India, Sept. 23 -- Colours can be political. Black for protests, white for peace. White for funerals in the east, black for funerals in the west. Colours can also suggest desire. Deep red for seduction, ochre for summer and green for envy. At the heart of artist and theatre director Amitesh Grover's Mehroon - a word astoundingly difficult to translate even though it has been used to convey maroon - is the conundrum of insatiable desires stacked like a palette of maroons.

Written by Sarah Mariam in Hindustani, Mehroon, which opened the IHC Theatre Festival 2025, weaves questions of love, desire, identity, and gender with ideas of sisterhood, independence and creativity. It is as much a musical delight - composed by the brilliant Garima Di...