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Shah
Sharabeel's Play for Justice
His Bigness
Fasi Zaka
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Shah
Sharabeel is the doyen of the intelligentsia in Islamabad,
and to be more precise, the doyen of the CDA. He directs plays
that often mix the original performance with a lot of contemporary
source material (like music soundtracks). His persona is often
discussed as much as his plays; he is an impresario with strong
presence. And from people who have worked under his direction,
an absolute tyrant of perfectionism.
I have only ever been to one of his plays, and I didn't enjoy
it much (but that's also because I have always found plays
to be a poor substitute of filmed drama-a personal bias).
But the buying public is sold on his work, the revues run
packed.
But within the grand narrative of the tempestuous director
focused on his art, often ignored is that his bread and butter
is mini-golf. Al Falah mini-golf in Lahore to be exact.
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With
Shah Sharabeel's close ties to the CDA, last year he was awarded a
contract to take a publically designated park that was free to the
public and change it into a for profit mini-golf center. It was the
then Chief Justice Mohammed Iftikhar Chaudrey who took action to undo
the illegal decision of the CDA.
At the opening of his most recent play for the chattering classes
of Islamabad, Bombay Dreams, Shah Sharabeel took stage and opportunistically
jibed at the now "non-functional" Chief Justice, Iftikhar
Chaudrey.
Not only was it in bad taste, it was inopportune. People come to buy
his plays, not him. Shah |
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| Sharabeel
is not yet P. T. Barnum, though frankly Sharabeel has become a brand
name, his is the one name that can manage to sell a show. |
Staging plays
is a competitive business in Islamabad, you get the CDAs cash, money
from the Telecoms and on top of that even more from those paying for
seats. The jealousy is intense, and the different players cloister
claustrophobically together for a share of the same pie.
Why would someone like Sharabeel lose his bearings to presume that
there would be sympathy from the public over his failure to procure
government land the public uses for private profit? And on top of
that, why would Sharabeel presume people would clap to his claptrap
on the travesty of law being wrought upon the Chief Justice?
After all evolutionary principles presume that only the smartest make
it on top of the food chain. Shah Sharabeel is definitely sitting
pretty high up there after managing to revive the performance of plays.
This behavioral inhibition is called being "disinhibited",
from a study by scientists at Berkeley on the reckless behavior of
the rich and successful. The rich tend to focus on outcomes, rather
than the behaviors that create those outcomes, which is why they tend
to ignore the people around them. On top of that, they tend to take
risks more than the ordinary man who looks at the cost benefit of
any action. This risk addiction comes from the patterned behavior
from prior risks that were taken to get people to their current positions
of comfort and distinction.
Of course, that's just a fancy explanation for what could have been
simple stupidity, or a sudden bout of callousness borne of arrogance
on stage. But for all the showmanship behind the plays, it's sad to
see that this art form is now being crafted at the helm of the establishment.
There is no other country that finds such a convergence of resources,
both of government and business, into the staging of plays.
When will Ajoka reap these benefits? |
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