KARACHI: It would be safe to claim that in terms of execution, two plays performed on Tuesday at Napa’s Young Directors’ Festival were, thus far, head and shoulders above the rest. The first was the Sindhi adaptation of Sarmad Sehbai’s oft-staged drama Dark Room and the second was the immortal romantic folk tale of Heer Ranjha inspired by the poet Kaifi Azmi’s version of it.

Dark Room, directed by Maqbool, in the typical 1970s idealist mode (which lasted till the late ’80s in our neck of the woods) touches upon the issue of individuals’ freedom in society and how societal norms ensnare the nonconformist in the web of economic necessities. At the heart of it are four friends Siddique (Paras Masroor), Jamshed (Umair Bhutto), Zafar (Nadir Hussain) and Kamran (Haider Qadri). They come from varied backgrounds and have different dispositions. What’s common is the set of problems that they are faced with. Siddique is more of a realist; he treats the material world and its sense of morality with pragmatism. It is Zafar who does not want to adhere to what the world dictates to him. His ideas of liberation and freedom are individualistic, and expediency is something that he does not think much about. This results in a tussle and long, impassioned debates on morality among the friends, creating intense and feverish moments.

Translated into Sindhi by Bedil Masroor, Dark Room was an impressive offering. In fact, it was far more impactful compared to the one produced in Urdu at the Arts Council in November 2016 at another festival. This happened largely due to power-packed performances from all the actors and the director’s ability to interpret the text the way it merited.

Zarqa Naz directed Heer Ranjha. One has to hand it to her for making sure that she had the right backdrop to depict the locale where the story takes place. So the green props were a good (visual) start; and as they say, well begun is half done. Attention was also paid to lighting that suited each shifting sequence. And the actors did not disappoint either.

Apart from the performers, there’s a narrator (Ravi — Akbar Ladhani) in the story. He tells the audience that it’s not advisable from someone from Takht Hazara to visit the city of Jhang. Ranjha (Saad Zameer Fareedi) is a gawala (milkman) from Takht Hazara. During a visit to Jhang, and in a colourful festive environment, he falls head over heels in love with Heer (Marya Saad Fareedi). The feeling soon becomes mutual. Unfortunately, Heer’s uncle Qaidu (Saddam Hussain) gets wind of the situation. He is a one-legged, out-and-out villain who only wants to do bad in the world in order to vent his frustration and avenge his physical disability. He poisons the ears of Heer’s parents (Abdullah Alnoor and Zarqa Naz) making them take the wrong decision. And when Qaidu’s vileness is exposed, things go from sad to tragic.

Heer Ranjha had most of the ingredients that a worthy theatre production should have: drama, a riot of colour, music. This was validated by the audience’s reception at the end of the play. They liked it, and rightly so. If the director wishes to do it again, here’s a tiny nugget of advice: the dance moves need to be choreographed. The rest is fine.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2017