Mystery play Gardish-e-Aafaq leaves audience intrigued

Thursday evening was dedicated to creating a spooky time for audience gathered at

Shaheed Bhawan

. Written by Dr

Abhinav Junwal

and directed by

Prateek Sharma

, the play '

Gardish-e-Aafaq

' is a recreation of

O Henry

's short story - Road to Destiny. The story itself has quite a few mysterious elements and facts that remain unexplained. The play was created by working with first time actors from various villages across the state.

The play revolves around a man Chandradhar who approaches a publisher Leeladhar and narrates his story about the protagonist - Shekhar a writer, who wishes to materialise his dreams. However, he must choose between three roads. When he chooses the first and second road, he dies, but is given new life both the times. When the publisher asks him about the third road, Chandradhar tells him that all went well and takes his leave. But Leeladhar feels that something is amiss, and tries to collect information about his mysterious visitor.

He finds out that Chandradhar had died few days before meeting him. The mysterious revelation filled the hall with exclamations. Leeladhar finds out that Chandradhar identified with the protagonist so deeply, that when publishers refuse to listen to his story, he killed himself. His spirit then approaches the Leeladhar so that he could fulfill his wish of narrating the story to someone. As soon as the deed is done, his spirit disappears.

Special lighting and music suited to the ambiance added more thrills and chills to the overall presentation of the play. Most of the gathered left the venue feeling intrigued.

Pics credit: Vishesh Sharma