Irfan Khoosat’s production entertains Lahore

Tokray Thallay entertains audiences with sarcastic demeanour, comic action, and witty humour despite bumpy story line.

LAHORE: Lahore Arts Council (LAC)’s new production Tokray Thallay entertained audiences this week with its sarcastic demeanour, comic action, and witty humour despite a relatively bumpy story line and loose plot.

The production was a LAC attempt to revive Lahore’s theatre scene, particularly at Alhamra. The screenplay was directed by Irfan Khoosat and written by Aslam Shankar.

The play was set in a village in Punjab and primarily focused on the discrimination faced by women in our society. However, the play ended on a happy note, when the lead character was given an equivalent status as her male counterpart in the family-run business.

The female lead was played by Sanam Nazli, whose character is often beaten up by her husband. A number of interesting situations arise when the married couple exchange verbal blows. Nazli has a rare sense of humour, which adds to her frustration and candour. While talking to a vendor, she is asked if she wants to barter anything, and replies, “The thing which I want to get replaced has just left the home.” In another scene, her husband is being chased by the police and he comes home running and pleads with his wife to hide him. She puts a cloth on him and asks him to not to move. Anwar Ali (her husband) says, “If the police ask what this is, tell them this is a goat.”

Nazli won the audience over with her wit by replying, “I’ll tell the police this is a donkey, as a goat is not this huge!” It was moments like these that brought life to the Alhamra auditorium and vibrancy to the play.

The story takes an interesting turn when women rights activists visit the village and persuade Nazli to attend their meeting. When she comes home after attending the meeting, she is a changed woman and refuses to bow before her husband. The quarrel first takes an ugly shape but then Mehar, a political figure of the village, comes and gets the husband and wife to reconcile.

Other than the comic incidents and witty dialogue, the play did have some avoidable digressions. Irfan Khoosat appeared in the play for a single scene as Baba Nazir. He visits Nazli and when she enquires about his son abroad he faintly replies, “He hasn’t written to me. I pray he is happy wherever he is.” He makes a small speech on the importance of living in the country, and that he would never leave despite the current security conditions. This scene was completely irrelevant to the plot of the play and was a mere distraction to the story line; in any case, the audience cheered for Khoosat.

Irfan Khoosat said that he was very happy to see that many families had come to watch the performance. “Family theatre still has a space. LAC has provided an opportunity to people to relax and enjoy a light performance with their families,” he said.

Aslam Shankar said that he had worked with Khoosat for the first time even though he has known him for the last 25 y ears. “This has been great and I enjoyed it a lot,” he maintained.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2010.