A review on Pakistani rom-com theatre play, Izhar-e-Ishq (2016). It was performed at NAPA’s basement.
+ Crew
- Directed by Taha Khan
- Costume Design & Production Design by Areeba Aqeel Burney
+ Note
Taha Khan is an actor and appeared in the NAPA play Guri Ka Ghar by Zain Ahmed. He has also worked in various short films among which three of them are registered on the international website IMDB.com
+ Full Cast
1) Mazhar Suleman Noorani as Shaukat Sahab
2) Sarosh Baloch as Begum Shaukat
3) Faryal Noushad as Hina
4) Taha Khan as Faizan
5) Anas Bin Uzair as Rizwan
6) Umair Rafiq as Amjad
7) Syed Arsalan as Bakht
+ Plot
It is about a retired govt. officer, Shaukat Sahib, his wife Begum Shaukat with their two sons Rizwan & Faizan and a daughter Hina. Shaukat sahib’s nephew Amjad is coming to Pakistan from USA for a business trip while Mrs. Shaukat desperately wants him to marry her daughter. She is willing to go to any lengths for this mission.
+ High Points
i – Umair Rafiq, Taha Khan and Sarosh Baloch performances were most decent.
ii – The screenplay was overall mild with some satisfactory humor in between fair punch lines.
iii – The costumes of the characters were sound.
iv – The slow-motion sequence with Celine Deion fame song ‘My Heart Will Be Go On’ in the end was a nice call.
+ Low Points
i – The BIGGEST flaw of the play is that the performance by most of the cast members, especially by Anas Bin Uzair was WAY ‘Over the Top’. He desperately needed a tranquilizer to stop him but it was already too late. Those actors who act comic thinking since they are in a comedy play, therefore they need to look and comic are literally committing SUICIDE on their hard work. Let the situation, the humorous punch lines do the rest of its job and NOT TO ACT COMIC in front of audience.
Rather than blaming the actors, it is the sole fault of the director. An experienced director would know well that in a comedy play, the actors are told to be IN THEIR CHARACTERS ONLY. Neither the director nor the actors realized that the way they were performing is strictly prohibited to do especially in a comedy play. Hence instead of giving great performances in front of the audience, they were actually OVER ACTING.
ii – Faryal Noushad performance was the weakest; kindly work on your acting skills.
iii – If this play was actually written for the children, then I could understand why this level of humor.
iv – The character of Faizan was written poorly, just to make space for one more character.
v – On some scenes, Begum Shaukat walked slowly while in other scenes she walked swiftly in highly energetic manner like a young female.
+ Overall
Izhar-e-Ishq is desperate stuff; Skip it unless you love childish humor.
Rate: 2.50 out of 5 stars
Mr. Khan's Reviews 