Local artistes get fair opportunity to showcase their talent

Islamabad :The local artistes and theatre production houses got fair opportunity to showcase their flair and creativity for the performing arts during the last three days at the 12th National Theatre Festival. The largest ever theatre festival is being organised by the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) in connection with the 70th independence anniversary of Pakistan.

‘Ghar to aakhir apna hae’ (at least the home is ours), written by Nisar Razmi and directed by Tahir Siddiqi, was staged on Thursday evening. Starring in the play were Afzaal Latifi, Batin Farooqi, Arshad Minhas, Saeed Anwar, Faqeer Hussain, Lubna Shahzadi, Zeenat Abbasi, Rana Kashif, Nasir Walliam and Tahir Siddiqi. The Islamabad Art Production presented the play.

The story of the play was about the sensitivities of social ailments that prevail in our society and usually the people do not care about such issues. Different sequences of events knitted in a story make the audience realises that we need to check our social behaviours, not only to improve our own civilised role is the grooming of our society but also showing ourselves as role model for others.

Mian Ji (Afzaal Latifi), comedian Nasir Walliam and the charming young lady Lubna Shahzadi could attract the audience in the formula stage play with some exaggerated tone of the characters. The old film music played in the backdrop of some moving scenes added some flair too. ‘Aik Boon Zindgi’ (one drop life), written by Arshad Chehaal and directed by Sabir Khan, was staged on Wednesday by the Super Vision Production.

The cast included Mahboob Ilyas, Zeshan Khan, Lubna Shahzadi, Shagufta Khan, Mushatq Nadeem, Areeba Khan, and Saleem Shah. Naeem Tota, who played a servant’s role in the play, remained an attraction for his overplayed comedy and timely reaction in different situations. Areeba could also inspire playing sister especially at the moving scene of her brother’s dead body. Lubna Shahzadi as a larking girl could also make herself registered quite well in an overdone play with the ordinary Punjabi film music. ‘Enquiry Officer’, written by Agha Saleem and directed by Javaid Babar, was a production of the JB Theatre Group from Peshawar with all the local artistes.

The main roles were performed by Ishrat Abbas, Amjad Ali Khan, Ahmed Sajjad, and Saleem Shauq. So far, this was the only play having no female actress in it. Talking to this scribe, the PNCA senior consultant Munir Ahmed said, “Theatre reflects the expression and sensitivity of societal grassroots that needs to be mainstreamed for a socio-political change in Pakistan. National Theatre Festival is a cohesive vision of the PNCA leadership Jamal Shah aimed at reviving the oldest tradition of mass communication. The festival is a mix platter of different traditions of theatre including the classic, experimental and the routine ones to encourage and support all type of theatre in the country.”