When With Love, Calcutta, opened in Kolkata in February this year, the critics couldn’t help but be awed by the crude portrayal of the contradictions between the past and present of the city. After four months, the play has come to Mumbai for its inaugural performance at the Thespo Festival.

Stills from the play, With Love, Calcutta, an anthology of several short stories, produced by theatre group, Mad About Drama

Aritra Sengupta, who co-wrote the play with Ayanti Ghosh (the two have also directed the play together), says that the play is an anthology of seven stories and inspired from films like Paris, I Love You, and New York, I Love You. “After we saw the films, we wanted to do something similar in theatre. But it was not until 2013, when we were looking for a script for Thespo that Ghosh and I got together to write With Love, Calcutta,” he informs.