Shatranj Ke Khilari - A Play in Hindi based on Munshi Premchand short Story

Shatranj Ke Khilari was an absolute masterpiece short story in Hindi written by Munshi Prem Chand in 1924. The short story had fascinating characters with a fantastic plot and a great ending. It centered around the moral decadence of Lucknow in the times of Vajid Ali Shah. The story was adapted into a major award-winning film by Satyajit Ray. However, while the movie was great, the ending of the film differed substantially from the short story to the point of making it a completely different story in my opinion. We, as a part of Dramatech theatre group, performed this story as a play in the year 2012. This is a recording of a live performance of the play. It was performed at the Shriram Centre for Art and Culture, New Delhi as a part of a three short plays series performed of three short stories of Premchand. This play was based on the entire original text from the short story taken verbatim. The ending of the play was exactly as narrated in the short story as written by Munshi Prem Chand. I strongly feel that this ending was much more impactful than the film. I loved performing this play on stage as Nawab Mirza. I am sure that you would also like the play. I would strongly recommend that you watch the play on the big screen without any break. This would add to the experience of this masterpiece. Happy viewing. Rakesh Kumar Gupta #shatranjkekhilari #munshipremchand #hindishortstory #hinditheatre #dramatech #guptrakesh #rakeshkumargupta #hindiplay