Even by reaching 30 minutes before the play started,
Even by reaching 30 minutes before the play started, we were not able to find any seats, the whole auditorium was packed with people. This is not new when it comes to the theatrical plays presented by Theatre Hub. However, the play that they presented this time, it could easily mean that for their next play they might have to arrange for a double sized auditorium than what they had this time.
Yeh Nizam Sakka kaun hai… the promo line of the play Nizaam Sakka… had made me think that this man is going to be some secret, veiled savior of people.. but what I saw was a skinny, fragile man lying on a charpai being beaten up by his wife, over murmuring another woman’s name in his dreams … And so, I braced myself for another hilarious journey with stomach aching fits, and laughter tears, exactly what the tradition of Theater Hub speaks about.
Nizam Sakka (Faheem Muzaffar) is an ordinary man living in the Mughal era, who earns his living by supplying water to the households of the area, but who also has once been told by a palmist that “he would be the King one day”, and this is a dream that keeps him looking ahead with hopes and ideas. Nizam’s wife, Naseeban (Hijab Tarique), and son Samsoo (Hamza Kamal), are two other characters who make his life even more complicated than it already is. Samsoo is in love with the only daughter, Ishrat (Farah Butt), of the village’s Chaudhary (Awadh Anwar), and he possesses an amusing talent of distorting the lyrics of a single song into various forms, every time ending up with a well-fitted to the situation stanza, creating roars of laughter among the audience.
The story line twists when the village, which is under the reign of the Mughal emperor Humayun (Ahsen Sohail), is attacked by the army of Sher Shah Suri. During this battle Humayun goes missing and Nizam finds him drowning in the river which passes by the village and saves the life of his emperor. Humayun promises Nizam reward for saving his life, once he gets back his throne and kingdom, and he leaves with Nizam his royal ring, as an identification mark that Nizam is the man who saved Humayun’s life.
In act two of the play, when Humayun is restored back to his imperialism and majesty, he calls for Nizam. After a long and extremely comical and hilarious debate over what Nizam wishes as his reward, Humayun makes Nizam King for one day. Just as the palmist had told Nizam, and just as Nizam had told the audience. Along with Nizam being the funniest possible emperor, there was another character, that of Royal comedian, “shahi maskhara” played by Abuzar Farrukh, and two other members of the King’s court, each of whom had their peculiar styles, one was a stammerer (Talha Javed), and other was a deaf (Hamza Shakil). These four characters made audience roll over their seats. One glance across the hall made me see many people wiping off tears from their eyes, and yet not being able to put a stop to their laughter.
Finally when the play came to an end, and actors were introduced to the crowd, audience had to stand up to give the superb actors a standing ovation. The crowd clapped as hard as they had laughed during the play which simply meant that Theater Hub had once again succeeded in putting up a wonderful and amazing play on board. This play has not only left an ending mark on audience but has also raised expectations from Theater Hub to an even greater level, with hopes that they would again come up with an extraordinary job and will, as always, surprise their audience with their immaculate work.
By Masooma Sherazi
