Karachi
Performing art used as a tool to promote a social cause is more than a museum experience.
Students of the Department of Psychology ( 3rd year) at Karachi University, under the supervision of assistant professor Farah Iqbal, teamed up with ‘Whistle Blowers’, a band of NAPA students, to perform a play on the university campus.
Inspired from Krishan Chander’s Jamun ka Pair, directed by Mansoor Ahmed Khan, the play, Bari Dair Ki Meherbaan Aatay Aatay, was staged to raise funds for flood victims, who are still going in bad shape.
The story revolved around a poet who got stuck under a tree, in front of a minister’s house. While he was fighting for his life the government staff kept delaying extending help to get him out of it.
The application of removing the tree goes from one department to the other, however, after a stretch of time, when the permission of removing the tree arrives, the poet had already dies.
Bari Dair ki Meherbeen Aatay Aatay evokes the irony of the bureaucratic system that dwells on procrastination and addresses the issue when it has already been too late.
The theatre was followed by a panel discussion on the same issue with government agencies apparently waiting for a misery to strike through before paying any heed to solve it.
The panel members included, Sania Saeed, VJ Salman Saqib also known as Mani, anchorperson Paras Masroor, Riaz Kamlani (Vice President, The Citizen’s Foundation), Naeem Janjua (Educationist), Dr Burfat (renowned sociologist) and Haider Rizvi (Consultant Clinical Psychologist).
Asserting on a selfless and dedicated attitude towards reforming society, Sania Saeed said, ‘It’s high time we make our individual choices to contribute in order to bring about the much needed change.’
Paras Masroor, supporting the idea, stressed: “Actors in any society are not only the most influential agents of change but also teachers for the rest, whose footsteps people consciously and subconsciously follow.”
The ingenious the after performance successfully managed to set new trends in a society where the importance of performing arts is routinely downplayed.
It also vividly proved that art today happens to be the most instrumental source to arouse social concern and awareness.