Ajoka Theatre Group is one of the most prominent and active performing arts groups in Pakistan. In recent years, they have started offering crash courses in acting, scriptwriting, dance, and even “the art of anchoring” (as they call it), at their office cum institute on Sarwar Road, Lahore. The courses — whose duration is three months each — have allowed Ajoka to bridge the huge gap in the industry between young aspirants looking for opportunities and the people that they can go to.

The recently staged Aimna!, by the students of Ajoka at the institute, was therefore an important performance. It was their ‘thesis’ play.

Although previous batches of Ajoka Institute have also performed in plays at the end of their training, this was the first time where a student from the Art of Writing course had the opportunity to write the play in which all the students would perform. Aimna! was written by Zainab Yousaf, and directed by Nirvaan Nadeem, son of the late Madeeha Gauhar who founded Ajoka Theatre in the 1980s.

The play is about Sara, a mother, who is recounting fond memories from her childhood days, to her daughter. These memories are about the various chronicles of her domestic maid and other workers in her household. Sara is prompted to reminisce when she is informed at the outset of the play that her beloved Aimna Maasi has passed away. Both mother and daughter then sit late into the night, while Sara remembers how Aimna shaped her. She starts off by saying, “Aimna meri kuch bhi nahi thi, par sab kuch thi!”

Aimna, played by Ishrat Shaheen, is a headstrong character, with a comic streak to her, who navigates her way around various love triangles involving their driver and the washing lady Shehzadi. She is also dealing with a drug-addled husband and an incompetent son. Yet she remains unfrazzled, and goes on with her everyday chores that include doing the cleaning, making spicy daal, and protecting her beloved hookah from the likes of her own family. She is often found on her charpoy, sitting in her dhoti, with a parandah dangling from her unruly braid, and tinted shades to top off her look.

The play was quite well written and directed, with the audience never finding it hard to transition between the past and the present. Aimna’s witty comebacks and sarcastic comments had everyone warmed up and enjoying the performance on an otherwise cold and dreary winter night in Lahore.

The play moves between flashbacks where an adult Sara bonds with her daughter in the middle of the night, and the past where a young Sara is continuously seeking help and advice from Aimna. A particularly funny situation arises when young Sara has marital suitors who pretend to be a perfect family but are in fact criminals in disguise. The domestic workers of the house come together under Aimna to protect Sara from these people, and Aimna feeds them “bhang ke laddu” to get them to unknowingly tell the truth about their identities, leading to their arrest.

The play uses Instagram and the olden messenger chatrooms as vehicles to distinguish the current generation from the older. Sara retells an iconic tale of how she once had a stalker named Bilal, and how Aimna taught him a lesson using Shehzadi’s dramatic flair and talent. Interestingly, the boy ends up being Sara’s husband.

Aimna’s influence on Sara culminates in an adult Sara struggling with a frustrated husband who finds the mother and daughter’s late-night talking sessions a huge inconvenience. It also prompts Sara to teach him a little lesson.

The play was quite well written and directed, with the audience never finding it hard to transition between the past and the present. Aimna’s witty comebacks and sarcastic comments had everyone warmed up and enjoying the performance on an otherwise cold and dreary winter night in Lahore.

The actors gave a stellar performance. Komal Bhatti, as Shehzadi, the housemaid who is seen in full make-up and continuously spouting filmy dialogues and songs, was a complete scene-stealer.

Earlier, addressing the audience, Nirvaan Nadeem said, “Performing arts education is not given the same importance as other fields. The arts are what actually shape individuals. Ajoka is trying to bridge the gap and provide proper training to students, especially the younger generation who have a lot of potential but no opportunities in the field.”

Later, Shahid Nadeem, the director of Ajoka, presented certificates to the outgoing students on the completion of their courses.