A three-act play showcasing the life of Kalidas staged in Lucknow

A three-day theatre festival held at

Umanath Bali

Auditorium, started with the well-known drama of late Mohan Rakesh, ‘

Ashadh Ka Ek Din

’ which was directed by Achla Bose. Wife of Deputy Chief Minister, Dinesh Sharma, Jayalakshmi Sharma was the chief guest.

Ashok Lal and Shraddha Bose (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
According to the storyline, an attempt was made to portray the immortal love of Kalidas and Mallika.

(L) Arpan Panday (R) Gaurav Soni and Pawan Tiwari (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
In the first act, Kalidas was seen living a peaceful life in a Himalayan village and was romantically involved with Mallika, when he was invited to appear at king Chandragupta II’s court, far from Ujjaiyini. Confused between his current idyllic existence, with love on one hand and the desire to achieve something big in life, on the other hand, Kalidas leaves for Ujjaiyini. The three-act

play

went on to depict Kalidas and Mallika’s life hereon.

(L) DC Pandey (R) Mohan Soni and Pawni Gupta (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
“I’ve seen many of Achla ji’s plays. This is a beautiful one where we got to learn a lot about Kalidas’s life. The actors acted extremely well,” said Jayalakshmi.
— Yashi Agarwal

Tarun and Snigdha Mukherjee (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)

(L) Jayalakshmi Sharma (R) Sheena Singh (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)