KARACHI: The culmination of music, theatre and poetry marked the memorial service held at T2f on Thursday in remembrance of beloved feminist poet and activist Nasreen Anjum Bhatti, who passed away in January 2016. Two different performances were presented by Sangat, a feminist theatre and music group hailing from Lahore, with a similar thread running between the two — the need for social change in Pakistan.

Chog Kusambey Di, the first production, was a contemporary play by Punjabi poet and writer Najm Hosain Syed that takes its inspiration from a kafi by Bulleh Shah. The play highlighted the harsh realities of feudal politics which creates a vicious cycle to perpetuate the deeply ingrained class system and its resultant inequalities. Women suffer the most from these inequalities.

Incorporating a minimalistic vibe to the performance was an all-female cast that brought to the fore the metaphor, the red flower kusambey. With the kafi of Bulleh Shah being recited and sung at the start, women working in the fields and picking the flower could be seen, sharing anecdotes and then lamenting the manner in which their hours of hard work will be belittled by men more powerful than them.

Kusambey’s fiery colour has been considered an inspiration by many poets, across borders, and apart from Bulleh Shah, others who have dabbled in using it as a metaphor include Baba Farid, Shah Latif, and even Guru Nanak.

The director, Huma Safdar, spoke to Dawn about the significance of the kusambey in the performance. The red flower, she explained, is accessed only after the women walk long distances, and have to constantly wrestle with its long thorns while picking it.

“It looks bright and beautiful, which represents the passion of the women, but in use the colour fades very quickly. It is thus a symbol of a world which looks very attractive but in practice is empty and passionless.”

From Mian sahib, to Malik sahib, with the patwari a constant feature, the age-old struggle against the deeply engrained feudal system was brought to life in the urban centre of Karachi. Credit should be given to all the cast members who internalised the various roles they played. Also, all of the actors are only volunteers and are part of Sangat out of sheer love of literature.

The second performance was of Waris Shah’s Punjabi classic Heer. It was a travelogue of the main protagonist in which he leaves home and on his journey exposes and denounces worldly concepts. Through song, dance, mimes as well as dialogue, his path towards becoming more and more humanised was charted by the play, and the one constant on this journey was him sacrificing material things, in particular property.

Using Punjabi as the language of expression in the productions was a bold move, especially considering Sangat had decided to do a tour of Sindh, which included Karachi and Hyderabad among other cities. But for Safdar, this journey holds a lot of significance as it felt like crossing a “border”.

“We did question what language really means and the politics attached to it. This journey was more about disempowering ourselves and coming back to the very basics, rooting ourselves to the mitti,” she explained.

This presentation, she claimed, was thus “a deliberate attempt to make the statement that all peoples’ languages are the same in essence and there should be no biases.”

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2017