Napa’s performing arts festival begins
Peerzada Salman
KARACHI: An interesting experimental (as the organisers called it) performance titled helped the National Academy ostival off to a good start at the academy’s in-house theatre on Thursday.
Hoon Muntazir Mein, directed by Napa manager special projects , was presented by the academy’s theatre arts graduating class of 2012. The four characters in the act worked both as characters and storytellers. They played multiple characters and at the same time did their main roles along with recounting what happened to the protagonists. A bit of multimedia (with a giant screen in the background) aid was used to flesh out the situations in order to impart clarity to them.
The story starts with four characters of different backgrounds — a prince uneasy with his father’s oppressive rule played by Ishtiaq, a nawab who does not like to shake a leg and is goaded by his elders to achieve something significant in life (Raheel), a villager who falls for a girl or moorti and finds himself in a quandary as to how to get hold of her (Waqar) and a person of royal lineage who cannot easily describe his psychosocial plight to his parents and friends (Humair) — singing a song, Dekhey Hain Sapney Hum Ne, giving a signal to the audience regarding the play’s underlying theme: dreams or life’s inexorable pursuits.
The four young men initially describe their individual situation and create a bit of a mystery around them. As the presentation progresses, they narrate their stories or what contributed to their personality make-up in detail like professional raconteurs.
Three of the four tales — the prince’s, the villager who falls for a girl and the intense social misfit — have an air of gravity and seriousness about them.
Romance also features with respect to Waqar’s story, but it works on a level which does not allow it to stand out prominently.
But it is the nawab’s tale, having comedic elements yet bringing to light the whole tradition of laziness and delusions of grandeur associated with the nawabs, which slightly eclipses the rest of the parallel stories. The actor Raheel Ahmed not only impresses as a nawab but also does a good job while performing the more demanding parts, for example of the prince’s cruel father.
Hoon Muntazir Mein was a successful effort, though its duration could have been trimmed. The multimedia element, which helped break the visual monotony, would have been more aptly utilised if it had been introduced somewhere in the first quarter
or in the middle of the play. The overall direction, the choreography and the music were good and well-received by the audience. All the actors did a decent job, and the occasional fumbling or overlapping was barely noticed by the attendees because of the hard work the performers had put in. The lyrics to the songs, however, sounded rookie, but considering that the actors themselves had penned them and set them to music, the young ones should be encouraged. All in all, a worth watching endeavour.Prior to the musical, Napa president Zia Mohyeddin, head of the theatre department Rahat Kazmi and head of the music department Nafis Ahmed and Zain Ahmed spoke about the importance of the festival.
Zia Mohyeddin said in our society theatre was not appreciated the way it merited (theatre ki tameez paida nahin hui). He said if on the one hand ‘drama’ made us feel good about good’s triumph over evil, on the other hand it also provided us the opportunity to look within ourselves (apney gareeban mein jhankney per majboor kerta hai).
Lauded the academy’s seniors for creating space for the younger lot and not getting in their way.
Nafis Ahmed congratulated Zain Ahmed and the rest of his team for organising the festival.
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