When it comes to commercial theatre in Pakistan, Dawar Mehmood is one name that always comes to our minds. He has been producing theatre plays under his banner KopyKats Productions for several years now and most of them have received critical as well as commercial success.
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Dawar Mehmood’s latest theatre production, written by Sajid Hasan, premiered at the Karachi Arts Council on Thursday.
Karachi: When it comes to commercial theatre in Pakistan, Dawar Mehmood is one name that always comes to our minds. He has been producing theatre plays under his banner KopyKats Productions for several years now and most of them have received critical as well as commercial success. Some examples include productions like Pawney 14 August, Aangan Terha, Sawa 14 August, Siachen.
However, his most recent play, Hua Kuch Yoon that premiered in Karachi earlier this week, failed to live up to our expectations.
Set against the Indo-Pak backdrop pre and post partition, Hua Kuch Yoon takes you to a political and historical journey that begins from 1832 and spreads into eight decades. It follows the love story of Quratulain and Raja who survive the Jallianwala Bagh incident and are adopted by two different families. While growing up, the two face-off on multiple instances, given their political differences, but end up falling in love with each other. However, it takes several ups and downs before the two finally unite, if they ever do.
Most of the previous plays, helmed by Dawar, were penned by the legendary Anwar Maqsood, who is known for his wit and sarcasm, and that was one major reason behind their success. While political satire, Bananistan (the play before Hua Kuch Yoon) was written by a group of writers, Hua Kuch Yoon has been written by veteran artist Sajid Hasan. Sadly, the script has loopholes and isn’t well put together.
While we appreciate all the efforts put into producing a play based on the history of the subcontinent with a tragic love story at the heart of it, it is unfortunate that the story lacked finesse. From the sets to the wide array of actors who took the stage, everything was on point but the play lost its plot after the first half that was extended over an hour.
With a total duration that went past two hours without any break, the production felt unnecessarily lengthy and while we were waiting for it to end, it went on for another hour. Some of the scenes featuring the couple in love were out of place and their conversations appeared to be pointless after some time.
What did work in the theatre production’s favour were the punch lines, particularly the political references to present day Pakistan. The swift set changes and remarkable acting skills demonstrated by the entire cast and crew must be commended as well.
There were over 100 actors who appeared on stage, with most of them essaying multiple roles with ease. Some of the notable performances came from actors like Faraz Ali, Fareeha Raza, Saad Farukh Khan, Taha Humayun, Maria Saad, Mujtaba Rizvi, Adil Bangash among others.
The play, staged in Karachi beginning from February 15 will run till March 15 at the Karachi Arts Council.
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Hua Kuch Yoon follows Quratulain and Raja’s tragic love story spreading from past to present.