Karachi Theatre Festival 2020 concludes successfully at Arts Council of Pakistan (ACP), Karachi.

Fun-filled and entertaining Karachi Theatre Festival 2020 came to end on 23^rd October 2020 at Auditorium I, where a closing ceremony was held to declare Karachi Theatre Festival 2020 closed. Chief Guest for this closing ceremony was veteran and the legendary writer Anwar Maqsood.

The amusing festival included twenty-two(22) theatre plays, two(02) nukkar-natak (street-theatre), three(03) project 24 work-shops and three(03) theatre talks/conferences. The amazing efforts and hard work by the ACP team, artists and directors were applauded by Ahmed Shah along with the members of the governing body.

Closing ceremony commenced with Dr. Huma Mir taking the centre stage and briefing about the keys players of this KTF20. She also highlighted efforts of President ACP Karachi Muhammad Ahmad Shah who was primarily responsible for organizing first major event of post-covid era.

Muhammad Ahmad Shah came in next and he acknowledged the efforts of the creative team of ACP Karachi led by Meesam Naqvi and said; “the creative team of ACP Karachi led by Meesam Naqvi made this festival a success. Congratulations to the entire team of the Arts Council for organising this wonderful festival. This festival was organised with all the standard operating procedures(SOP) being adhere to, because of the Corona so that things could be normalised”.

President ACP Karachi made sure to acknowledge and name each and every person who contributed with their works to make this event a huge success. ACP President thanked everyone ranging from directors, actors, musicians, writers, producers, stage-designers/fabricators, lights-men, sounds-technicians, electricians, clerical-staff, janitorial-staff, security-staff, government-functionaries/institutes, NAPA etc etc. Overall it was a team effort and without all these people event of this magnitude wouldn’t have been possible.

On his concluding note President ACP, Karachi Muhammad Ahmed Shah said; “doors of theatre in Karachi had started gathering rust, but whole-hearted thanked to legendary writer Anwar Maqsood who gave life to Karachi’s theatre scene by writing for theatre and by agreeing to give his plays for theatre adaptation”.

After Ahmed Shah’s speech, host of the evening Dr. Huma Mir invited legendary writer Anwar Maqsood for distribution of shields to directors of all the 22 plays that had taken place during this festival. Anwar Maqsood then took the stage and started with praising KTF2020 like breath of fresh air, he said; “I would like to congratulate Muhammad Ahmad Shah and his team at ACP Karachi for putting up an excellent show during after the horrid times of covid”. He said; “such is the popularity of Ahmad Shah that if he would have been in USA, he would have defeated US President Donald Trump”.

Anwar Maqsood further said; “events like KTF20 should be praised. This event had young directors mostly and we should appreciate young directors. In my observation stage is doing a lot better than television. Whenever I see television, I get disappointed by watching the dramas that go on air. Dramas on television need improvement and one reason I see is lack of quality script. I would urge all youngsters to read the script before agreeing to any project. Script is the backbone”.

On concluding remarks, Anwar Maqsood said; “There seems no lack of talent in Pakistan as we have excellent young talent in the fields of acting, direction, production, singing etc etc. But there seems a missing link when it comes to writing-skills youngsters should venture into play-writing too. These days 90% of dramas are written by female writers who seem afraid to explore new horizons or experimenting”.

Then Anwar Maqsood along-with Muhammad Ahmad Shah President ACP Karachi presented shields to all the directors of 22 theatre shows. A flower bouquet was presented by President ACP Karachi to chief guest Anwar Maqsood. Then Anwar Maqsood presented a flower bouquet to young and energetic Mesam Naqvi for bringing KTF20 to us.

Mujh Mae Tou Moujood by Sheema Kermani – Best play at Karachi Theatre Festival 2020 till-date.

A musical play based on short story “Love, Longing and Death” by Amar Jaleel is a mysterious and intriguing tale about love and longing and death.

The performance combines live music, poetry, dance and dialogue to tell the story of a woman who becomes a disciple of famous mystic. This famous mystic is opposed by the authorities who consider his art subversive but he refuses to compromise.

This woman follows his footstep and also decides not to compromise to patriarchal violence and religious discrimination. However the patriarchal and conservative society will not allow her this freedom.

In spite of the tragic ending with woman being killed by her father, the play concludes on positive and hopeful note that; ‘religious violence will never succeed in destroying those who believe in humanity and love for all, irrespective of difference in beliefts, faith and gender’.

This play uses poetry of various Sindhi sufi saints and poets which includes Sachal Sarmast, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Bhagat Kanwar Ram, Kabir Das and Sheikh Ayaz and with these words this play creates an ensemble of diversity and cultural heritage.

“ I am him, He is Me,

He, Me or She, We are inseparable,

We are One, and One alone ! “

The premiere of this new musical play created by Tehrik-e-Niswan is a dedication to the memory of the great Sindhi Sufi poet, saint and singer Bhagat Kanwar Ram who was killed in 1939 by religious extremists. This musical play ‘Mujh Mae Tou Moujood’ was premiered on 17^th October 2020 at Karachi Theatre Festival 2020, which is being held at Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi.

