Parra-Mela

Performed by Anjali Mohan, this piece is an excerpt from a traditional Bharatanatyam Krishna Varnam. It opens with a contemporary, “thinking out loud” act that reimagines these childhood adventures of Krishna through a modern lens, exploring how the same stories take on vastly different meanings in the adult mind. Ultimately, the piece confronts a deeply personal question: Can I still be called a believer?

Presented by Inara Ensemble, “The Fall of the House of Cards” is a bold, political adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s Tasher Desh, mirroring today’s world. It depicts a rigid society where blind obedience is enforced.From Sri Lanka’s Aragalaya and Bangladesh’s July Uprising to student-led movements across India, Pakistan, and Nepal, a new generation refuses to accept silence. This performance honours their defiant spirit, a world where rules become cages and questioning becomes rebellion.Musically, Tagore’s compositions collide with war soundscapes, protest poetry, and fractured rhythms to create a haunting, confrontational atmosphere. The cards are dealt. The rules are fixed. Until someone refuses to play.

“Baaji Ri Bansi” explores what happens when two separate beings unite to find a collective voice. Tracing the journey of two humble sticks transforming into Krishna’s divine flute, the performance moves from union to separation, chaos to oneness.
In the ecstatic Raas Leela, Radha and Krishna’s eternal bond unfolds. Yet, union brings separation—Viraha emerges as Radha longs amidst the monsoon. When beauty turns to turbulence, the divine within transforms chaos into protection.
Ultimately, the sticks fulfil their destiny, becoming a hollow yet complete flute. When the self-empties, the Divine speaks. This is the eternal music of Krishna.

“Sraddha to Sunya: From Faith to Void,” presented by Essentra, is an original mytho-ritual dance theatre production in the Rasavikriti genre. Blending Indian classical dance, Natyashastra principles, and folk traditions, it reimagines the journey of the deity Renuka–Yellamma as a Natyadharmi abstraction.

The work explores Vikriti (distortion) as choreographic unison fractures into asynchronous fragments, creating a kinetic metaphor for the transition from sincere devotion to mechanical ritual. At its core, the performance reflects on how ritual without emotion becomes empty. It powerfully questions whether we still connect with the divine, or if we have simply become devoted to the ritual itself.

“What’s in a Name” by Abhishek Tripathi is a powerful short play about war, family, identity and humanity.

When a tragic mix-up leaves an Indian soldier’s family with the body of a Pakistani soldier, a grieving mother is faced with an impossible choice. The story explores patriotism, politics, sacrifice and what it truly means to honour the dead.

Kahan Hai Ghar by Neeraj Pandey asks a simple question: What makes somewhere home?
Is it the place where you were born? The language you first spoke? The people who know your history? Or can home be something we discover or create thousands of kilometres away?

Performed by Akshat Gupta, through humour, poetry, nostalgia and moments of vulnerability, Kahan Hai Ghar explores the contradictions of beginning again in another country: the excitement of possibility alongside loneliness, the comfort of community alongside the search for individual belonging, and the strange experience of building a new life while remaining connected to the one left behind.

At its heart, this reflective theatrical monologue explores something universal: our need to belong, and the places, memories and connections through which we search for that feeling.

Jab Keerti Met Kartik by Pavithra Srinivasan is a contemporary urban rom-com play about modern relationships, vulnerability, and redefining arranged marriage dynamics.

When fiercely independent Keerti reluctantly agrees to meet Kartik, a corporate professional carrying childhood trauma and provider anxieties, their formal “rishta” interview takes an unexpected turn. Moving past traditional checklists, they bond over unfiltered fears, Jab We Met banter, and equal partnership. Meanwhile, a fiery clash on the balcony between Kartik’s swaggering older brother, Akshay, and Keerti’s impulsive best friend, Gunjan, threatens to derail the evening into family drama. Packed with situational wit and heart, the story questions societal gender expectations to ask: what if finding the right partner simply means finding a safe space to be yourself?

The Envelope by Gitesh Agarwal is an intimate stage drama about an apartment that has remained almost untouched for years after a family left the neighbourhood. As its caretaker prepares the home for new occupants, memories of those who once lived there begin to surface in ordinary objects and conversations. When something long forgotten is discovered in the flat, the past unexpectedly returns to challenge what everyone had accepted as final. A quiet, restrained story about loss, memory, hope and the traces people leave behind.