A newspaper office circa 1989. The ramshackle place is held together by a bamboo pole. If it is removed, it is possible the structure will collapse.

For Kshitij Patwardhan, who has adapted (from HM Marathe’s News Story) and directed the Marathi play Don Special (don as in two in Marathi, not gangster) it is a symbol for the decline in the standards of journalism that started about then. The rise of big business, the powerful builder lobby, talk of liberalisation, the politician-industrialist nexus, increasing corruption — and in the midst of all this tumult, a journalist trying to hold on to his principles.