Play depicts Gandhari’slife upheaval

Lucknow: The emotional upheavals that Gandhari had to go through in the Mahabharata were depicted in a play titled ‘Komal Gandhar’, staged at Sangeet Natak Akademi on Saturday.The play depicted Gandhari’s decision to remain blindfolded as a mark of protest against elderly men for treating her as an object for marriage to Dhritarashtra.However, at the end of the Mahabharata war, she regrets her decision because had she not remained blindfolded, she would have been able to guide her children better.Written by Shankar Shesh and directed by Piyush Pandey, the play was the first in the five-day theatre festival organised in the memory of theatre doyen Urmil Thapaliyal.