Thrissur, Sunday, December 27, 2009: Two years before man landed on moon, a Pakistani writer, Ghulam Abbas, wrote a story predicting the landing.

In the satire, the hero was not an American, but a Pakistani, Captain Adam Khan, a 35-year-old officer with the Pakistan Air Force. Ajoka Theatre from Pakistan, led by Shahid Nadeem, staged a theatrical adaptation of Abbas’ story at the Second International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK-2009).

Abbas was a fierce critic of ultra conservative religious attitudes. “A more powerful satire on the dangers of religious fundamentalism I have not read,” wrote Khushwant Singh. The satire is important mainly because it predicted the ‘Islamisation’ and ‘Arabisation’ of Pakistan, mullah rule and State-sponsored obscurantism.

Leaders, statesmen and scientists gather at the roof-top garden of 71-storey Hotel Mohenjodaro to watch a message from Captain Adam Khan as he lands on moon: “I have landed safely. All Praise to Allah…”

That was one small step for man. But one giant leap backwards for the country. Because in a small town, about 100 miles from Karachi, a mullah termed the achievement satanic: “I have just heard that some Pakistani has landed on moon. May there be a curse on him. God’s privacy has been violated.”

Viewers who expect subtle handling of the subject may be a tad disappointed. With an actor reading aloud selections from Abbas’ story, multimedia projection of visuals in the background and loud song and dance, the treatment was consciously gross.

If the visuals screened on the background were avoided, it would not have affected the play one bit. But for visuals of Captain Khan’s message from the moon, the others are not justified.

Even these could have been given the go-by because in Abbas’ story it is a live radio message. The lapses do not diminish the socio-cultural importance of a Pakistani play being staged on Indian soil and the significance of the issues it raises. Its attack on clericalism is courageous and effective.

For a while, let us forget aesthetic dynamics. When it fulfils a social role, drama sometimes may not be clothed in pure art.