Dharna with a climax

A sneak peek into Anwar Maqsood’s latest play, which touches on Pakistan’s political instability.

ISLAMABAD:

If you thought the trend of dharnas had fizzled out, brace yourself for another storm of political rhetoric that promises to sweep you off your feet. Only this time, the stage is livelier and the script-writer has been revealed without much ado.

Acclaimed satirist Anwar Maqsood has once again tied forces with KopyKats Productions for the stage play Anwar Maqsood ka dharna, which will premiere at the Islamabad Club on November 27. Set in the backdrop of the current political turmoil, the play also talks about the fickleness of the political situation, the accusations against the electoral system and the much dissected and en vogue dharnas, in an all-encompassing comedy of errors.



“The play is not against any political party, dharna or the government. I’m not demanding the rights of people — I’m simply requesting the rights of animals,” quipped Maqsood at a press conference on Monday. The play poster features a bewildered Maqsood at the forefront of donkeys grazing an open field.

Dawar Mehmood of KopyKats Productions, who has been directing plays for about a decade now, said that this particular play was hard to direct since unlike his previous productions, this was a completely unexplored territory in terms of theme or script. “It is a brand-new play and the greatest challenge was to make a talk show palatable for the audience, keep them entertained and still make it sound like theatre. As far as I know, this has never been done before in the history of Pakistani theatre,” he said.

Despite hearing about and being inspired by Maqsood’s exchanges with both old and new political leaders, Mehmood said that it had taken him four years to convince him to write such a no-holds-barred play.

Mehmood has co-directed the play along with actor and writer Yasir Hussain, who has acted in many of their previous plays together. This play marks Hussain’s directorial debut commercially; he has previously directed plays on a small scale. “This is probably our last press conference in public,” Hussain joked, “after this, you’ll only get to read our letters from jail!” On a more serious note, he said that the play was different in that it was very vocal and the actors too, will be performing their roles in an unabashed manner.



Maqsood said that they had originally planned to stage the play at Al Hamra, but when the administrators read the script, they flatly denied permission on the pretext that Maqsood still had “connections” but it could land them into serious trouble.

So did Ali Auditorium in Lahore and the Pakistan National Council of the Arts in Islamabad. “At last, Islamabad Club came to our rescue, because the nice people that they are, they were too busy to read the script!,” said Maqsood. From live debates with prominent political figures to telephone links with party chiefs such as MQM’s Altaf Hussain and PPP’s Bilawal Bhutto, the talk show has it all covered. However, Maqsood pointed out, he has not criticised anyone.

Not to be missed is Imran Khan, whose female fans’ dance moves have offended JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman for being “obscene”. When Maqsood asks Maulana(in the play) why did he object to the dances, Maulana lists off dance sequences of Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor and Raveena Tandon, saying they were even more vulgar than those of Bollywood!”

When asked if he was impressed by Khan, Maqsood was quick to reply, “If that were the case, then instead of a chair, you’d see me atop a container!” However, he credited Khan for engaging the Pakistani youth, who are an enduring hope for the country.  He added that the ongoing sit-in in the capital has guaranteed one thing: the next general elections will be completely free and fair.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2014.

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