Students present annual play in style

ISLAMABAD—’Rung’ was performed by the students of Mazmoon-i-Shauq Primary school presented as their annual play this year, their first performance in Urdu.
An indeed rung rangeeli performance by children from ages 2 to 12, starting with the colours of the planets, the 7 colours of the rainbow, going on to the colours of the Nauratan, and Amir Khusro’s “Rung”. Beginning with a verse of Iqbals, lingering with Amir Khusro, there was then a quick run through to the Mughals, jumping to the Coca Cola generation and ending with Bulleh Shah! Quite a panorama of poets and Sufis!
Mazmoon-i-Shauq prides itself on being the only bilingual medium school in Pakistan, but in fact the play was not merely bilingual, but multilingual; children recited Persian poetry, English poetry and imagine! this is a school where the children have learnt about Dullah Bhatti-there was a hilarious Punjabi scene beautifully done in Punjabi. Little Sarah Hameed as Mai Luddi needs to be taken note of. Seven year old Harvinder Singh as Dullah Bhatti needed a bit more panache, but in his orange lacha, reading the famous limnes “Yay kaun kamna badshah” he quite stole our hearts away.
The main anchor the of the play in the first half was Amir Khusro. Done by Eireamhan, it presented a lovely and irreverent depiction of one of the most colourful characters from the Indian subcontinent. What for me was as delightful to see, as the play itself, was Kishwar Naheed and Iftikhar Arif sitting in the front row of this children’s performance, doing wah wah, as the children acted out familiar riddles and poetry and scenes from the life and lines of Amir Khusro, ending with the death of Nizamudin Aulia, and a poignant doha beautifully rendered by the voice of Ustad Ghulam Farid Nizami.
We saw Akbar, Jehangir, and Aurangzeb - at the same time accompanied by charming Gulbadan Begum, a powerful Noor Jehan, a regal Jodha Bai, even Mira Bai! (Does any other school teach about Mira Bai?) Even during the time of Amir Khusro, who insisted that he was gender sound-there was a colourful sprinkling of delightful little ladies.
Akbar’s Nauratan, each in a colour of the rainbow plus black and white, presented themselves. An interesting way to teach history! Then along with Mian Tansen, the children sang Raag Megh! What was amazing was the children using all sorts of theatre techniques with such verve and confidence - sitting in the audience ,exiting and entering through the audience, even chatting to the audience, asking them riddles!
The children performed yoga, a scene from Kalidas, an aerobics routine, a simple Kathak dance, they sang a qavali, a khayal, a hori, an English hymn. In this extraordinary show - partly extraordinary for the fact that this school performance was in Urdu done by children who were having a great time - it was disappointing that the sound system was really poor.
Given the care and thought that seems to have gone into the music, live singing, big ustads, Amir Khusro’s songs, and even Raag Megh. With the amount of effort that had been put in, a better sound system should have been in place.
Another weakness was the gaps between scenes. With a better sound system, and a more slick performance this show would have been no less than a professional performance, which is what we have come to expect from this small but extraordinary school.—Online