A clash of ideologies played out on stage

As the West would like to have us believe, socialism has come to an end. But, has it? Certainly not if one would have watched the play, 'Tasadum' (Clash), staged at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) basement theatre on Saturday evening.

The story pivots around a boys’ hostel in a college with a group of radical, leftist students  actively involved in bringing about a change in the existing, exploitative capitalist order and working in right earnest to set up an egalitarian system where socio-economic justice reigns supreme. 

The two characters who dominate are students. Azeem (portrayed most deftly by Ishtaiq) is very ideologically motivated but is intellectually orientated. The other one attired just like revolutionary Che Guevara, complete with that legendary beret, is a more romantic revolutionary who makes some caustic comments about the existing exploitative capitalist order.

One of his quotes “These are not the days of freedom. These are the days of servility and oppression” are an apt comment on a system based on expediency even if it involves unethical practices.

The students have frequent discussions, sometimes even acrimonious, about their individual concepts of bringing about a revolution. Azeem, who is dreaming of being an editor of a leftist paper, also has some very profound comments to make about the exploitative capitalist system.

While these highly motivated young people are passionately preoccupied with their plans for ushering in a massive change, they are oblivious to the schemes being hatched by counter-revolutionary forces, among them, the foremost being the college principal, astutely played by Naveed Kamal.

He tries to derail the students’ ideological ambitions by arranging a scholarship for Azeem to pursue higher studies at Harvard. He tells Naveed’s mother that when he returns, he’ll be a big officer in the planning and development department and reminds her that the country’s economic policies are, after all,  being dictated by Harvard, a stinging remark on the state of Pakistan’s dependence on US-based institutions.

Azeem being ideologically fired turns down the offer violently and tears the letter to shreds. Ultimately, the principal threatens to have all the revolutionaries fixed up. And, lo and behold, they are finally eliminated.

The astute direction of Imran Aslam’s play by Akbar Islam is a must-see for those who want to know more about the ideological currents and under-currents sweeping across the globe and the truth (read lack of it) in the present-day world.

Imran Aslam has really done a timely job by bringing home the reality of the ideological propaganda aimed at the naïve about the “death of Socialism” syndrome being pumped into the minds of the young, and the inherent lie therein. Akbar Islam made it all the more profound.