KHYUDHA (HUNGER)

A pre-independence period play set in 1943. Rabindra a widower is a rich London-educated entrepreneur who owns a bank and is a coveted member of the elite of Cuttack City. Lonely and increasingly disillusioned with the sheer duplicity of the prevalent elitist social order he turns into an alcoholic. Kanaka a destitute village girl educated in Gandhi Ashram comes into his life by chance and is provided a job and shelter in his home. Despite her modest background she is intelligent confident and attractive. Their verbal jousting and her companionship provide Rabindra a welcome relief from his existing oppressively superficial environment. Inevitably they find themselves drawn to each other. But their idyllic courtship is interrupted when Ananta an old acquaintance of Kanaka (and an employee of the bank) who had deserted her years ago after a promise of marriage enters the scene and begins a campaign to malign Rabindra...