Directed by Anwer Jafri and Sheema Kermani this play is based on a short story by Amar Jaleel and script for this play is written by Anwer Jafri. Cast includes Sheema Kermani, Mohammad Asif, Shazia Adnan, Anwaaruddin, Haris Khan, Rimsha Usman, Imran Khan, Bilal Qureshi, Adnan Haroon and special appearance by Bhura Lal as Bhagat Kuwar Ram.

This play ‘Mujh Mae Tou Moujood’ by Sheema Kermani is by far the best display of acting at Karachi Theatre Festival 2020. Acting coupled with khattak dance and live music adds more value to it. Direction and quality content on the mark too.

“Heer, the Project” – a whole new feminine view of an ancient classic

Karachi Theatre Festival 2020 (KTF’2020) started off with one of the best play of the season titled as “Heer, – the Project”. This play which was termed as ‘experimental play’ by organizers had Shabana Hassan, Hajra Yamin and Natalia Gul as lead cast and with them were senior actors like Zarqa Naz and Masooma Nadir. Kashif Hussain & Marya Saad completed the cast.

“Heer, the Project”, written and directed by Zain Ahmed is an experiment of retelling of the story of Heer Ranjha from the view point of Heer. It incorporates modern poetry, khattak-dance and live-music to retell the iconic love-tale from a feminist perspective.

All the five actors were spot on with their acting skills and didn’t miss a mark, but if you would want to chose a stand out performer of the evening than that has got to be Natalia Gul who with her crisp vocal tone delivered her dialogues to near perfection. Shabana Hassan with near-perfect acting skills was spot-on too. Her facial expressions and her body language was a treat to watch, but I’d say that she needs to work more on her dialogue delivery. Hajra Yamin’s only short coming was her soft vocal chords which I think weren’t powerful enough to theatre. Apart from that she did justice to her role in the play.

Khattak dance duet by Kashif Hussain & Mariya Saad also gelled with the theme of this feminist movement, but apart from duet, group-dance lacked synchronization and dance wasn’t choreographed that well. Only other issue faced was that of sound. sound issues resulted is blurred and missing of dialogues.

My review is “Heer, the Project” had something for every theatre lover. Starting off with excellent stage settings well versed content, direction, perfect acting (including facial-expressions, body-language & dialogue-deliveries), suitable-casting, live-music and khattak-dance. Did I miss anything?

It should be noted that due to the Corona pandemic, standard operating procedures (SOPs) have been put in place and were followed with spirit from our entry point to our seats. On entrance we are given masks and our hands were sanitized. Then we had to go through a temperature check and then were asked to proceed towards our seats. Seating also covered social distancing by leaving a seat vacant between all viewers. The fun-filled Karachi Theatre Festival 2020 (KTF’2020) will last till 23^rd October 2020.

Karachi Theatre Festival 2020 opens at Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi.

“In this age where people confined to TV, mobile and their homes, the efforts of the President Arts Council Muhammad Ahmad Shah to bring everyone together under one roof is commendable. Art is the greatest weapon in the world and for its promotion, Arts Council’s services are commendable and credit goes to Ahmed Shah” said Provincial Minister for Culture Sardar Ali Shah in his speech on the inauguration of the Karachi Theatre Festival 2020.

“The students of the first semester of Arts Council’s Theatre Academy have given an outstanding performance in street theatre and in view of their hard work and dedication, I would like to announce a prize of Rs. 200,000 as an incentive” Shah added.

The Minister of Culture further said that; “the citizens are tired of watching the same news every day and by normalising street theatre we can bring a new change”.

Speaking to the audience at the festival president Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi Mr. Mohammad Ahmed Shah said; “sadly the theatre culture could not flourish in Pakistan the way it should be. we have organised this theatre festival to keep the tradition of theatre alive”.

It should be noted that the this entertaining Karachi Theatre Festival consists of 24 exciting new theatre plays, performances, interesting discussions, debated and 3 interactive workshops.

Further Ahmed Shah said that; “the artists of the theatre academy of the Arts Council will perform a street theatre every day. People have been confined to their homes for six months we cannot deprive them of happiness”.

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will be followed strictly throughout the festival. One show will be staged twice each day. Viewers will be allowed to sit in the hall with the gap of one seat.

On the occasion theatre practitioner of Arts Council’s Theatre Academy, Afreen Sehar said that; “the Street theatre is the oldest form of theatre and back then it was used to express the vision of society”.

The annual festival began with the street theatre play ‘Safar’ directed by Afreen Sahar. Later, the play ‘Heer’ by Zain Ahmed was performed on stage.

Khattak Dancers performing during inaugural play ‘Heer’ by Zain Ahmed.

Khattak Dancers performing during inaugural play ‘Heer’ by Zain Ahmed.

Schedule of Karachi Theatre Festival 2020.