“Asukh” is not about a physical ailment. It deals with the myriad imperfections of personalities and relationships that reveal themselves in their ugliest form, in the due course of working amongst a group of people.

The play projects this message with the medium of theatre; a struggle that every theatre artist has to make in order to establish his roots deep into the core of the group he works with. While some may succeed in this process, behind their success lies a web of deceit, politics and corruption. The rest, the genuine theatre lovers, are left with shattered hopes and expectations.

Shekhar Dutta runs Poschim Banga’s most renowned theatre group – Rupon, named after his deceased son. His wife, Mitali, yesteryear’s star, assists him. Shekhar has married off his daughter Jhuma to Manoranjan (Mano), his disciple and an upcoming actor in his group. This was a mere ploy, to retain his talent and use him as a puppet. But Mano, despite his small-town humble antecedents, catapults to fame and becomes the toast of the theatre world. Jhuma, a talented actor for whom her father, Shekhar Dutta, has been the centre of her universe, cannot come to terms with her father’s nonchalance towards her own career, as well as Mano’s newfound humungous ego.

In this clash of egos, in this drama of hypocrisy, can theatre win?