Malavikagnimitram Shakuntala2013 Calidaca/Pecas Kalidasa was a Sanskrit poet and playwright who is often regarded as the greatest Indian writer of all time. Among his famous works is the drama Abhijnana Shakuntalam. It is a drama about King Dushyanta, Sakuntala, and their son Bharata's love, separation, and reconciliation. It has been called "the world's first modern-style play" because of its use of dramatic unities and the importance it places on action. Abhijnanashakuntalam was written in the late 400s CE. The original language was probably Telugu but there are also versions in Tamil and Hindi. It has been translated into many languages including English, French, German, Spanish, and others. It is still performed by theatre companies across India today. Kalidasa was a great scholar-poet who lived in what is now northern Kerala, south India. He wrote many poems but only two full-length plays have survived today - Abhijnanashakuntalam and another play called Prahlada Vijayam. They present themes that were popular at the time they were written but they also show similarities with later plays by other writers such as Thomas Kyd and William Shakespeare. Abhijnanashakuntalam tells the story of King Dushyanta who needs to choose between his wife Sakuntala and her sister Madri.