LAHORE – Punjab Lok Rahs’ play ‘Neelay Da Aswaar’ enthralled audiences at the National College of Arts (NCA) on Saturday.
The two-day theatre festival started at the NCA with enthusiasm since a large number of students and teachers from different institutes of the City gathered at the prestigious institution of art.
‘Neelay Da Aswaar’ (The Rider of Blue Horse), written by Muhammad Safdar Meer, is about fears and insecurities associated with ‘possessions’. ‘Neelay Da Aswaar’ is the title of Raja Rasalu (the Fakir) free from all possessions. The play depicts the passage of Fakir Rasalu through a town on the bank of river Chandan.
The town depicted in the play is ruled by a Dharami Raja, who is blind with traditions and belief and submission. Once the town had no walls, but he ordered people to build a palace with high towers to show his grandeur and power.
He encircled his people in walls. They were made of bricks and stones. Now everyone has ‘possession’ according to their status. Possessions give birth to fears, fear of losing them. Fears give shape to beliefs. To protect their possessions, every year during the full moon spring night, they sacrifice their daughters at the altar of unseen gods. These possessions have turned them into ‘shadows’ they are slaves of possessions and the Raja is among them.
The Fakir Rasalu, who has consciously dispossessed himself, is their only hope to erase their fears, to liberate them. Through ‘Neelay Da Aswaar’ Punjab Lok Rahs engaged the audience in the self-exploring process of identifying their fears, possessions and finding the ultimate human freedom of a ‘being’: freedom from possessions and from walls.
The play has been directed by Qaisar Abbas and acted by Faizan Rasheed, Sobia Zaidi, Mudassar Hussain, Muhammad Waqas, Warda Gill, Noran Gill, Seher Maqsood, and Adnan Ansar.
The other play that will be performed on Sunday (today) at the same venue is ‘Uperli Manzil’ (The Upper Floor). The play is an old radio play by the eminent Punjabi writer Kartar Singh Duggal. ‘Uperli Manzil; is a psycho drama. Its locale is the upper floor of a house. The play is an emotional and psychic journey of a character. He suspects his wife, her loyalty. In his words, she is having an affair with their neighbour, an army officer. After fifteen years of married life together with two kids, this is an unbearable situation for him. He is in anguish, he cries, weeps and flows into the stream of unconsciousness about their past. 
The play is produced by Punjab Lok Rahs and Sawang, the performing arts society of University of the Punjab. It is directed by Qaisar Abbas and acted by Adnan Ansar. The sounds have been designed by Sobia Zaidi and Faiz Rasool.