Theatre review: Chacha Chakkan
National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) may not seem to be a place where children would get entertained, but through Bachpan Ke Rung, their first children’s theatre festival, they have proved many wrong. What better play to entertain young minds than the classic Chacha Chakkan Ne Tasveer Taangi, penned by the founder of Urdu drama, Imtiaz Ali Taj.
Chacha Chakkan may not be an original character — he was an inspired version of Jerome K Jerome’s creation Uncle Podger — but we can all relate to him. He can be the forgetful father, the overconfident uncle or the luckless friend we meet every now and then, and that’s why he has been around for so long, entertaining the audience.
Director Zarqa Naz must be commended for bringing the character to life so that the youth of today can update themselves with characters like him, and he brought the house down with his antics.
How Farhan Alam, the actor who plays Chacha Chakkan, makes everything into a marathon of disasters is what makes this play so loveable for both the young and the old. He doesn’t look eccentric in person, but it is the way he gets things done that make you believe that he is crazy.