The psychological play 'Badlav' was staged in Hyderabad by the group, 'The Unknown Pen'.

The psychological play 'Badlav' was staged recently in Hyderabad by the group, 'The Unknown Pen'. The play starts in a surreal, dreamy setting and we see an unsettling mime of three masked figures. The unconscious layer touches the subconscious when the entry of another character takes place, marked by verbal dialogues which are absurd, yet full of metaphors and symbolism.

'Badlav' takes place in an unspecified timeline and has multiple layers that run through multiple dimensions within. We don't know from where the play starts or even ends since all the characters are the human form of Gayathri (played by Sruti Meher Nori) who is already dead. Gayathri is the unconsciousness of a dead person who, when alive, was a pseudo-activist. She had fallen in love with her step-brother Ramesh (played by Anurag Muskaan). She intended to initiate a sexual relationship with him, but Ramesh turned out to be a narcissist, who was in love with himself and wanted to become a woman, who we see as Bindiya (played by Harshini Mekala, the first trans-woman to be cast in a play) as the play progresses. Kalpana (played by Krishna Soni) was Gayathri's rebellious imagination, who came to sexually admire her own body but couldn't express it whereas Ramesh could, which instigated Gayathri to kill him while he was masturbating with his right hand - phrased in the play as 'daya haath'. 'The head' depicts the 'end of thoughts,' and 'dibbe ki aatma' depicts the energy lurking around after death/destruction. Radha (Rushali Sharma) is the naivety of Gayathri, which was deeply rooted in her.

Trapped in some unknown dimension, Man 1 (played by Captain Ahmad) and Man 2 (Sanjay Ratha) are engrossed in an absurd conversation. They seem to have forgotten themselves, having random thoughts and absurd emotional outbursts. Are Man 1 and Man 2 alive? Are they dead? Do they even exist? As the play progresses, we find a lot of hints hidden in between the lines like what exists is the energy, which can't be destroyed. Here, the memories, thoughts, imagination are the energies which have been transformed by 'Someone' or 'Something,' but what can possibly be this 'Someone' or 'Something' that constantly creates and destructs, or rather plays around?