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The Lyceum takes on current affairs
KARACHI, Nov 11, 2007: We are going to drag you out of your house, chop you to pieces, feed them to the dogs, and we'll be damned if we don't... This is the last warning. This was part of the dialogue from the English play 'Kaamla', adapted from an Indian novel translated by Priya Adarkar and directed by Onaissa Imtisal and Amal Sarwar of The Lyceum Theatre group (MAD). The students put up their annual theatre performance at the PACC Saturday and its message was not lost on the audience at a time when the president has declared a State of Emergency.
The threatening phone calls are being made to Siddiqui (Fahad Sajid), who is portrayed initially as a successful, brave and outspoken journalist. Siddiqui is an idealist who buys Kaamla (Mariam Shakeel) from Cholistan for Rs 250 to prove in the media that the human trade still continues there. Siddiqui wishes to bring about a revolutionary change in Pakistani society which, he feels, is in decline.
However, it slowly becomes clear what Siddiqui's real intentions are and why he has brought Kaamla from Cholistan to champion human rights.
The Urdu play 'Main Tera Mehman', directed by the inimitable Yaseen Bizenjo and Najiha Bilal also took current affairs as its inspiration. It involves a dangerous criminal who escapes from prison and hides in the house of Shafqat Sahab (Haider Hasan). However, he is mistakenly recognised by Shafqat's wife Ruksana Begum (Hira Sajjad) as her nephew Faisal Kazmi who is supposed to arrive from the US to hold auditions for his upcoming film.
These characters are joined by Falana (Salman Haroon), their servant, Ina Meena Phika (Zarash Mubarak) and Chirri Mar (Hammad Zuberi) whose relentless sarcasm left the audience in splits. But then the truth about the thief is revealed when the real Faisal (Ahmed Aslam) comes to Pakistan, in search of "hungry and poor people" who he wants to film. Daily Times
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