Kathmandu, March 20 -- Charandas steals honestly. For him, theft is euphoric, and honesty compensates for this felony. Contradictory, right? Caught between pursuit and escape, Charandas lives an extraordinary life.

'Charandas Chor', running at Mandala Theatre Nepal, is written by the late Habib Tanvir (1923-2009), a playwright, theatre director, poet, and actor from India. "For what I had to say, in aesthetics, in the performing arts, as well as what I had to say socially, politically-the medium was not the cinema, it was the theatre," Tanvir said once.

The global theatre community identifies Tanvir as a pioneering Hindi and Urdu playwright with 'Charandas Chor' (1975) as his signature play. With global adaptations, including feature fi...