Huma Yusuf

Home of the surreptitious find, Karachi’s infamously amorphous, infinitely anachronistic market is commonly known as Lunda Bazaar. But for those who live and work in this shopper’s El Dorado…

“I think it’s sensational to perform in front of a live audience despite the fear of making a mistake without the benefit of a retake.”

This article first appeared in The Herald, April 2006.

What do you think happens when 15 journalists from countries as diverse as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Chile, Algeria, Egypt, Germany, England, Brazil, Benin, Chad, India, Colombia, South Africa, Lebanon and France get together? They become show-offs. At a recent European Commission-sponsored gathering in Brussels, Belgium, reporters exaggerated the adversity and absurdity borne of their work, much like veterans comparing war wounds, punks tallying body piercings or mistresses flaunting diamonds. The trick to being a good braggart, it seemed, was to feign nonchalance so casual that it would be more appropriate to describe it with the French term laissez-faire.

 Pomp and Circumstance

This article first appeared in The Herald, March 2006.

It’s a proud day for Pakistan when Karachi’s glitterati and internationally renowned celebrities gather for the launch of a children’s bok. In a nation where reading is becoming an endangered habit, the hype surrounding Mo’s Star, a fable about a penguin who befriends a star, is encouraging. Authored by Mahnaz Malik, a London-based international investmen lawyer, Mo’s Star began as a joke but soon morphed into a mission. Thanks to Mahnaz’s relentless, persuasive and enthusiastic personality, Mo’s Star quickly became an international project – written by a Pakistani, illustrated by American art professor Cora Lyn Deibler, translated into Urdu by activist poet Fahmida Riaz, and complemented by an audio version directed by Oscar-nominated director Michael Radford and preformed by Joseph Fiennes.

In Pakistan, Mo’s Star has achieved the impossible by dissolving corporate boundaries. Under the umbrelly of Project Reaching for the Stars, the book will be published by the Oxford University Press which, thanks to the support of Unileverm will donate all sale proceeds to The Citizens Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that has built 230 primary and secondary schools nationwide. Much like her penguinprotaganist, Mahnaz dreamed the impossible, pitching big ideas for her little book. Indeed, her prose and philanthropic vision so inspired the likes of Bollywood star Vidya Balan and Radford that they flew into Karachi to support the initiative. Over to them.

 Dream Come True

This article first appeared in The Herald, May 2005.

Before that harsh indictment could register, the taxi driver explained why he believed Dubai to be an unparalleled den of sin. “Only a few days ago, two local women got into my cab. They seemed to be good women, hijab-wearing and all. I could tell that they were rich because their scarves were sequined and they wore lots of scent, you know, the foreign type. They wanted to go to Burjuman for shopping,. But suddenly, right here in the back seat, they started doing the most filthy, filthy, dirty dirty things with each other. Two women! With each other! One even took her hijab off,” he gasped, the last detail practically sending him into a tailspin.

 Dubai Debauchery

This article first appeared in The Herald, May 2005.

Vetrans of the OGS stage, including Mervyn Hosein, Maya Ismail, Raaheen Mani, Umbereen Beg-Mirza and Saman Shamsie were back in form, faking British accents, spilling things all over themselves and repeatedly falling onstage. Indeed, Niran Rehman and Tahir Munir did wonders by giving the production a bit of a face-lift simply by being newcomers. But with Marriana Karim directing as per tradition, they too blended with the production, keeping it formulaic.

Of course, for those who have never seen an OGS production, Key for Two was a racy, racous, romping treat thanks mainly to Karim’s slick directing, a classy set and well-timed one-liners. In fact, many members of the audience found themselves in rib-aching hysterics on April 29, the opening night of the play.

 Key for Two

This article first appeared in The Herald, April 2005.Tehrik-e-Niswan’s latest production “Zikr-e-Naushunida” or “Discussing the Unheeded”, staged at the Pak-American Cultural center from March 9 to 14, was an experimental theatre performance that used a range of media to articulate the experience of war from a feminist perspective. Modern, feminist, political, symbolic and layered, the play boasted all the attributed that make less academically-inclined audiences squeamish. No doubt, some viewers felt as if they were watching an on-stage version of an NGO’s annual report. A few audience members even left the auditorium complaining that the production was too “heavy”, an unmitigated “downer”.Voices of War

This article first appeared in The Friday Times (January 9-15, 2004).Internationally 2003 was downright depressing. The usual dose of war, famine, and natural disaster was compounded by the worldwide SARS scare and the Declaration of Impotence by most international organizations. Pakistan had an embarrassing run, what with bimonthly accusations of us stealing nuclear technology to every international ruffian in the scene. Our menopausal relationship with India continued, replete with mood swings, hot flushes, and cravings. But at home, in Karachi, the year panned out quite well. For the most part. The most obvious glitch had to be the pungent de-spiriting of the Tasman Spirit. The worst environmental disaster in the history of Pakistan, the oil spill was a true test of the vigor of Karachiites, forced us to look within ourselves, and gave us a new self-awareness. We learnt that the city’s eve-teasers really can’t survive without Clifton beach; we discovered the first case of a collective-urban-attention-deficit-disorder; we found that we have an immense capacity to forgive, for once the KPT apologetically decorated the Netty Jetty flyover with pretty fairy lights, we dutifully forgot about the big bad oil spill.Pipe Dreams

This article first appeared in The Friday Times (January 2-8, 2004).The feature films covered a wide spectrum, both in the subject matter explored and the genres used. Experimental student productions were showcased on the same screens as entries from international cinema bigwigs Micheal Moore, Pooja Bhatt and Anand Patwardhan. To maintain the veneer of a sufficiently-artsy, requisitely-indignant festival there was a healthy dose of standard festival fare: feminism, refugees, existentialism, war. But the expected were vastly outweighed by the unusual. The best shorts were almost disconcerting int heir extraordinary choice of subject: Adnan Malik’s Bijli tackled the jarring life of Fayaaz Bijli, a Muslim drag queen in Manhatan; Khurram and Adeel Suhawardy’s campy short Desperate Measures spoofed The Matrix, desi-style; Shooting Rhymes and Cutting Verses was an innovative series of shorts that visually rendered contemporary British poetry (all hail the metaphor), and the touching Nadah.In other instances, Biblical references, stylized images of a music box, and guttural mispronunciations of long German words enhanced the eclecticism of the assortment of shorts. Unfortunately, Hasan Zaidi’s Just Talk was a disappointing offering from a filmmaker of his caliber. While we got a real mouthful of Vaneeza Ahmed (talk about visual titillation), we didn’t see any of the insights and ironies that made Raat Chali Hai Jhoom Kay such a treat. Of course, these varied films nuggets only made the festival-goer long for more, for if there’s anything that turns a bunch of consecutive film screenings into a bona fide film festival, it’s the shorts. No one’s ever going to kick back on a Saturday night with a rented DVD of shorts, so this sampling of fun snippets added a grand authenticity to the whole venture.Movie On Up

This article first appeared in The Herald, November 2004.Sharahbeel’s script remained largely faithful to Gaston Leroux’s tale of a specter haunting the Paris Opera House and harboring an obsession with its latest singing sensation. Indeed, one barely notices that the director took the liberty of speckling his dialogue with lines lifted from Madonna’s early hits and introducing slapstick humor enabled by a character in drag. Similarly, Webber’s original score was convincingly lip-synched – if such a thing is possible – and interspersed smoothly within the play’s dialogue. The only missing number was the unabashedly stagey “Masquerade” which would have lent the production an extra dose of oomph and pizzazz. But even without a fin de siècle ball scene, the play was visually splendid.Phantastic