‘Tom and Jerry’: Lies, riches and a pocket full of laughs

10-day-long Drama Festival 2011 kicks off at PNCA.

ISLAMABAD:

An enthralling play by the Royal Production, “Tom and Jerry’, held at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) auditorium marked the beginning of the art council’s 10-day-long “Drama Festival 2011” on Tuesday.

The play started after an hour-long delay, but the lead characters--Khawaja Masood as Tom and Dildar Khan as Jerry--were quick to make up for it; their stunning performances coupled with Potohari and Urdu dialogues won them big rounds of applause.

The play revolved around two characters, Tom and Jerry, who are unemployed and belong to a poor family but own a large house gifted to them by one of their friends. The two, however, try to hide their bleak financial position by pretending that they are rich and flaunt their make-belief wealth through borrowed money.

They later come across a Seth of Murree, Imtiaz Ali Kashif, to whom they portray themselves as billionaires living a luxurious life. But their lies meet a bitter challenge when the Seth suddenly decides to visit their house with two of his daughters.

The two decide to keep up with their lie and hire three people, interestingly to whom they owe large sums of money, to act as their mother, father and servant in order to impress the Seth enough to give them his two daughters’ hands in marriage. However, their seemingly perfect plan is foiled when a man, also to whom they owe money, exposes them to the Seth. The two plead that they are not sociopaths, but just two unemployed men trying to find a place in the society. Though peeved, the Seth advises them never to speak lies again and allows them to marry his two daughters.

Director General PNCA said, “The aim of the festival is to provide healthy entertainment to people and promote theatre in the country.” He said the festival was first held in 2009 to provide an opportunity to young artists to prove their talents.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Umza Hayat, who came from Rawalpindi to see the play, said that she never missed the festival since 2009, and this year “I intend to see all the plays with my family”.

The festival will continue till May 19 in which a number of plays will be performed including “Kamra No.5”, “Kahanian”, “Patan”, “Extra”, “Funkar”, “Aik Raat”, “Wrong Number”, “Khushi”, “Draikula” and “Khawab Nagar”.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2011.