Playwright Akurati Bhaskara Chandra gave Yoga Nidra a new meaning through his play titled Yoga Nidra where the female lead Kalyani is shown as a schizophrenic. The play was staged at Thyagaraya Gana Sabha under the aegis of Rasa Ranjani. The play was produced and presented by Natyanjali of APSRTC.
The play was presented by experienced artistes who did justice to lengthy dialogues, especially N. Saratkumar who played the pivotal role of A.C.P. Pridhviraj. Though one could laud his efforts in delivering the two to three pages of dialogues on the society, police and law towards the climax, it sounded unwarranted and disturbed the play's intent.
Pridhviraj is a friend of lawyer Viswam (J. Nageswara Rao) and Dr. Ravikumar (B. Sudhakar). Ravikumar marries Kalyani (Prabhavati) under mysterious circumstances. The initial scenes show the couple leading a peaceful and passionate life, except when Kalyani shows symptoms of schizophrenia. The lingering doubt about her personality is proved right with the sudden arrival of ACP addressing her as Bharati and not Kalyani.
Being a friend of Pridhvi, her husband is initially disturbed at the way his friend is addressing her. The lawyer friend Viswam too sides with Dr. Ravi. When these two and Kalyani corner him, he reveals the story behind Kalyani alias Bharati, who was a Naxalite, but later changed her ways. We learn that she fell ill in an attack in which Pridhvi's wife too gets hurt. The police file a case against Bharati thinking she has masterminded the attack.
After a prolonged verbal drama issues like narco-analysis test is brought to the fore to find the truth from Kalyani.
