Among the world's longest-running plays, what made Adrak ke Panje so successful?

In August 1965, when India and Pakistan were engaged in a desperate war on the northern borders, a 22-year-old penniless young man wrote a play in a little over three hours under the street-lights of the old city of Hyderabad. By the time its final curtain came down more than three and a half decades later in 2001, “Adrak Ke Panje” had been performed more than 10,000 times – often to houseful boards, and occasionally requiring a lathi charge to control crowds – in over 60 countries and in dozens of languages.

Babban Khan, who wrote, produced, directed and enacted the central role of a bank clerk in that iconic and blockbuster comedy, passed away after a brief illness at a Hyderabad hospital on April 17 night. He was 83.