Kampal Mishra

Kampal Mishra was a famous author in Oriya theatre. He was born in the year 1875. By profession, Kamal Mishra was a teacher. He wrote only four plays. The names can be mentioned as Sita bibaha i.e. "Sita`s Wedding" in 1899, Harishchandra in 1902, Basanta Latika in 1913, and Durga Sabari. The first two are based on well-known mythological themes. Basanta Latika deals with an imaginary king and queen. The last is incomplete, perhaps written toward the later part of Mishra`s life. He adopted a new style in his works by intermingling Shakespeare with Indian tradition. He always stressed the importance of human values; hence devotion, love, affection, kindness, faithfulness, and renunciation characterize his subjects.

Unlike his contemporaries, he never used the stage for preaching and did not appear in the role of a reformist. His ideas came as natural and integrated parts of the theme. In his dialogue he completely discarded convention and instead came near modernity by giving it a realistic facelift. His language was rhythmical yet communicative, simple and unornamented. Emotions and sentiments were balanced and his analytical observation of life keen and sharp. Previously, Oriya dramatists primarily had the elite class in view as their spectators. Mishra, for the first time, demolished the barrier between different classes of audiences by his modern approach, traditional but measured music, balanced humour and pathos. Hence his drama had and still has a mass appeal. Sita bibaha was so popular that it was made into a movie in 1934. That was the first film in Oriya.

This article is a stub. You can enrich by adding more information to it. Send your Write Up to content@indianetzone.com