(From left) Swatilekha and Sohini Sengupta in Nandikar’s Ajnatobaas

Nandikar’s forthcoming play Ajnatobaas — set to open at the Academy of Fine Arts on September 11, 6.30pm — is a play for adults. But it is an offshoot of the same impetus that has guided the group’s recent child-friendly theatre activities — the desire for social reform.

“The main reason why we chose this play by Sukanto Gangopadhyay, one of the promising writers of today, is because it acknowledges the basic goodness in humankind. That is important at a time when we find goodness so much under threat all around us,” explains Nandikar director Rudraprasad Sengupta, who doubles as directorial adviser and actor in Ajnatobaas.

“The play narrates the travails of a good person and the audience will realise what cruelty and disregard it tends to show to those who are good. The audience will feel remorse but — and this is what is wonderful — they will also realise that human beings are not really that bad. We too are good somewhere inside,” he adds.

At the centre of the play, steered by young director Sumanta Gangopadhyay, is Anuradha, a woman in her 60s, who “may or may not have lost her past” with a loss of memory.

“Anuradha is like the aged woman of Chokh Gyalo who could never be the wife or grandmother she wanted to be because we the people needed to justify our religious beliefs by making her a witch. Swatilekha is superb as Anuradha and so is Sohini,” says Rudraprasad, about his wife and daughter.

Sohini plays Payel, a newly-married woman who, along with her husband Soumik (Sumanta), has to put up with Anuradha, who turns up at their door one day.

Could Anuradha’s unknown life have links with the past of the other characters? At one point Payel and Soumik wonder if Anuradha could be a relative. The audience wonders what happens to Payel — would she emulate Anuradha and does the same fate await her?

“I am just one of those who falls in love with Anuradha in spite of myself. I play a doctor who suspects Anuradha’s motives and is eager to read evil intentions behind her goodness, but ultimately begins to understand her and is floored!” laughs Rudraprasad.

Among the other characters affected by Anuradha are a maid (Sumana Mukherjee) and a policeman (Sajan Srijon Mukherjee).

The play’s music, which involves “a lot of Rabindrasangeet, a little jazz and classical Indian music”, has been designed by Swatilekha along with brothers Mayukh-Mainak.

The set design is by Soumik-Piyali. It is complex and interesting, neither too realistic nor too minimalistic, remarks Rudraprasad.

To present Payel’s flat, Soumik and Piyali have deliberately used fragmented replications of architectural structures as though this was a house still under construction, “still empty and soulless”.

“We hope this will underline the way our self-centred lives too are incomplete without the touch of humanity and love,” says Piyali.