Bringing down the house

Hordes of Rangeela fans turned up to attend an evening dedicated to him.

LAHORE:

Writer and columnist Munnu Bhai says if hundreds of dogs die in Lahore after eating ‘kuchla’ (poisonous waste material) it doesn’t mean the dogs like ‘Kuchla’. It simply means that the dogs are hungry. The quote seems quite befitting to the event organised by the Lahore Arts Council [LAC] to commemorate renowned actor, director and singer late Saeed Khan Rangeela here on March 9.

Alhamra Hall No 1 was packed beyond capacity with over 1,000 people inside to enjoy the musical comedy night organised in memory of Rangeela. However the extraordinary crowd watched quite ordinary performances that had nothing to do with the legendary comedian.

“Alhamra has witnessed an audience of this size after a long time. This doesn’t prove the show’s success, it implies instead that people desperately want to be entertained and a night in the name of Rangeela has immense potential to entertain. The administration may want responsibility of the turn-over, but the accolades are not theirs to own. The large audience speaks volumes about the fan following Rangeela had, and the dire straits of public entertainment,” a senior artiste who worked with Rangeela commented, requesting anonymity.

“It is after a long time that the administration had to lock the doors because of the huge rush, but the performances could have been better. The performers performed what they liked, not what Rangeela would have liked. This was a musical comedy night for Rangeela and people would have liked to watch actors copying Rangeela and singing songs sung by him instead of parodying recent popular songs like Munni Badnaam Hui,” he exclaimed.

A young stage artiste sung “Munni Badnaam Hui” in the style of Ataullah Esakhelvi that won him thundering applause from the audience. The night included performances by Hasan Abbas, Sohail Patakha, Kashif Prince, Ghafaar Lehri, Azhar Rangeela, Allah Rakha Pepsi, Tariq Jackson, Saeed Sahiki, Nida Faiz, Asad Kishwar and several others.

Most of these comedians and singers are from commercial theater, the crowd, however, burst into laughter at every joke which for many is not the real success of such nights.

“The purpose of the arts councils is not to make people laugh by inviting commercial theater artistes who cut odd jokes on stage. Even though, it is a great thing that Rangeela is being honoured, but, perhaps a comic stage play about him would have been a better choice. Inviting artistes one by one on stage and leaving such a huge audience on their mercy was very tricky,” said Anwar Ahmad,  a member of the audience.

Few artistes spoke about Rangeela when they came on stage and most of the time it was the host who asked people to clap for Rangeela. However, the jokes of the comedians were very relevant to the ongoing problems.

Allah Rakha Pepsi parodied famous Indian song “Sheila Ke Jawani” and changed the lyrics to “Cheeni Ke Kahani” (Story of sugar). The tune and the music were exactly of the original song and the changed lyrics won him a immense thundering applause.

“Rangeela had a huge fan following and still has. We were expecting a huge turnout but this is amazing. A lot of families have come to watch a show dedicated to their favorite actor. I remember Rangeela working on the same stage where now artistes are dedicating their performances to him. He was a gifted comedian,” an official of Lahore Art Council said. When asked about quality of the performances organised to pay tribute to Rangeela he said: “We wanted to entertain people and not do serious stuff — look what have we achieved. People went crazy and loved what we did”.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2011.