This July Lahore saw some finest male actors come together
and perform a theatrical masterpiece, “ Khel jari hai” for five consecutive
days at Alhamra, hall2 under the banner of Theatre Hub.
The script was a translation of Rick abbot’s, “ Play on”
which revolved around the chaos that happens during rehearsals and how every time the actors progressed, the
writer of the script came up and spoiled everything.
I was lucky enough to see
the script beforehand and I am glad the script was edited to suit the needs of
the cast and audience. A lot of things that were missing in the script were
brought to the audience in a beautiful way.
The whole idea of the play was to perform something within a
performance. So every character was acting out two different characters. It was a gamble when the director, Talal ali
jan agreed on this script. It would have
been quite a flop if the actors wouldn’t have met the expectations to justify
the script.
Amazingly, Lahore saw
the Great Shah Fahad, Spectacular Faheem muzaffar, Eice Khattana, Dawar Lashari
,Abuzar Farrukh Bilal Syed and Zain Qazi performing on one stage. If you follow
the theatrical scene in Lahore I am sure when you would have come to know about
the cast of Khel jari hai, you wouldn’t have thought twice before buying the
ticket.
Theatre hub brought
forward some new faces on the stage this year, Alee Hassan Shah and Daniyal
Nasir who had an amazing stage presence and were able to create their own mark
even though they were surrounded by well-established theatrical actors. Alee
Hassan Shah was such a favorite of the crowd and is now working on his new project.
Alina Hamid ( Mona) ,
Minhail Zaman( Naveen) and Aniqa Mumtaz(Sana) were overshadowed by energetic
male actors but they did know how to gracefully justify their characters to the
audience. Each girl was wonderful and they have so much talent that am sure we would see them on the stage again.
I was wondering while watching the play that most probably
the audience won’t be able to understand what’s going on because it was a play
within a play but the actors kept the audience glued to the seats even though
there were some parts that were a drag and could have been omitted.
The
director knew about all these things and thus I am glad he added a live band
that consisted of Ahsan Sohail, Muneeb, Hassan and Nauman. They were
Outstanding! Eice khattana glamorous that he usually is in reality, did not fail to
impress the audience with his drumming and acting. He surely knows how to make the audience go
wild. Azeem Hamid choreographed dances in the play that were not only neat but
also well performed by the actors. Dawar lashari was a blast of energy and with
those curly hairs he knew how to set the stage on fire.
People who have seen the play would not fail to agree that
the cast of Khel jari hai was superB in acting. I am so glad that the play didn’t
talk about political issues or revolutions but gave the audience a good
entertainment in exchange for Rs.150.
They really need to put some money on the Play programs
otherwise the stage looked fine. I wouldn’t have mind if they had more props
around. The set design was beautiful and
very creative. Hats off to the creative head behind it. Lights were really good
and so were the costumes. Ahmer zaman khan who was heading the production and
also the marketing of the play. He looked pretty calm while walking on the steps of the
hall. Theatre hub has managed to maintain a strong fan base now. There is
nothing stopping them now. The play managed to have a house-full for three days and the rest days were less crowded . However, The response of the audience has been favorable and
not many have criticized it.
Moreover, I had seen Some untoward incident happening to Aniqa Mumtaz ( sana) during her performance but hats off when she gave her best even though there she was hit by a fake pistol while performing.
Moreover, I had seen Some untoward incident happening to Aniqa Mumtaz ( sana) during her performance but hats off when she gave her best even though there she was hit by a fake pistol while performing.
Amazing work Theatre hub!
3.75/5
