An encouraging performance, a typical Kahanee
By Rabia Ali
Karachi: Around 700 people gathered at the Arts Council auditorium on a chilly Saturday evening to watch young students mime, act, and dance in the theatrical performance ‘Yeh Bhi Ek Kahanee Hai.’
A joint theatre venture by Cogito Productions and Jaag Taalib-e-Iilm, the actors comprised of students from various universities of Lahore and Karachi, including LUMS, Lyceum, Indus Valley, SZABIST and NCA.
The play revolved around a village lad, Qutubuddin, who comes to the metropolis in the hope of finding himself a ‘Bachi’ and therefore gets admitted to a college,. At college, he falls in love with a classmate, marries her, and finally bumps into the deadly Taliban, who change the course of his happily-ever-after.
The play started off with some slapstick, and was even able to get a few hearty laughs from the audience. However, the poor sound quality took away from the humor. Shehzad Ghias, a LUMS student and director of the play, told The News that the lack of sponsorships meant that the production could not focus on the sound quality.
“It was very difficult getting sponsors. We had no money for the show, and had limited budget constraints. Therefore, we couldnÂ’t spend a lot on props, sound or light,” Ghias said.
Nevertheless, Ghias collaborated with his friends and prepared the play in merely fifteen days. “I wanted to do this, because I am part of a student network, and we strongly believe that students should do something to awaken other students throughout the country, and make them realize that we all are responsible for the wellbeing of the country, and it is our duty to protect it during these times of difficulties and rising extremism.”
Despite the poor sound, and the frequent bits of overacting on the part of the actors, the mime scenes in the play proved to be exceptionally well-executed, and presented a different look to the play.
Similarly, the scene portraying a heaven consisting of actors dancing, and the sudden appearance of actors from the audience were also appreciated by the crowd.
While the production was a good effort by the students, the message that they were trying to deliver through the play was somewhat vague. Perhaps this could be attributed to a stereotyped storyline, but the endeavour in itself should be lauded, given that such collaborative efforts among university students are rare to find.
Source: The News
Date:1/24/2010
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