Lahore’s commercial theatre, which thrives on racy dialogues and suggestive dances, is perhaps the most unnoticed platform of gender discrimination.

Here, women are exploited in the name of comedy in play after play and the mindset it develops through such productions ultimately results in violence against women, and the impression that women should be subjugated comes across loud and clear.

This particular brand of theatre is the outcome of the void created in the ’80s after a crackdown on Lahore’s red light area (Heera Mandi). The dearth of alternative theatre activity and the lack of government support in the sector helped turn this form of entertainment into the degraded mess it is today.

For many in this city, nothing is more attractive than spending a night watching commercial stage plays with dare-bare dances featuring garishly made-up women in skimpy outfits. Vulgar dialogues with not-so subtle double entendres are often greeted here with laughter, while the mujra-like dances on Punjabi film songs give rise to applause and wolf whistles.

Over the years, Lahore’s commercial theatre has suffered tremendous degradation resulting in the low-brow medium it has become today that focuses on obscene dialogues and risqué performances

Commercial stage plays started to make their presence felt in Lahore during the ’80s. Celebrated and respected stage performers such as Naheed Khanum, Amanullah, Mastana, Suhail Ahmed and Baboo Baral are rightly considered to be the pioneers. Back in those days scripts were strictly followed, unlike these days where the script is only referred to on the censor day of a commercial stage play. Later, explicit dialogues are introduced by the artistes during extempore performances.

Film and stage actor Afzaal Ahmed upgraded commercial theatre activity in ’90s when he staged Janam Janam Ki Maeli Chaddar at Tamaseel Theatre. The production was integrated with dances and the storyline set a new trend in theatre.

At present, Lahore has five private theatres — Tamaseel, Mehfil, Alfalah Shalimar and Alhamra (a private theatre near Baidian). The Lahore Arts Council also provides space to commercial theatre activity round the year by providing the Alhamra venue on Mall Road. These theatres cater to a packed audience on Fridays and Saturdays, with ticket sales available in the black market on Eid days and other festive occasions.

Drawing comparisons between film and commercial theatre tickets yields very interesting results. Lahore’s most steeply priced film ticket can be bought at the high-tech IMAX Theatre at Cine Star for Rs1,000 per person. A commercial theatre ticket can cost anywhere from Rs500-2,000 for regular shows. On festive occasions the price can shoot up to Rs5,000. When film and stage actress Nargis used to perform on stage, the ticket prices soared to Rs7,000 per person in black on Eid days.

Just by taking a close look at the fees of ‘A category’ commercial stage artistes alone, one can imagine how much money is being generated in this sector. The ‘A category’ female stage performers charge anywhere between Rs0.4 to Rs0.5 million and among them are Khushboo, Nida Chaudhry and Saima Khan. Their male counterparts charge about Rs0.3 million. An emerging trend in commercial theatre is that mainstream male artistes are now also being increasingly taken on as directors. An example is Naseem Vicky who charges about Rs0.6 to Rs0.7 million to act in and direct stage plays.

“Vulgarity is just not vulgar dances, it’s all about developing attitudes. It’s a strange kind of a theatre where women are insulted and taken for granted. Such an insult of women develops anti-women attitudes that further leads to violence against them.” — Ajoka’s Madeeha Gauhar

The ‘A category’ male artistes these days are Nasir Chinoti, Iftakahar Tahukar, Sakhawat Naz, Zafari Khan and Tariq Teddy. According to sources in the entertainment circles, two theatres in Lahore Alhamra and Shalimar located near Bhatta Chowk are known to stage titillating dance performances, specially Alhamra theatre (at Bhatta Chowk) which doesn’t stage plays but dances only. On any given day, a commercial theatre play features four to five such dances.

Of the three Punjab government departments that monitor commercial theatre, none have been able to rein in such activities, according to sources in entertainment circles. The Punjab Arts Council is responsible for vetting the scripts of the plays, the District Coordination Officers monitor the plays and the Home Department takes action against producers, directors, artistes and theatre owners in the case of violations.

When Images on Sunday (IoS) approached Naheed Khanum, a veteran writer, producer and director of commercial theatre, to comment on the present-day scenario, she said, “It is a fact that commercial theatre has gone too vulgar now. The three monitoring departments of commercial theatre are merely fulfilling formality. In order to regulate and effectively monitor all commercial stage activity, there needs to be a team of veteran theatre artistes instead that of the monitoring teams of government departments.” She says that 75 per cent of all dances in commercial theatre are just plain mujras. “The Lahore Arts Council should give an opportunity to veteran commercial theatre artistes to restage old, forgotten classic plays,” she added.

Madeeha Gauhar is the moving spirit behind Punjab’s most vibrant and active theatre group Ajoka, and has been working for the last 30 years on social issues and doing serious theatre. She says, “In the first place, I am all out against providing space to commercial theatre at Lahore Arts Council’s premises. Councils are not meant for it.

“Vulgarity is just not vulgar dances, it’s all about developing attitudes. It’s a strange kind of a theatre where women are insulted and taken for granted. Such an insult of women develops anti-women attitudes that further leads to violence against them.”

She said alternatives need to be introduced to replace such kind of theatre and gave an example in this regard. “In the ’80s, Punjabi language theatre started in Dehli where they used to stage low-brow shows with titles such as Halwa Suji da tay Maza Duji da. But it died its own death because there was alternative theatre there. The government should support upcoming theatre groups along with seasoned ones like Ajoka to stage more and more plays, specially at the arts councils,” added Ms Gauhar.

When contacted by IoS, the Executive Director Lahore Arts Council Captain (Retd) Atta Muhammad Khan said, “I joined the council a little over nine months ago. I have tried and been trying to bring about improvement in every segment, including theatre. I stopped commercial theatre here for some time to wipe out the element of vulgarity, and now I have again given permission to hold theatre here only on the condition that plays would be based on Pakistan or other provinces showing national narrative of the country, the scripts will be strictly monitored and no dare-bare dances or vulgar dialogues will be tolerated. Those who want to stage plays under these conditions are welcomed by the council.”

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, June 28th, 2015

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