A mockery of psychoanalysis

The writer-director combo of Babar Jamal and Uzma Sabeen has been producing stage comedies for many years. In the last Karachi Theatre Festival, they came up with a farce titled ‘Dinner with Darling’ and it was a success. Those who watched that play would not easily forget the character of Zarqa Naz, who was a cook called at a house to prepare dinner but goes bonkers after consuming an alcoholic drink mistaking it for some fruit juice.

This time, Jamal and Sabeen came come up with a mockery of Freudian psychology in a play titled ‘Khawabon Ki Nautanki’ that was staged on Monday evening at the Arts Council of Pakistan main auditorium on the 26th day of the World Culture Festival.

Psychological theories have been a fertile ground for comedy. As they are not 100 per cent verifiable and as their proponents seem to exaggerate their veracity, they often attract comedy writers who make fun of their claims.

Khawabon Ki Nautanki reminded this reviewer of a humourous piece by Shafiqur Rehman, who described a couple who were living very happily until one of them got admission to a psychology degree programme, and that decision wrecked their marriage.

The main character here is Shireen (Zarqa Naz) who has spent quite a few happy years after marrying her husband Asad (Osama Ranjha), but now the family life is not happy anymore due to Shireen ever-growing interest in psychoanalysis. She has started taking classes on psychoanalysis from a doctor who is referred to multiple times but never shows up.

Obsessed with dreams and impulses that keep on finding new ways to emerge after being pushed back into the unconscious mind by the conscious mind, Shireen interprets every word uttered or action committed in her surroundings as a manifestation of the unconscious mind and attempts to decode the message hidden therein.

The poor husband has become sleepless because of Shireen waking him up during sound sleep just to know what he was dreaming so that she could decipher the unconscious mind’s message.

When Asad tells her of his dream in which he is carrying a fish that falls on the ground, she interprets it as a warning against air travel for a fish resembles an airplane and it falling on the ground signifying air crash. Against this backdrop, enters Shireen’s sister Huma (Alina Gulzar) who has come to her sister’s home for a visit.

Now Shireen has another victim on which she could thrust her idiotic interpretations of reality. She convinces her sister that the latter is actually not happy with her husband and feels satisfied with her married life only because she has repressed her true desires.

The rest of the play is about dramatic turns that lead to Shireen coming to her senses. They play generated laughter throughout. In that sense it was a success. However, it felt like it closed too soon as it lasted for less than an hour. The plot was hilarious and could have been easily expanded to ensure more even transitions of characters. There were just three actors who all performed well but it was Zarqa’s show who kept the audience engaged with her Shireen.