REPORT
Did the Faiz International
Festival live up to the legend
it celebrates?
L
egends like Tahira Syed, Tina Sani and veteran
Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah enthralled Lahore along with upcoming singing sensations Ali
Sethi and, from across the border, Sonam Kalra. What
brought them all to one place? The Faiz International
Festival. The first edition of the Faiz International Festival concluded this Sunday; the four-day event at Alhamra, The Mall and Faletti's Hotel boasted of a line-up
of distinguished speakers, stellar performers and some
very exciting topics for discussion. Not only this, but literary and political talk sessions, a mushaira, dance performances, book launches, theatre and puppetry workshops and Punjabi plays were also part of this diverse
festival, organised by the Faiz Foundation Trust in collaboration with the Lahore Arts Council. But the festival
plan wasn’t the only thing that was diverse. The audience was too: from children under 10 to senior citizens,
they were all there.
Day 1 and day 2: Getting off to a slow start
Despite this, the festival did display some teething problems. The first day, Nov 19, did not have much to offer except ceremonial inaugural speeches and a play
by Ajoke Theatre, Rozan-i-Zindan Se. The second day
kicked off with a keynote address by Urdu novelist and
critic Shamsur Rehman Faruqi. The programme for the
rest of the day had some exciting sessions to look forward to, including Tahira Syed and S.M. Zafar discussing
‘Faiz and Malika Pukhraj’ with Arshad Mehmood; ‘Novel
ka Fun’ with Mustansar Husain Tarar and Ayub Khawar;
Intizar Husain in conversation with Asif Farrukhi; a tribute to Pakistani women political and social activists by
some mighty women including Faiz’s daughter Salima
Hashmi, Zahida Hina, Khawar Mumtaz, Fehmida Riaz,
Mariam Ortt-Saeed and Dr Fouzia Saeed who all shared
their stories of struggle; and a Punjabi play, Chog Kusumbay Di, by Najm Hosain Syed and directed by Huma
Safdar; among others.
Also part of the second day's line-up was a discussion
on a book, Gaata Rahe Mera Dil: 50 Classic Hindi Film
Songs, by Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal, with
Bhattacharjee as a panellist and Mira Hashmi and Ali
Aftab Saeed as the moderators. Looking at this in the
schedule would excite an R.D. Burman fan beyond
anything, but what one got mostly was some of Pancham’s songs — something that could easily have been
done at home. It would have been nice if the moderators had asked the author questions related to the book
and his research, or to give an us insight into Pancham
the composer.Naeema Butt’s Pehlaj Theatre also held a
workshop the same day on ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’.
9 | BOOM