KARACHI, Nov 5: There is no better sight than seeing children, schoolchildren at that, getting totally involved in a theatre performance, cheering and applauding each move that the actors make and acknowledging every punch-line that they utter.

Similar scenes were witnessed at a heartwarming performance of a Grips Theatre play ‘Saazish Ki Wajah Se Khail Multavi’ (game postponed because of a conspiracy) at the Goethe Institut Karachi on Monday evening.

When the curtain goes up, four friends Bachal (Khaled Anam), Murad (Yaseen Bizenjo), Gullee (Faiza Kazi) and Nikki (Aysha Sheikh) are seen playing ludo. The four children come from Sindhi, Balochi, Pushtun and Punjabi backgrounds, representing the four provinces. They are unable to decide which game to play and after an interesting banter agree on playing the game of cricket. The problem is that they neither have the equipment nor a place to play the game in. Each promises to make necessary arrangements.

Nikki talks her father Chaudhry Sahib (Khalifa Sajeeruddin) into buying a ball, Gullee coaxes her mother (Hena Ameed) to get her the bat and Murad persuades his grandfather (Saif) to get him a set of wickets. Bachal asks his sister (Maria Hosein) to arrange for a ground to play the game in and she suggests the park near their apartments. Each senior member of the family has his or her delightful quirks, thoroughly enjoyed by the audience mainly comprising students of S.M.B Fatima Jinnah Girls School, Garden.

As the four friends begin to play the game, a scheming elder of the neighbourhood, Khussar Phussar (Ameed Riaz) enters and stops them from disturbing the peace of the locality. He has a vested interest and wants children to stay away from the land so that he can do business there. Khussar Phussar comes up with the age-old idea of divide and rule to achieve his goal. He goes to every elder member of the children’s families and poisons their ear suggesting their neighbours badmouth them and do not hold them in high esteem. This infuriates everybody and differences between families emerge. They stop their children from meeting their friends.

Bachal is the first one to realize that Khussar Phussar is up to no good and is actually conspiring against the families so that they remain divided. He tries to put sense into his friends’ minds. Coincidentally all of them overhear Khussar Phussar making business plans with a cable operator, assuring him that the children would not disturb their business. This encourages the kids to reunite and they secretly resume playing cricket. While batting Bachal strokes the ball and it reaches Khussar Phussar’s home. He comes out and says he will not give the ball back to them.

At that moment the captain of the Pakistan cricket team (Kashif) enters stage and asks Khussar Phussar to let the children play. He obliges.

Saazish Ki Wajah Se Khail Multawi, written by Imran Aslam, was a marked by fine performances from all the actors, especially Aysha Sheikh and Ameed Riaz. The songs, written and composed by Khaled Anam, were catchy and provided that necessary zest to the whole show. Sajeeruddin was hilarious as Chaudhry Sahib and each time he went on with his unending cricket-stated Lahori stories, it tickled the young audience’s funny bones.

The girls cheered, occasionally too much for the actors’ liking, and clapped not only when the liked a sequence but also at the end of every scene.

The script had quite a few contemporary references. For example, when Murad’s Baloch grandfather believes Khussar Phussar’s conspiracy theories, he speaks about losing his heart and going into the mountains.

Issues such as suicide bombing and water distribution were also touched on in a lighter vein.

The play will run for two more days, Nov 6 and Nov 8.