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East meets east
Is a grand culmination to the series of programmes held to celebrate 50 years of friendship between Pakistan and Japan, an Urdu stage play titled Pacific in the courtyard was performed recently before a packed audience. Organized by the Japan Cultural Centre in collaboration with the Hamdard Foundation, the play was written and directed by Japan and Pakistan’s blue-eyed grand dame, Fatima Suraiya Bajia and proved to be an apt representation of the friendship between the two countries.
Before the play took off, the chief guest, the minister for excise and taxation Abdul Rauf Siddiqui who was standing in for the Governor of Sindh, Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad, presented his speech. The minister’s inadvertently hilarious speech, first in English and then in Urdu, had the audience in fits far more than the play itself.
The curtains rose to Pacific in the courtyard, a story revolving around a Pakistani family comprising a domineering mother, Naushaba Begum (Salma Zafar); sweet-natured father, Waseem (Shakeel); older son, Zahid (Tahir Kazmi) and younger son, Sajid (Sajid Sanwal), not to forget the old servant Meeru bhai (Jamshed Ansari). Sajid has recently gotten married to his maternal aunt’s daughter, Shazia (Muzna Ibrahim) and is on an extended honeymoon in Hunza, much to Naushaba’s chagrin. Meanwhile, Zahid, divorced from a maternal cousin and settled in Japan, calls to inform his father that he is returning to Pakistan with a Japanese wife, Niharo (Sonya Rehman).
All hell breaks loose once Naushaba learns of the news. She is determined not to accept the Japanese bride and is in fact in the process of finalizing an alliance for her son with someone else. Her live-in sister Dilara apa (Tammana) ignites the situation further by poisoning Naushaba’s mind against her older daughter-in-law. Meanwhile, the apple of Naushaba’s eye, Shazia, has returned with Sajid from her honeymoon after intensive shopping for her boutique, which she is adamant on opening. When she faces opposition from her mother-in-law, she threatens to move out.
Niharo, on the other hand, turns out to be a model daughter-in-law, with all the family values of the East oozing out of her. She is understanding, sweet, forgiving and caring and enthusiastically executes domestic chores. And she speaks fluent Urdu. While Shazia struts about in trousers and shirt, she wears shalwar kameez. It is only a matter of time before Naushaba realizes how much she had misjudged her and turns over a new leaf.
Written especially by Bajia to promote an understanding of the similarities in the culture of the two countries, the play had its high and low moments. One felt that the earlier scenes, dominated by seasoned artists, lacked the punch and smooth delivery that was evident once the younger lot appeared. Perhaps the lines had not been rehearsed by the elders as they had been by the younger ones, for there was no fumbling in their dialogue delivery. Particularly worth mentioning are the performances by Muzna and Sonya who managed to hold their own in front of a highly experienced cast.
One must also commend Bajia’s efforts to educate our society by her subtle references to women being the worst enemies of women, and her condemnation of mothers who are willing to break their sons’ homes rather than accept their daughters-in-law. The reference to the devastation of Hiroshima was also pertinent, with the world at the brink of another chemical war.
The set remained the same throughout, but was elaborate and meticulously designed. Music provided by Javed Allah Ditta was also appropriate and pleasing to the ears, though sometimes loud The Japanese must surely have been very happy with the end product.
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