Theatre, when made with earnest intent, can have a sense of timing that could even surprise its creators. Andhar, a Marathi play on superstitions that students of Abasaheb Garware Mahavidyalaya in Pune made last year as their tribute to Narendra Dabholkar, was first staged in Mumbai as part of Thespo, the youth theatre movement. A year later, as the Agam Kalamandal production returns in the form of a full-fledged professional play on the Thespo@Prithvi platform, news reports are rife with chilling details of how the rationalist's murderer shot him in cold blood on a rainy morning in Pune six years ago.

"Here was a man who had devoted his life to fighting andhashraddha [superstitions]. We had to do something for him," says director Suraj Gadgile, who took the metaphor of light and darkness (andhaar in Marathi) to represent faith and blind belief. Set in a fictional village that represents all parts of Maharashtra, the play revolves around the life of its residents, who having literally lived in darkness so far, don't take kindly to the man who brings a source of light to the village.