Hemanter Aparanha

Directed by Ashoke Viswanathan

A superannuated gentleman residing in the countryside is suddenly drawn into the world of theatre. The local group wants him in a Bengali version of a Pirandello play and he becomes involved with one of the players, a young girl in her twenties who, like him, is new to theatre. Against the backdrop of the pandemic and the imminent war in Ukraine, this story of a highly unlikely relationship unfolds even as a strictly conservative society looks on with baited breath. As the pandemic necessitates a hiatus in the rehearsals and the emptiness of his house engulfs him, the lonely gentleman gets sucked into a world of fantasy; his expectations build up and he becomes acutely sensitive to his milieu.