No rhyme or reason

ISLAMABAD: Continuing with the National Drama Festival at the PNCA, today the poor man’s plight was taken up by the Postgraduate College for Women, 6th road performing their original production, ‘Mein Farigh Nahin Hu’. Unfortunately like its very name, the play was quite spare, inexperience above all, shining through.

Directed by Safia Zafar and written by Mariam, the play deals with quite common subject matter but does not in any way shed new light, trite in its treatment of widespread societal ills. This ‘socially relevant’ play takes on the case of merit versus ‘safarish’ as Humayun (acted by a girl, quaintly indicative of the absence of co-education); a university student sits for his Masters exams, his betrothal to Zainab and his lone mother’s wellbeing at stake. Losing out on first place thanks to the bribing ways of his friend, Humayun is distraught, certain that this setback spells trouble for his future. Unable to recover, the jobless protagonist soon loses his amour to another suitor and then his mother to sickness, tormented by the very ills that have brought this upon him, poverty, bribery and indifference. Left to wallow, he becomes an educated vagabond with no prospects or hope, burning his degrees and academic achievements. Scene.

Though dealing with something that faces nearly all of us nowadays, ‘Mein Farigh Nahin Hu’ is far too discursive and prosaic to say anything new. An inexistent meritocracy in the country has often robbed the deserving and the play’s intention of communicating this is very clear. But with the ubiquitousness of this theme, its significance, its effect can only be pronounced through something novel and fresh; otherwise the concept remains stale and ineffectual. This is what the present production suffers from. Employing many a filmic convention, ‘Mein Farigh Nahin Hu’ is more Lollywood light than compelling theatre. More stage time is given to song and dance routines than to actual performances; the dance numbers droning on for far too long and coming in without any segues whatsoever. The haphazard mishmash of intermissions and apparent dramatic pauses truly interrupt the play, again with more breaks than actual performances. The play does go through a defined arc but the story remains predictable and cliché. The production could have benefited from a little more imagination and less reliance on tropes that have been done to death. Well intentioned, with clear effort put in but barely distinguishable.

The drama festival resumes on Monday at the PNCA with its closing ceremony on Tuesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2011.