Graduating batch jumpstarts Napa festival 2013

A comedy play about reality kicks off the festival.

KARACHI:

The play is a farce! National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) festival started with a comedy play Lao Tau Qatal Nama Mera - a serious message wrapped in humourous dialogue for those who can follow it.

Directed by Farhan Alam Siddiqui, the play is an adaptation of an Italian play by Dario Fo titled Accidental Death of an Anarchist. It revolves around a maniac Jaali, played by Shahjehan Narego, having some sort of a personality disorder, yet overly smart. Other characters include four policemen, Inspector Roshan (Sayyid Hammad Sartaj), Havaldar (Fraz Chhotani), Inspector (Hammad Khan), Superintendent (Farhan Alam Siddiqui) and journalist Faiza Khalili played by Syeda Maha Ali.

It was set in a small police station with a green and white picture of Quaid-e-Azam with words “Freedom For Free” written on it, hanging upside down. Lao Tou Qatl Nama Mera focuses on law enforcers who cover up minor or major criminal activities, and find ways to protect themselves from getting caught.

In the first act, Jaali is seen being interrogated by the heavy-set and bald Inspector Roshan who seems annoyed by every single gesture of Jaali. Soon enough, there’s chaos in the scene, with arguments, screaming, running around and continuous witty dialogues by Jaali. In the second act, the story goes into something more interesting; Jaali learns that a judge is due to appear in the police station to investigate a death case of a railway worker. From there on, we see the maniac turn impersonate a judge, go back-and-forth with the case details and forces the truth out of the policemen.

The full Napa auditorium heard laughter on-and-off as the audience was impressed and entertained by the dialogue delivery. Although, the play was about corruption and exploitation issues, there was strength lacking in the story. While the graduating class gave their best performances, Inspector Roshan was the life of the play. His anger and irritation at Jaali was apparent by his facial expressions, but it was his behaviour and dialogue delivery that made him the star of the show. Jaali had the humour timing right, but the performance seemed unnecessarily exaggerated. And while the Inspector and Superintendent both fit well in their roles, it was the Havaldar that played his character to perfection. The journalist (Maha) was out of her character; she lacked facial expressions and the dialogue delivery style, which made her character weak.

“There was some over-acting by Jaali. And the girl [journalist] was smiling while talking, which didn’t seem right,” Syeda Rehmat from the audience said, after the play.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2013.

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