Nothing is more complex then human relations especially the one mostly celebrated and considered to be sacred of all that is arranged marriage. Often people spend their entire life with a stranger without expressing the freewill doing things either to impress the person or not to offend the society. Curfew tried to explore desires of one such couple.

Curfew – A play written by Dr. Lakshmi Narayan Lal and Directed by Devender Sharma was staged at the Historic Gaiety Theatre by the Vasudha art and culture society, Shimla.

As per Devrnder, the director of the play informed, he has tried to expose the hypocritical standards that exist in the married relations especially in arrange marriages. . Freewill is interrupted and hence leads to a curfew of self expression.The story of the play depicted one night incident in the lives of a married couple Kavita and Gautam who get exposed to new people that is Manisha and Sanjay due to curfew in the city. Manisha – a modern girl with an advanced in her thinking takes refuge in Gautam’s house due to curfew where she flirts with him a guy who has rules for everything as per acceptable by the society. As the night passes and the conversation becomes bolder, under influence of liquor he tries to molest her and she walks out in curfew only, to be gang raped by policemen. In other words we can also say that like Lord Buddha he too experiences self-realization; the futility of artificial relationship with his wife which is based on animal instincts alone.

Whereas Kavita Gautam’s wife takes refuge in Sanjay a theater actor’s house who was rehearsing his upcoming play in his house. She offers to help him and eventually her dormant emotions explode finding a vent out in the form acting. She is attracted to Sanjay due to hollowness in her life but her conscious does not allow her to cross her limits.
Both husband and wife find solace in Manisha and Sanjay and the play ends on the note where Kavita learns her husband spent night with someone else and accepts the truth that they all can co –exist without any friction. Both find their true self by being exposed to the other people and the missing link in their live that made their relationship artificial.

The play had an interesting plot and had its moment. However the first half that is where story of Gautam and Manisha was staged it was bit dull and there was a problem of diction like mazboot and the song Gulabi Ankhee paying in background and even the actor singing it live was not in sync and did not sound too well to ears. Though this patch too had its moments and made audiences giggle.

The second half was much better and Ankita showed a remarkable improvement in her performance. The intensity with which she conveyed the emotions and all of sudden change in mood is something worth an appreciation. Aspiring artists from city need to take queue from as initially she too started acting in college plays and through her hard work she has come a long way.