Anwar Maqsood highlights issues plaguing Pakistan in his stage plays. He’s not afraid to name names and call spades spades, using his literary license to grill with such aplomb that those politicians not included in his plays might even complain about being left out.
The play ‘Dharna’ is of course not as edgy as a real, live dharna, but it provides comic relief from the need to attending live ones.
PLUS: ‘Dharna’ has excellent caricatures of the self-important, verbose Imran Khan; the self-titled and not-so-Islamic ‘Maulana Diesel’, and poor Baby Bhutto who is a soft target for those who want to mock politicians but won’t risk it with anyone more threatening than a young boy. The deep-throated, menacing bullfrog voice impersonation of the caller from London is stellar.
MINUS: ‘Dharna’ does not show any dharna; it revolves around a political talk show. Go figure. The script isn’t meaty enough. The long-drawn out conflicts between the producer, host and guests become repetitive and tedious after the first couple of times. The ‘gori’ impression is cringe-inducing. The flighty women, male-female interactions and crude innuendos are same-old, same-old.
And I do wish scriptwriters can start offering some solutions to the conflicts and issues they portray, instead of ending on a sob, a prayer and a wish! It’s as frustrating as an anti-climax can get. A great opportunity is lost when so many hundreds of people go home taking with them only the feeling of hopelessness and helplessness. If scriptwriters can create awareness of an issue, maybe they also have the power to plant the seed for its resolution.
Images from https://www.facebook.com/events/1509586762625746/
No comments:
Post a Comment