KARACHI: No: it’s a mad, and world is not a reference to a Hollywood film but a play that was put up on Friday as part of the National Academy of Performing Arts’ (Napa) laughter festival. It’s titled Kya Aap Pagal Hain, and is roughly translates as ‘Are you mad?’ Directed by Aqeel Ahmed, the romantic farce, its makers call it so, was also staged on Saturday.

Let’s talk about the storyline first. Kya Aap Pagal Hain tells the tale of a young man Naqi (Farhan Alam), the nephew of an overbearing Nawab (M Samhan). The Nawab has a daughter Mehru (Tehreem Shafeeq). The Nawab wants his daughter to get married to Naqi. But Mehru is not interested in the hook-up because she is in love with Dr Zaki (Kashif Hussain). Naqi, on the other hand, is crazy about Nawab’s maid Dilara (Shabana Hasan). In fact, Naqi and Dilara are married and no one knows about it.

Zaki tries to look for ways to get Mehru’s hand in marriage. An incident provides him with that opportunity when he gets to know that Naqi has been involved in a car accident, causing an old lady to land in a hospital. Naqi also tells him about his marriage to Dilara. Zaki makes a plan to get Naqi out of trouble. He gives him the advice to act like an infant faking mental regression. This is the point which propels the play. Dilara becomes part of the plan. But it is not easy for her husband to act like a 12-month old baby. Both Zaki and Dilara try and teach him how to do that, and in the process some hilarious sequences unfold.

The situation gets a bit complex when the local councilor Jamal Shah (Syed Jameel) comes in to investigate the matter. He doubts Naqi’s condition. He calls in a professional nurse (Areeba Khan) to properly examine the patient, so the conflict in the play takes a logical shape.

Kya Aap Pagal Hain is driven by strong performances from Farhan Alam, Kashif Hussain and Shabana Hasan. They keep the momentum of the plot going. Each time Farhan makes a silly move or Kashif pokes fun at him or Shabana tries to tutor him in the art of behaving like a toddler, the audience laughs heartily. Farhan Alam is a hard working actor. He is a bit of an unsung Napa graduate. He gives, or tries to give, his 100 per cent to whatever role he plays. And this was also evident on Friday.

The rest of the cast does a fine job as well; however, there are moments in the play where the energy dips a little because of them. Perhaps their second go on Saturday did not have that issue.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2018