Retelling an oft-told romantic tale requires a great deal of creative flair to keep its charm undiminished. When Baz Luhrmann set out to make Romeo and Juliet on celluloid, he was absolutely clear about two things: one, he would not tamper with the Shakespearean text despite the contemporary setting and two, music would be used as a character and not as an essential film accompaniment. Prince’s When Doves Cry still haunts music lovers with its choirish sound. The same holds true for the world of stage.

The romance between Heer and Ranjha has been revisited on stage and the silver screen on quite a few occasions. So it was not easy for Zain Ahmed, the artistic director at the National Academy of Performing Arts’ (Napa) Repertory Theatre, to put together Heer Ranjha by drawing on the 1970 Indian film directed by Chetan Anand whose dialogue was written in verse by eminent Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi.

In films, the camera creates visual depth. Zain Ahmed did it on stage (essentially thought of as an actor’s medium) in the form of a musical in Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad from Sept 7-17 as part of a fund-raising activity for The Citizens Foundation (TCF). This implied that he relied on music more than anything else, which showed in the actors’ patchy performances and a truncated script that didn’t allow the conflict to create the kind of tension that one expects from such a known story. But luckily the music was superlative and carried the play without stumbling on too many obstacles. Nigel Bobby, a young Napa graduate, composed the music for Heer Ranjha. We shall come to him later. First, the story in a nutshell.

The strongest element of the play Heer Ranjha, recently staged by the Napa Repertory Theatre, was its music

Ranjha (Hassan Raza) belongs to Takht Hazara. He travels to Jhang to attend a wedding and sees Heer (Sanam Saeed). Love happens and Heer also responds with the same passion. The problem is that the there is animosity between the two villages they come from, a fact exploited by Heer’s uncle Qaidu (Meesam Naqvi), especially when he senses that her parents (played by Arshad Mahmud and Samina Ahmed) are willing to let Heer do as she likes. Qaidu keeps poisoning the parents’ ears and eventually succeeds in conjuring a tragic end.

Heer Ranjha is not a play that one would like to see more than once. The reason: it lacks the intensity that such a powerful folk tale necessitates. The set looks inadequate and the white sheets (in the Karachi version of the show) spread out on the floor almost had one actor get tangled in them. Ranjha’s family’s viewpoint is hard to ascertain and Sanam Saeed’s vocals leave much to be desired. But all of these shortcomings are covered up by brilliant music.

Heer Ranjha is not a play that one would like to see more than once. The reason: it lacks the intensity that such a powerful folk tale necessitates. The set looks inadequate and the white sheets spread out on the floor almost had one actor get tangled in them.

The play has a fine combination of original tracks, songs from the 1970 Indian film and Punjabi folk music, seamlessly woven into the narrative. The use of just two instruments — guitar and tabla — has the audience’s undivided attention and never sounds insufficient. There are moments when the bol of the tabla complement the actors’ moves. Then Bobby’s own rendition of the famous Tufail Niazi song Main Nai Jaana Khairyaan De Naal befittingly marks the most poignant moment in the story.

Bobby is a graduate of Napa’s music department headed by Nafees Ahmed. He has been performing regularly at events put up by the academy and got to direct two segments at a festival organised by the academy recently. It was Nafees Ahmed who recommended Bobby’s talent to Zain Ahmed when the idea for the play began to take shape.

“It was my first experience working with the theatre people,” says Bobby. “I was given a brief on it which was to sound contemporary and youth-oriented because we were also going to use old songs. Since I play the guitar myself, I began to make compositions and in 10 to 15 days I was able to see a structure. So I made the first track Sunn Mere Ranjhey, which I wrote myself. It was appreciated by my seniors.”

The young musician is all praise for the actors who are not ‘trained singers’ but contributed invaluably to the project. Hassan Raza can belt out an eastern tune but Sanam Saeed, according to him, has a ‘western accent.’ It made his job a bit tougher, especially for a song such as Do Dil Toote sung for the film by none other than Lata Mangeshkar.

Why use just two instruments? “It had to do with budget constraints,” explains Bobby. “Secondly, I have a nice equation with the guitarist Arsalan [who teaches at Napa]. We have been working together for the past few years. I thought he and I could make it work. Also, tabla player Sagar Veljee’s [third-year student at Napa] involvement worked well.”

Published in Dawn, ICON, September 17th, 2017