Cuttack: A pall of gloom descends among theatre lovers as eminent playwright and organiser of one of the biggest theatre festivals of the world, the ‘Theatre Olympiad in Cuttack’ Kartik Chandra Rath passed away at his residence, Monday noon.
He was a professor of economics at the Netaji Subhash Memorial City College and has the credit of over 100 plays to his name. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards including the ‘Kendra Sangeet Natak Akademi Award’, ‘Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi Award’, ‘Odisha Sahitya Akademi Puraskar’ and ‘Utkala Sahitya Samaj’.
Rath was one of the greatest showmen who scripted, directed, organised and acted in most of the plays conceived by him. He also wrote the screenplay of the 1982 Hindi film, Bheegi Palkein directed by Sisir Mishra and produced by K. K. Arya. He penned his first play “Aie Desa, Aie mati” at age 15.
Thereon, he was involved in the making of various drama pieces involving diverse styles and themes. Ranging from individualistic ideologies to international causes, he gave the world of theatre in Odisha a new dimension. With his varied topics as well as the beautiful yet simple delivery style, he became the name that will live forever.
An exceptional example of his work is the play based on 1971 Bangladesh war portrayed in Mahabharata format. In a similar fashion he raised the concurrent issues in a nature which was subtle, popular and abounds in puns of historical relevance. His mastery in the art was beyond compare as is evident form one of the many events called ‘Mansara Phula’ where 17 out of the 21 designated trophies were his.
Since 1968, he was on a crusade to spreading the art and realising local and global talent both on and off the stage. He made Odia language a part of the national plays. He and his contemporary writers focused in producing high quality dramas bringing Odia productions to a global audience.
His demise is not only a loss for the theatre community, but a under toning of the powerful voice that resonated the soul of the society. The man with utmost zeal for his first love and perhaps his only devotion, ‘theatre’, is going to live forever and ever.
PNN