KARACHI: Attempts have been made in the past to translate Moliere’s comedy ITartuffeI into Urdu simply because the plot of the play is readily identifiable in a society where imposters can be found a dime a dozen. Theatre group Tehreek-i-Niswan, for example, has done that to a fair degree of success. The Repertory Theatre of the National Academy of Performing Arts’ crack at the same play under the title Baba Jalinoos in the academy’s in-house facility on Thursday evening, too, was a laudable effort.

The setting of the play, directed by Fawad Khan, is not unfamiliar. It is the 1970s. Azam (Farhan Alam) is a God-fearing man. His gullibility vis-à-vis what’s virtuous and what’s sinful makes him accept a seemingly religious person, Baba Jalinoos (Zakiullah), to stay at his place for good. Not just that, he invests implicit trust in Baba and hangs on to every word he says. Baba, on the other hand, is an imposter. Apart from being a liar, he also has a lecherous streak in him. He cunningly says yes to Azam’s idea that he should marry his daughter Marium (Irum Bashir) and at the same time he doesn’t miss out on any opportunity to make a pass at Azam’s wife (Mehvish Farooqui). Azam, being blinded by his faith in Baba, fails to see the real face of his fraudulent guru.

The first scene of the drama puts things into perspective as Azam’s mother (Asma Mundrawala) tries to convince some members of her family that Baba is a pious person, worthy of being respected. Her view is contested by Azam’s son (Hasan Raza), his wife, brother-in-law (Hammad Siddique) and maid (Muzeena Malik). The discussion also leads to the disclosure that Marium is in love with Waleed (Kaleem Ghori), a relationship that Azam once gave his consent to but now wants her daughter to wed Baba. The scenes that follow reveal the two-faced Baba and the family’s struggle to unmask him.

IBaba JalinoosI has a lot going in its favour. First and foremost it is the irreverent attitude with which the subject is being dealt with.

The Urdu translation by Khalid Ahmed works well with Fawad Khan’s penchant for improvisation. Then it is always nice to see when hard work goes into fleshing out characters. Each character in the play has a job description, and each seems to understand it loud and clear, especially Muzeena Malik as the maid Marjeena (a couple of her fumbles could be overlooked because it’s early on-stage days). Similarly, one doesn’t know whether Hasan Raza as Azam’s son Danish in real life has a mild lisp or was asked to do so while delivering his lines. If he was asked to do so, it sounded good. And the fact that Kaleem Ghori drew applause and laughter the moment he entered stage was no surprise: the mannerisms that he as Waleed has adopted, not to mention his deflated Billy Ocean look, are quite funny. However, Zakiullah’s Baba came across as a farcical illustration of a character who even without all the mad gestures that he makes could have easily nailed his job. He was good but did just a shade more than required.

Since the play succeeds in its endavour to engage the audience, it wouldn’t be dishonest (unlike Baba) to suggest that the plain set-design and dim lighting defeats the purpose of the whole exercise. Also, the lengthening shadows of actors (though one is aware it’s not easy to get rid of them) were a trifle disconcerting.

IBaba JalinoosI will run till Sept 20.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2015

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