As winter nights get colder and the weary months of 2022 fade into memory, savour these soul-warming Zee Theatre teleplays and welcome 2023 with a smile. Drenched in various shades of love and human connections, 'White Lilly & Night Rider’, ‘Sir Sir Sarla' and ‘Love' are the perfect treats for the new year.

White Lilly & Night Rider

This Milind Phatak directorial is about two 30-something individuals who are looking for a connection online with their real selves hidden behind the pseudonyms, White Lilly and Night Rider. The Milind Phatak and Sonali Kulkarni starrer then traces what happens when unaware of each other's identities, the two fall in love and finally come face-to-face. Will they discover the difference between the real and the virtual?  Were their expectations from this relationship and their feelings for each other rooted in facts or fantasy?

Sir Sir Sarla

This modern yet timeless love story written and directed by prolific theatre exponent and playwright Makrand Deshpande revolves around three protagonists. There is the young and naive Sarla who is smitten by Professor Palekar and there is her co-student who shares a love-hate relationship with him. The teleplay explores this triangular connection that goes through many shifts when Sarla gets married, Phanidhar begins to harbour a deep grudge and the professor carries within, unarticulated guilt, love, and a sense of loss. Find out what happens when secrets are revealed, and accusations thrown? 

Love

Inspired by George Bernad Shaw's 'Pygmalion ', this play narrates what happens when a sculptor’s beautiful creation comes to life and begins to express thoughts and emotions of its own. Does the creator resent it when he realises that what he has created no longer belongs to him and has agency of its own? The story begins when the protagonist develops a robot with Artificial Intelligence to fool his mother into believing he has found love and is finally getting married. Though the play offers insight into how science is infiltrating our lives, it also shows how ego and the instinct to control someone else can impact our relationships.