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In a different vein
Samiya Mumtaz is unaffected by the glamour of television. She has worked in two popular TV serials, Shahid Nadeem’s socio-political Zard dopeher and Haseena Moin’s historical play Tansen, but feels strongly that it is theatre which is her forte.
“Isn’t it a shame to deprive millions of people from your wonderful acting capabilities by restricting yourself to theatre, which does not have as wide an audience as television?” I ask.
“There is a lot of movement on stage and I can do a lot of stylized work, whereas television is restricting. Why limit your expressions to just the face, when the entire body can speak?” She asks. Besides, Samiya avoids using a lot of make-up, which is one of the prerequisites for television plays. Like any stage performer can tell, the spontaneous response from the audience is another great lure for her.
Samiya is totally enamoured by the way dance and music are entwined with play-acting, as well as the issues of social justice assiduously projected in Ajoka’s plays. When I ask this talented actress to list the plays she has worked in, she recalls her roles in Kari, Itt, Aik thi nani, Jum jum jeeway Jummanpura, Jhalli kitthay jaway, Dekh tamasha, Mara hua kutta, Lappad, Dhee rani and Bari. She started performing for Ajoka Theatre’s plays back in 1992.
Daughter of architect Kamil Khan Mumtaz and feminist activist and writer Khawar Mumtaz, Samiya was born in Karachi but has lived in Lahore. During our meeting, her cute three-year old son Hatim continues to seek her attention, but then engages himself in his own play. Since her son is still very young and she also works part-time for an NGO, Samiya finds it difficult to travel to the various cities where Ajoka regularly presents its performances. She was in Karachi recently for two shows of Bari, a play organized in collaboration with WAR and the Working Group for Women (WGW) of the Aga Khan University. Karachi is a second home for her as several family members live here. Samiya’s brilliant portrayal of the character Jamila, a prison inmate, had won accolades from the Karachi audience.
Some years ago, an article was printed in a local magazine about Samiya’s initiatives in organic farming and I wanted to know if she had continued with it. It was interesting to note how she juggled and balanced her many interests: classical dance, organic farming, women’s issues, acting, motherhood and ‘wifehood’ — if there was such a term in the English language!!
Samiya’s face glows as she talks about her farming experience. After she returned from the US in 1992, having completed her Master’s degree in Politics of Social Development from Mt. Holyoke College, she put into action her romantic ideas.
“I did not receive any lands on a platter, but my father encouraged me to make my dream a reality. Buying a plot of agricultural land, dealing with the patwarees, etc. was an experience in itself. We are a group of seven people who have invested in this plot. It is about half an hour’s drive from Lahore, close to the border area.”
Samiya had taken a course in agriculture at Mt. Holyoke, but since the developed world does mechanized, corporate farming, she did not really learn anything she could apply here. Nevertheless, she continued, with some hits and misses. Hatim’s arrival temporarily put some restrictions on her time, but she says she wants to get on with her farming once again.
She then related how, since her childhood days, she had travelled with her parents across the length and breadth of the country. Her father was researching for his book, Architecture in Pakistan, which was a pioneering study on the subject. She has nurtured her ideas of living on a farm ever since. At a more mature age, this took the shape of environmental consciousness; that organic farming and de-urbanization are perhaps the answers to our increasing problems.
“That was also my parents’ ‘you shouldn’t own a car’ period,” Samiya grins. Her father was teaching at the NCA in those days and came to work on a bicycle. “I used to be a bossy girl during my school days. I would snobbishly say that we didn’t own a television set, and that the paint in our house was peeling, etc. The leftist ideology of my parents perpetuated it; I guess it was more of a defence mechanism — the ‘hamaray ghar may tau aisa nahin hota’ attitude.”
Samiya started to learn to dance at the age of eight from Maharaj Kathak. Later, she learnt Bharatnatyam from Indu Mitha. In 1988 she went to Delhi for three months to train at the Aurubindu Ashram, where she also explored the beautiful Odissi dance. Her teacher for Odissi was Kiran Sehgal, daughter of Zohra Sehgal — the renowned nonagenarian actress. Zohra Sehgal and her equally well-known sister Uzra Butt — on this side of the border — are Samiyaiya’s great aunts.
“At age 18 I wanted to be a dancer. But seeing Kiran Sehgal’s obsession for it, I feared dance would engulf me. I wanted more from my life.”
As a child, Samiya regularly saw Ajoka’s plays with her parents. She once told Madeeha Gauhar that she was interested in acting, and she was soon invited to attend some workshops, which enabled her entry into Ajoka. In 1999 Samiya directed Saheb-i-Karamaat. For the past four or five years now, in order to hone new talent, some of the Ajoka actors have been encouraged to direct a new play.
“Theatre is a great addiction. When I began working with Ajoka I also learnt to speak Punjabi and Seraiki. Although I have always lived in Lahore, these languages did not come naturally to me. I do entire plays in Punjabi and Seraiki now. It is wonderful how some great relationships that cut across class lines have been formed within the Ajoka community,” explains Samiya.
She then narrates how in Dekh tamasha, the story of which is based on the blasphemy law, she opted to play a male role.
“There were to be three men in black. Hooded, symbolic, negative roles with huge movements. During the rehearsals, I told Madeeha that I wanted to do the kala (black/negative) role rather than the chitta (white/positive) one. Do you think I could ever do such interesting things on television?” Samiya asks smilingly.
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