As quoted by the Tlism website, “This was to be the first ever Festival of its kind taking place in Karachi” and I so wanted to check out what that hype was about. I thought that since we were facing such disheartening circumstances and apprehension for our future it could be a breath of fresh air to go and check out this so called “truly unique and enthralling week of exciting and magical entertainment”. And frankly speaking, I really wanted to unwind after watching the gruesome parades and speeches about the Judiciary Restoration and the Long March (not that I oppose it at all, I was just overly introspective of the whole act J )
This Festival was basically a retrospective of some of our most acclaimed and well-loved theatrical productions, under the commandment of Sheema Kermani.
The play that I ‘accidently’ chose to watch was “Uss Bewafa Key Sheher Mein” (first performed under the flagship of Tlism in 1999). Accidental I say because I had never planned to catch this particular one, I wanted to go for “Birgees Kadar ka Kummba” but somehow never got the time to snap it. My friend and I were going out for a bite that night and decided in the midway to drop by just to make sure that we had ‘really missed it’. So we drove to the Arts Council de Karachi to kill the eleventh hour and found loads of parked cars, bringing obvious speculation that the play must have raised its curtains by then. Nonetheless, we thought we were late by a jiffy so we went for it, bought the tickets and surprisingly got the best-view, unclaimed “reserved” seats right in the 3rd row from the front and got free goodies as well J Our lucky stars were really shining that night J
The play “Uss Bewafa Ke Sheher Mein” was an adaptation in Minglish, of Somerset Maugham’s ‘The Constant Wife’, this witty and hilarious comedy brings to life the story of a seemingly docile housewife who decides to pay back her philandering husband, that too, in kind! The star cast comprised of Dr Mervyn Hosain, Shehnaz Ismail, Aamir Masood, Sheema Kermani and my favourite Arjumand Rahim.
The play was not more than a Roundabout Theatre. You know, the genre with straight plays, all with satisfyingly full casts of actors dressed to the nines, detailed sets (not so rich in this particular one) and dialogue crackling with witticisms. Three, four acts and an intermission, each with a situation designed to effectively bring down the curtain, was the norm.
“Uss Bewafa Ke Sheher Mein”, the story unfolds in the elegant drawing room of Wafaa (Sheema Kermani) and her surgeon husband, (Dr Mervyn Hosain) who appear to have been blissfully married for fifteen plus years and enjoy their upper crust life style. But there would be no play if the Wafaa’s charmed life were quite as rosy as it seems, so no sooner does the curtain rise than the truth about their marriage comes to light as Wafaa sister (Lubna) and her mother (Wafaa) discuss the pros and cons of telling Wafaa that her husband has been having an affair. To make this betrayal doubly shocking as well as socially embarrassing, the other woman is Wafaa’s best friend (Arjumand Rahim). As the perfect marriage is something of a masquerade, so Wafaa’s unawareness about what’s been happening. Despite broad hints from her outraged sister she is insistently and cheerfully blind-eyed about the affair. What’s more, when confronted by Arjumand Rahim ‘s jealous husband (Aamir Masood) she saves the day with an alibi for the lovers.
Sheema Kermani tapped into her fine sense for comedy as Wafaa, the Constant Wife. Dr Mervyn Hosain brought enough likability to the inconstant husband to avoid the risk of his coming across as either a buffoon or a villain. Shehnaz Ismail was a delightfully cynical, status quo endorsing dowager mother. Arjumand Rahim was ideally cast as miss ditzy and Aamir Masood made the most of his short but droll part as her cuckolded husband.
Actually, the entire play was constructed on the word constant for the original English version- which was Wafaa in our Minglish case- and from the name of its heroine comes the underlying theme of marriage as a constant in our lives, but one in which the partners must constantly adapt to changing expectations and situations (including inconstancy).
Karachi’s non-seasonal theatergoers, with a rickety taste for live-acts and lavish staging obviously forgave the slow spots when the sparkling interchanges lost their fizz and were in danger of being drowned in overly drawn-out discussions. To my utter surprise, every generation was widely represented in the audience throughout the theatre. It was a House-Full performance and if I’m not wrong, fairly around 500 representatives of literally all ages were really keeping up with the play. There was a family sitting right behind us and they had an eleven-ish year old with his supposedly grand-mum, both keeping up with the play, as they munched to their Family packs of the “Party Biscuits” we got as goodies.
And looking at the full house I thought, that this play was probably most untempting act to the masses, as compared to the fairly large contribution to the stage that was possible in Karachi Arts Council, and still it appealed a full house. It’s sad to see that not as much “a constant presence” as similar works within this genre occur all over our Karachi City, as often as they should. Given the enthusiasm of the audience at the Tlism and other festivals that I have attended, that may well change – in fact it should change and I can see it changing. I’m sure some of the Arts-starved idlers out in Karachi are probably rummaging through the Events directory on Facebook as I post this review.
Keep Enjoying, Be Happy J
Firebird's Blog 