KARACHI: One of the noteworthy traditions that the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) set some years back was to have a young directors’ festival to showcase on an annual basis the talent of those who have either freshly graduated from the academy or are still part of it as pupils.

It works well on two counts: one, the event highlights the girls and boys who excel in their pursuit to becoming theatre practitioners; two, in a manner of speaking, it indicates how Napa itself is doing in terms of imparting training to its students.

This year’s Young Directors Festival kicked off with an Urdu version of Indian playwright Badal Sircar’s play Evam Indrajit directed by Babar Ali. In this year’s edition, there are a total of five dramas, each of which will run for two days.

Evam Indrajit is not an easy play to execute as a director because of its somewhat convoluted plot. It has an absurd storyline embedded with questions that oscillate between being overtly existential and covertly moral. This means that a considerable variety of ‘life experiences’ for those who are involved in telling the story is of great importance, which, as a youngster one may not have. It is in this sense that Babar Ali should be commended. He picked a script that first and foremost requires a passionate approach to the demanding world of theatre.

This year’s edition contains five dramas, each of which will run for two days

The play has a writer (Mujtaba Rizvi) at its narrator, who, when proceedings begin, is struggling to write a story. The normalcy of his life is underlined by his typical mother (Manal Siddiqui); and the fecundity of his imagination comes to the fore when he thinks of a girl Manasi (Raana Kazmi) and envisages four characters led by the protagonist Indrajit or Nirmal (Syed Arsalan), Amal (Waqas Akhter), Vimal (Ramis Munir) and Kamal (Ameed Akber). What follows is a cyclical process of contemplating life’s harsh, monotonous patterns exacerbated by the normalness of the characters.

Evam Indrajit is a decent, watchable effort when one takes into account the newness of the individuals associated with its production. In art, the word ‘verisimilitude’ is often used. It means ‘to appear true’. To give the art of acting some verisimilitude, the ability to empathise with the role one’s playing, effective voice projection, and the habit of reading — among other things — are of the utmost importance. This is where Manal Siddiqui, who has very few scenes in the play, leaves a lasting impression with her performance.

PS: Napa is a professional institute. One remembers that in the past prior to the first performance at a festival or even before any single play the academy would provide the audience with leaflets/brochures to inform them about the cast and crew participating in the production. It was a little disappointing to see there was no such thing available on the opening day of the Young Directors Fest. Is complacency setting in?

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2023