Baidyanath Kar (45) of Koili village in Jajpur district is known as Lalit Pawar of Odia Jatras as he plays the role of villains. His roles as the villainous stepmother and mother-in-law in many Jatras and plays have received rave reviews.
“Since the age of 12 , I have been working in many plays, dramas and Jatras in the State. In our school, I acted as Manthara, the lady villain of the Ramayana, and since then, I never looked back. I acted as Kaikeyi of the Ramayana. I never acted in the role of a male,†said Baidyanath Kar.
“The roles of lady villains are more difficult for a male . But more than two decades , I have been successfully acting as the villainous step- mothers, mother-in-laws , lady dacoits and others,†said Kar.
“My role as dacoit queen Phoolan Devi attracted many audiences ten years back. Our Jatra industry has given us memorable characters like no other. And one of the biggest contributions of this industry has been our lady villains. Jatra formulae are sacred, sacrosanct and to be performed with utmost precision. Given that, it was inevitable that the Jatra industry sought to do something different when it glamorised its villains,†he added.
“The villain had to have something that separated him from the good lot. And that important thing was hair style. Another staple of our Jatra villain is the dialogue. However, as the time has gone by, the inherent menace associated with our villain has gone down. Now we have the anti-heroes or heroines with shades of grey,†Kar said further.
Now roles of villainous daughters, daughters-in-law, mothers-in-law, step-mothers, women servants have higher appreciations from the audience, said Kar, explaining why he chooses to play these characters most often.
