Lucknowites witnessed a tragedy of a Dutch painter and portraitist, Han Van Meegeren through a play, A Perfect Forgery staged at Bhartnedu Natya Akademi. The play narrated the story of the painter who was one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century from Europe. He produced and sold art forgeries and fooled the world which eventually led to his trial for treason in the aftermath of World War II.

A scene from the play
A scene from the play

(L) Bhavya Dwivedi (R) Dhananjay Sharma
(L) Bhavya Dwivedi (R) Dhananjay Sharma
Directed by Sandip Bhattacharya, the play had students of BNA acting in it.
The journey of Han Van Meegeren was portrayed from his young days to the old age.

(L) Divya Shukla (R) Divya Bhardwaj
(L) Divya Shukla (R) Divya Bhardwaj

Gyanendra Pratap Singh (L) and Kapil Kanpuriya
Gyanendra Pratap Singh (L) and Kapil Kanpuriya
Krishna Kumar Chaubey played the role of young Hav Meegeren while Ritesh Kumar Asthana played the older version of him. Other supporting actors and members in the play were Divya, Nitish, Martina, Suraj, Sohit, Abdus, Ankit, Aryavan, Vickey, and other students of the institute.
“I was here for my vacation and my father, KK Agarwal, who is a theatre director, urged me to watch this play. The play was gripping. I had a wonderful time with my husband,” said Mansi Agarwal, a software engineer from Bengaluru.
— Vivek Kumar

(L) Kushal Dubey (R) Saurabh Mishra
(L) Kushal Dubey (R) Saurabh Mishra

Mansi Agarwal (L) & Saket Sachdev
Mansi Agarwal (L) & Saket Sachdev

Praveen Singh and Jagriti Shukla
Praveen Singh and Jagriti Shukla