Clued in to art

Ketan and Tina Chhatpar

Once upon a time, the idea of murder mysteries was constricted to devoting time to reading a Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot story. But we are now living in the 21st century, where actual mystery rooms recreate the same thrill in a physical manner. Like every other form of offline activity - be it music gigs or art shows - these events also underwent an existential crisis when the lockdown was at its peak. But the good news is that people can now exercise their "little grey cells" - as Poirot would say - engaging with friends and families at mystery rooms in the city.

The room where the Art Gallery mystery will be held

One such place is Clue Hunt in Lower Parel, which has created seven different scenarios that encourage participants to wrack their brains. The one that's titled Art Gallery, for example, places them in an exhibition centre. It's meant to resemble, let's say, one of the places in SoBo that people visit to soak in artworks. Except, the last batch of visitors were never heard of after entering - they disappeared into thin air like the last remaining whiff of smoke from a candle that's died. And as the player, you not only have to guess why that is, but also ensure that you don't meet the same fate.

Ketan and Tina Chhatpar are the couple who launched this venue in 2013. Ketan tells us that the idea struck them after they visited a similar place in London. "We realised that no one in India had done it yet," he shares about why they felt that this was a feasible business idea. He also adds that the lockdown took such a severe toll on their enterprise that they had to shut down their other outlets in Bandra and Andheri. Ketan says, "But we now have 25 per cent of the volume that we used to get before the pandemic, and we hope to reopen those places by Diwali this year, when we get back customers like the corporate entities that come to us for team-building exercises." Meanwhile, you can also put down the Agatha Christie novel that you might be reading, and exercise those "little grey cells" in groups of three.

On: Every day, 11 am onwards
At: Clue Hunt, Mathuradas Mill Compound, Lower Parel.
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