Theatre: ‘Spring has arrived but will basant ever be celebrated?’

Ajoka’s new play Lo Phir Basanat Ayee opens.

LAHORE:

Ajoka Theatre’s new play Lo Phir Basanat Ayee opened on Tuesday at the Alhamra on the Mall. The play has been written by Shahid Nadeem and directed by Madeeha Gauhar. The play will continue till March 6. 

Lo Phir Basant Ayee is the story of a beautiful and lively city where people believed that the city walls would protect them from marauding invaders for all times to come. However, an enemy stealthily breaks in, the gates disappear and the city is held hostage by an enemy that steals their valuables, their values, and their culture. Among the bewildered citizens is Ustaad Mauju whose family have been making delicate and colourful kites for the people of his city for centuries. Another character in the play is a teacher who is now told what he can teach. There is also a pair of young lovers who can no longer sit on the same bench in college. The play asks: spring has arrived but will basant ever be celebrated again in the besieged city?

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Madeeha Gauhar said “We feel that basant kite-flying shouldn’t have been banned. It has been a characteristic festival of the Punjab, and especially of Lahore.” She said the festival was wrongly perceived by some as a Hindu tradition. She added that Hazrat Ameer Khusro had celebrated it at the shrine of Hazrat Moeenuddin Chishti. She said the festival celebrated spring and by banning it the government appeared to have internalised the mindset of the fundamentalists. “By banning this festival they have shown that we don’t just have to fight the fundamentalist alone.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2014.