SAHIWAL: Najm Hosain Syed’s play, Rajni, was performed by Sangat theatre group of Huma Safdar on the lawns of the Government Postgraduate College on Thursday in connection with the International Mother Language Day (Feb 21).

Samiya Mumtaz, Abuzar, Ubaid and Hussain Khusro were prominent among the actors.

Rajni was set in 12th and 13rd century of Punjab showed King Balban time when Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia met a robber, named Rajni. It showed a relationship between a guru and his followers.

The play raised the question whether a follower just venerated his guru and cherished all the objects associated with him or whether he tried to emulate the life, beliefs and practices of the guru.

It highlighted the importance of education and criticised it’s negative aspect of dividing the people between the ‘educated’ and ‘uneducated’ classes. It also underlined the difference between the official Darbar of the establishment and the Darbar of a fakir, the first collected the revenue under duress to increase wealth of the rich while other attracted voluntary donations to distribute among the needy.

Huma Safdar, talking to Dawn, said the play exposed the contrast between two world views, one creating hierarchies while the other an ‘interdependent whole’.

Dr Mumtaz Ahmed, the college principal, told the audience that performing arts in form of street plays was one of the most creative expressions of art. Prof Bilal Bajwa said “Watching live street theatre is itself a festivity of folk wisdom and folk love”.

Those who spoke on the occasion included Dr Riaz Hamdani, director Sahiwal Art Council, Abdur Razzaq and Aqeel Ashfaq.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2020