Adrak Ke Panje: Why Babban’s Play Had The World In Splits

The plot of ‘Adrak ke Panje’ first staged on September 22, 1965, in Hyderabad's Aghapura, ran until February 11, 2001, clocking a Guinness World Record with 10,180 performances. The show’s global reach with 30 million viewers across 60 countries, 27 languages, and stages from Japan’s Kabuki theatre to US, cemented its fame.

The plot follows a beleaguered middle-class clerk juggling debts, a sassy wife, and eight kids, using “adrak ke panje” as a metaphor for a chaotic, sprawling family. Packed with earthy Hyderabadi Dakhni slang, it offered sharp social commentary on unplanned families and economic woes.

“Yaar, Babban bhai ka dialogue sunke pet dukh jaata tha has has ke! Every weekend, I used to go with my elder brothers and friends,” recalled Ramchander Kulkarni from Gowliguda Chaman. The show used to end with a punchline “Chota parivar sukhi parivar!,” promoting family planning, with a social message and comic timing, he said.

Saroj Gharapurikar from Putlibowli recalling the show said “His Dakhni was pure magic — felt like he was chatting in our drawing rooms. Our family watched the show five times!”

Rajiv Deshpande and Manoj Kulkarni said that while studying at Vivek Vardhini College in those days, they watched the show at least for 12 times. “Fancy tha bilkul! That one-man energy, no props needed — pure genius. It was a pure Hyderabad’s pride,” Manoj Kulkarni said. “We’d yell it during boring lectures — ‘Panje phenk do!’ — and the class would erupt. It was our stress-buster anthem.”

Babban Khan created the fans even after he stopped stating the play. Prof. Joly Puthussery of the department of theatre at the University of Hyderabad explained, “He broke the strict norms of the theatre and came up with his own rules which others followed. Simple to understand, most of the people were able to associate with the script.”

Prof. Puthussery watched the play in 1991 at Ravindra Bharathi. “The production was minimal and audience application high. The most important aspect was that he could generate his own audience who turned into fans. The surprising part is that the audience went to watch the play multiple times, which usually doesn’t happen in theatre.”

Among them was Dilnaz Baig, a Nizam-era food curator and social activist, who watched the play thrice. “It was so hilarious, those dialogues still linger in our mind.”

Mohd Shakir, a senior citizen, tried to explain the popularity. ‘Adrak Ke Panje’ showed the consequences of having an unplanned family. “The raw honesty made people cry, not just clap and leave. People kept coming back because it was simple, funny and real.” Those were the times of population control. “It helped shift the public mood from resistance to empathy. He proved that with simple stories about poverty, he could take the message of family planning to the masses.”