Drama festival ends on anti-dowry message

COMSATS, FJWU and QAU bag top positions.

ISLAMABAD: Students of the capital highlighted the negative effects of dowry and how it was affecting poor families through a stage play on Sunday night.

Bahria University students presented the play “Khwaab” on the last day of the week-long Youth Drama Festival at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts.

The young performers played two families that are looking for the best match for their children. Parents of Babloo — the lead character played by Khawar — select a Canadian woman for him expecting a car, house, jewellery, and furniture in the name of dowry.

Excited at the prospect, Babloo reaches a stage where he sees in a dream that the girl he was going to marry is making him do all the household work. He wakes up frightened and decides not to marry that girl, but his parents persuade him into the marriage because of the dowry promise. Eventually, Babloo’s family ends the engagement when they are told that all their dowry demands could not be met.

While challenging folkways, students highlighted the rising trend of materialism through comedy.

They had rehearsed their lines well and delivered with perfect timing. The dance was also well choreographed and audience members swayed with the beat.

A total of seven plays were staged during the festival. Awards were also distributed at the closing ceremony on Sunday. ‘Ibtida-e-Ishq’ by students of COMSATS Institute of Information Technology won the first prize. Fatima Jinnah Women University students clinched second prize for their performance in “Jaray Ke Dastan”, a parody of William Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale”. Quaid-i-Azam University’s team won the third position for their play “Meri Kahani”.

The best actor award went to Ibtida-e-Ishq’s Taha while the best actress award was given to Fatima Rizwan for her performance in ‘Guriya ka Ghar.’

PNCA announced that the best play would be presented again at the council.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2015.