In Pakistan, we have two different types of theatre, the more acceptable one for the middle class and the other, not so acceptable one, perhaps for businessmen and the lower classes. It is the second one, which, of course, I want to write about. We call it “Live Punjabi Theatre”, the subject matter is indecent and almost always unscripted. Most actors are sex workers or pimps. These plays have vulgar dances and cheap sexual humour. Yet, the actors working in it are hardworking, salt-of-the-earth type individuals, mostly locals who provide excellent and inexpensive entertainment to the masses. My brother always found a lot of humanity and felt a strange sort of connection with them. For instance, in this video below, you see Nargis (A star of Punjabi theatre), wearing the golden dress surrounded by men. These men are cracking cheap jokes with her. Yet, there is something emboldening about her that you would not find in a middle class Pakistani woman. Often, once the recording ends, the actress will do a live striptease, and on most occasions, the Police raids the place, and so on. Yet, this is the only means of living for these people, and thousands of people in Pakistan rely on these stage dramas as their only source of income.
One day, he forwarded me a real-life video of a famous stage actor, Rangeela (literal meaning colourful), getting beaten up by his wife, as she openly catches him cheating with his co-worker. My brother could not contain his laughter; he was rolling on the floor. As I rang him back to discuss this video, he said, Did you see how his mistress tried to hide her affair? But yes, indeed, as the wife takes off her shoes and begins beating them both, Rangeela asks for the cameras to stop recording, the mistress in the black dress steps in and tries to cover up by saying, “Sister, he is like my brother, we are just artists and more open-minded” My brother and I laughed out loud. Gradually, the other actors backstage step in and try to talk some sense into him. “You have children, what are you doing?” But the beating continues. Recently, due to my personal life drama, my brother and I often bond over this video and laugh. He always compares me to the girl who is trying to cover up but gets beaten up, and then, of course, the man who is left manhandled by his friends and everyone else.
Jokes aside, this video is another proof that human impulses and human beings are the same all over the world. For centuries, people have divided the world between the civilized and uncivilized. Social media has brought us all together by showing that what hurts us and how we react to difficult situations is the same. At the end of the day, we are all the same.