Ekti Obastob Galpo (literally an unreal story) written by the Bengali author, Bimal Bandopadhyay, is a powerful, humorous comedy with a dramatic twist at the end, giving a poignant social message.

As the drama starts, the Ghoshak or narrator appears on front stage, asking the audience of their opinion on capital punishment and inviting them to witness a real hanging. The jailer and officials feed the convict his last meal, the priest conducts the last rites, and what follows is a dramatic audio-visual display of the hanging at the gallows, which is impressive. However, at the end of the hanging the jail officials discover that Ka Mandol the convict has actually survived. With a lot of effort they restore his consciousness, only to find that he is suffering from total amnesia. In a desperate effort to revive his memory (in order to hang him again!) the jail officials and the priest re-enact the incident of how Ka Mandol strangled and killed his wife five years ago. The play within a play is extremely comical but at the end when Ka Mandol does indeed recall the murder of his wife, he has a different story to unfold.

The play will keep the audience riveted to their seats from the opening scene, regale them with laughter but make them go away with wistful eyes, pensive about the hypocritical society where the weak and innocent suffer injustice.

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