Laughing back to a life of love from the brink of suicide

The theme of a disillusioned couple deciding to commit suicide, but, due to some intervention, ending up having a positive attitude towards life is not something very novel. And if a play is based on such a theme, its successful execution requires well-crafted round characters and witty dialogues, which the play, ‘Pintu Death Club’, staged on Tuesday at the Arts Council of Pakistan under the Karachi Theatre Festival, lacked.

The play was advertised as a tragicomedy; however, there was no element of high seriousness in it that would add any tragic content. The simple plot of two jilted lovers wanting to commit suicide in the beginning but ending up in love with each other does not seem to reflect a tragicomedy.

So, the play was a comedy. There were indeed some moments that caused chuckles and laughter, but overall there was not enough hilarious content that would make the audience crazy.

It starts with a jilted poet, Asad Betaab, played by Farhan Alam, standing on a bridge to commit suicide; however, the timely intervention by a man named Pintu, played by Alee Sheikh, who owns a death club, forces him to delay suicide and instead play a deadly game with a woman, who is another jilted lover wanting to die after being abandoned by her lover.

The game is such that if it is played till the end, one of the two players have to die. The two players have to play the role of the hunter and animal in alternate turns, in which the hunter has to shoot the animal in the dark. In case, the hunter fails to hit the target, the roles will be reversed.

However, to make things interesting, Pintu has left one bullet space in the gun — which becomes the reason for the happy ending as by the end Betaab has fallen in love with the woman and when his turn to shoot her comes, he shoots himself, only to find there was no bullet.

Among the cast, Kulsoom Aftab who portrayed the anonymous woman, acted the best. The play was penned by veteran actor Talat Hussain and directed by Paras Masroor. It was probably the director’s decision to add music to the play as it was announced in the end that the lyrics of a song played two times during the play were penned by the director.

The song started with the line “Khudkushi koi hal nahin/Yahan aaj hai kal nahin [suicide is no solution as there is only today and no tomorrow in that decision]”. The song, which was sung in a rock style, did not add any value to the production because it appeared to be noise pollution.