunda Dev, the warrior king of Gajapatis, who’s away on Southern conquest, returns to his capital but before he takes on Kala Pahada, the former falls dead to a palace conspiracy hatched by his bother Ramachandradev.

Kala Pahada manages his way to the palace destroying everything valuable on the way and tries to molest the queen but she commits suicide.

The play ends with a scene where Kala Pahada enters the sanctum sanctorum of Goddess Chandi to desecrate it but feels put in dock for his dark deeds and loudly yells why his life turned into what it is.

In an exceptional team spirit, the performance kept the viewers riveted to seats. Each in the cast has displayed remarkable histrionic talent capturing the emotional contours of characters. Particularly portrayal of Kala Pahad by Premananda Swine stole the show.

Girija Shankar Panda, Sarat Majhi, Narendra Ku Singh, Mrutyunjay Baral, Rajendraprasad Singh, Nirmalendu Misra, Ashok Choudhury, Satyanarayan Das, Subhadra Behara Swarnaprava Padhy and Subhalxmi Ram took part. Chandra Sekhar Nanda scripted it and Narayana Singh directed it well.

Earlier, Odissi danseuse Rupali Pani presented a dance recital. Utkalika Cultural Association Ukkunagaram hosted the event as part of Ratha Yatra celebrations. Government of Odisha sponsored it.

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