Two sisters, one an intellectually brilliant paraplegic, the other a plodding writer, live under the same roof, dependent on each other, but inhabiting different emotional as well as linguistic worlds, English and Hindi. The arrangement is fraught not only because the sisters are involved with the same man, but because as they respond to life together, and separately, they continually modify the image they have of each other and the world around.

The 21st Century is an era of electronic images. From every corner of our daily life images fling themselves at us, arguing, accusing, wheedling, until the very essence of our private existence seems threatened. But suppose the deadliest of these images were one’s own shattered self?

Shabana Azmi plays both the sisters on stage and their many images, as they morph into one another, in one of the most challenging roles of her career.

Manjula Sharma is not a very successful Hindi short-story writer. She suddenly becomes wealthy and internationally famous by writing a best-seller in English.

The question haunting Manjula is, whether in opting for the global audience, has she betrayed her own language and identity?

Now, without warning, it’s her own ‘image’ that decides to play confessor, psychologist and inquisitor.

Girish Karnard had written it originally in Kannada, then later translated it into Hindi and then English.

Shabana Azmi, the renowned internationally acclaimed film actor, was very keen to do a play in English and had many scripts exchanged back and forth with Raëll the producer of the play until they came across ‘Broken Images’.

As AP was going through the script, he thought of a better ending than the script and he spoke to Girish and Girish said to him, “Alyque, my first play (Tughlaq), you changed the beginning, and you never asked me, and it worked! Why are you asking me now? Let it work!” And true to this, the play performed in India and abroad kept the audiences in awe and kept them wondering: how did he manage to create the final scene? Where the protagonist actually shatters on stage into broken images.

This play has been performed in over 100 shows across the globe.