Comedy of errors

theatre

Have you ever wondered how life would look like if we laugh over things which are not funny? This is an absurd and challenging thing to do, but we often feel like mixing humour with a genuine problem. We laugh at our miseries, be satirical during a discussion and often criticise our surroundings in a comic way. But what if someone uses comedy as a tool to bring about a positive change in the society? There has been a trend of putting comic relief in poems, writings, songs or even theatre plays in English literature. Later on this trend was also seen in Urdu and other literatures. And this is what we witnessed at Karachi’s theatre play ‘Sir Kalam’ at Arts Council, Karachi.

At the opening of the play, top celebrities and socialites were present including renowned actors and models such as Ahad Raza Mir, Asif Raza Mir, Muzna Ebarhim, Syed Tipu Sharif, Danish Nawaz, Naeem Haque, Hania Aamir, Kasim Khan and others.

After a successful run in Islamabad, The Insane Productions performed ‘Sir Kalam’ in Karachi, a dark comedy play by Saiban Khaliq, produced by ISPR. The stars include Shamayale Khattak, Aymen Shuja Zuberi, Sardar Osman, Zainab Raja, Tayyab Anwar, Sarmad Bashir, Saiban Khaliq and Wasiq Ali Zia. The plot of ‘Sir Kalam’ revolves around a famous playwright, Mansoor Kalam, who shares the secret ‘formula’ of becoming a successful dramatist in Pakistan. He shares it by giving examples of three of his award winning screenplays. While he shares this technique, he is confronted by an obsessed fan who makes Mansoor Kalam wonder; ‘Can a story, change someone’s life?’ Precisely, this is a story of a commercial playwright, who writes meaningless and overly glamorized stories that only serve the purpose of minting money.

Over all the play managed to gauge people’s interest to a great extent, and proved to be a success.