‘Once Upon a Murder’, co-directed by Virat and her husband Aamir Raza Husain was sponsored and staged at the ITC Pala on 14th January, preceded by cocktails and followed by a scrumptious meal of Indian and Asian cuisine. This who dunit was a team-effort, collectively scripted by the entire cast with myriad of blind alleys and red herrings, in the genre of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle. The play revolves around an abusive, over-bearing and cheating spouse, whose main aim was to get rid of his seemingly meek, tolerant and moneyed wife, whose company he had run through shady business deals. As the play progresses we find a suspicious brother-in-law murdered under mysterious circumstances, a loquacious maid ready to spout her opinion to all and sundry, a loyal friend who had faced a family tragedy and an ex-employee all caught up in a web of deceit and murder.