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If you are done with comedy plays and want some thrills then Haseen — A Gamble of Honour might intrigue you this winter. Starting from the first week of December, the play aims to challenge patriarchal structures in society.

Written by Omar Ghanchi and produced by Velo Motion Picture, the play will mark the directorial debut of Hadi Bin Arshad who also plays the main lead as Dilawar along with Amtul Baweja, the prominent face of the play Baraf Paani and Kis Ki Topi Kis K Sar.

What is it about?

While talking to Images, Hadi said that Haseen blends romance with drama as it focuses on the life of a village girl named Haseen (played by Amtul Baweja) and how her life changes with one bad gamble.

The play dwells on rural life: Haseen is born to Makhdoom, a farmer and an unsuccessful gambler who repeatedly loses his possessions to a rich land owner called Raees. After losing everything he has, Makhdoom bets his daughter in a bid to win everything back... but once again he loses and has to give his daughter away to Raees.

But miraculously Raees’ son, Dilawar, who has feelings for Haseen from a very young age, tries to take control of the situation. He is lucky enough that Haseen too reciprocates his feelings. What happens next? Can't tell you, that'd give the whole thing away!

The dichotomy of rural vs urban:

Being his directorial debut, Hadi bin Arshad has high hopes from the play: “Not many people try to stage a dramatic play yet we’re bringing back the concept of serious theatre. We do have elements of comedy and romance which will make the audience laugh out loud but I'm confident that my team will leave a mark and the audience will leave the auditorium in astonishment.”

He also lauded the script penned by Omar Ghanchi: “I don’t think Omar could’ve written it any better than this. One thing I love about the play is that the characters are incredibly well defined which made my work easier as I am directing the play for the first time and it was an amazing experience. “

Of breaking stereotypes and fighting patriarchy:

Omar told that he took 3 months to finish the script of Haseen and after showing it to his close friends in the theatre industry, Haseen's script has gotten appreciation more than ever.

“I spend two months in Rohri, an area near Sukkhur to write this script as the play revolves around the life of rural areas and it was important to witness the situation of those areas myself,” Omar claimed.

He also stressed on the stereotypical roles of daughters in our society, “My basic inspiration for the play was daughters, as I strongly believe that daughters are not a burden and they should be given the same respect and honor that sons get."

The cast includes Hadi bin Arshad, Amtul Baweja, Sumair Saleem, Nabeel A khan, Kaleem Ghouri, Balaj Khan, Umar Sardar and Maryam Kazi.

With tickets priced at Rs1000, the play will be staged at Art Council, Karachi from December 2 to 6.