The story of PEER GHANI is set in the Kashmir of the 1980s where the young Pir lives with his mother Asse. Peer came from a clan of rich traders. The business built by his grandfather was completely decimated by his father's wasteful ways. After the death of his father, mother and son are reduced to penury and Pir's mother keeps herself and her son alive on fairy tales, dealing with mythical characters which are larger than the life Pir sees around him. Thus Pir grows up in a world of make-believe, inhabited with trolls and spirits and makes a name as a great storyteller and a balladeer. When the real world and the spirit world clash, he is unable to deal with the reality and sets off on a voyage of self-discovery, living a nomadic existence, making and severing relationships. He is the eternal loser, always attempting to justify his life but failing in his attempts, having to let go of the mirages, be it women, wealth or friendship. His only bond to the real world is his mother and Haseena, a girl who loves him unconditionally but cannot hope for any commitment from him.
Peer is the proverbial anti-hero. The play takes us through three stages of his life, the effervescent youth, a successful middle-aged trader and a broken old man. His is the story of a man who roams the world to establish his identity, going on from one episode to another and gathering pearls of wisdom along the way.
It is an allegorical tale and brings us to the tragic circumstances of a war-ridden land, which Pir cannot relate to on his return. In his world of imagination, the final truth lies in the secrets of death, as he sees his mother leave the world, still waiting for him to make something of his life. But the questions that plague Pir to the very end are ''Who am I? Where am I?''
The play is an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's original play PEER GYNT.
