Odia Books

Bijoy Mishra was born in 1936, he is a playwright and an eminent figure in the field of odia experimental play, has been working with the stage for the last three decades, contributing one play a year on an average. Bijoy Kumar Mishra’s father, Harihar Mishra, was the patron of a rural drama group in Balipatna village of Balasore district. Bijoy used to participate in the village dramas in his early teens. His acting talent was appreciated, and this made him confident, and subsequently a dramatist was born.

After his Matriculation, Bijoy joined the Engineering School at Cuttack where he kept up his interest on the stage. Samuel Sahu (Babi), the most popular stage artist of the time, influenced him a lot. His first play Janani (Mother, 1960) was staged under his direction on Cuttack’s most prestigious commercial stage,Annapurna Theatre. By the time he finished his studies he emerged as a popular dramatist

Bijoy joined the Irrigation Department of odisha government as an Overseer. But the pressure of work did not stop his artistic pursuit. For the next eight years he was writing traditional plays for different stages in Cuttack, Puri, Bhadrak and Bhubaneswar.

Bijoy was impressed by the new stage-craft and under its influence instantly accepted the
experimentation. During the next two decades Bijoy Mishra wrote only experimental plays and attached
himself firmly to this new trend. The plays written by Bijoy Mishra can be grouped under two categories: traditional in the first decade (1958-67), and experimental in the next two decades (1968-87).

His traditional plays include: Janani (Mother, 1960), Ekaki (Alone, 1962) Asanta graha (Restless planet, 1964), Timira Tirtha (Dark spot, 1965), Sagar tire (On the sea beach, 1966), Pratikhya (Waiting, 1966), Artanada (Distress cry, 1966), He swarga bidaya (Farewell O’ Heaven, 1967), Asatya sahar (False town, 1968), Jajabara (The nomad, 1968), Lagna (Fixed time, 1972) and Nisiddha swapna (Forbidden dream, 1975).

Bijoy’s experimental plays are: Saba bahaka mane (All respect the bearer, 1968), Chandra chori (Theft of moon, 1968), Jadugar (The magician, 1968), Ethi sethi sabuthi (Here, there and everywhere, 1970), Duiti suryadagdha phulaku nei (Taking two sunburnt flowers, 1972), Chinha, uchchata ebam ityadi (Sign, height and etc. 1975), Tata Niranjana (The bank of Niranjana, 1978), Badsah (The king, 1982), Jane raja thile (There was a king, 1983), Parsuram (1986) and Sakkhi itihasa (History witness, 1984).

Mishra’s plays expose the dark side of the modern society and its cruelty, violence and pretensions in a bold manner. Problems like prostitution, industrialisation, urbanisation also find expression in his dramas along with the problems of the generation gap and exploitation. He received the best playwright award by odisha Sahitya Akaderni for his Jadugar in 1981.

Odia Books By Bijoy Mishra

Janani
Ekaki
He Swarga Bidaya
Asanta graha
Timira Tirtha
Pratikhya
Artanada
Nisiddha Swapna
Chandra chori
Niranjana
Tata Niranjana
Sakkhi Itihasa