Claire Pamment's incisive research on comic performance in Pakistan, with specific reference to the Bhānd, is an invaluable contribution to the scant scholarship on theatre and performance in the country. In a quest to seek alternative representations of comic performance in Pakistan, Pamment's research led her to the Bhānd, largely recognized in Pakistan's province of Punjab as ‘slapstick-wielding male comic pairs’ (p. 3), who employ witty-repartee methods and often perform during wedding celebrations. Focusing her research on the Pakistani Punjabi Bhānd, Pamment discovers its vibrant presence in the marginalized space of the popular urban Punjabi theatre, where it not only challenges perceptions that limit it to a regressive folk form, but also proves its vitality as a continuously growing form that engages with contemporary culture through varied approaches. The author brings a fresh reading to the Bhānd practice, which is adversely impacted by a lack of acknowledgement in academic texts and is further marginalized by cultural discrimination. The author debunks relegations of the Bhānd practice to an obsolete folk form, demonstrating how its influence stretches from popular urban Punjabi theatre to non-traditional performances, television and newer media.
The book is structured in two parts and spread over six chapters, four of which are expansions on previously published papers by Pamment. The first part traces the genealogy of the Bhānd to find connections with the Brahmin jester of Sanskrit drama (p. 70) and the Sufi wise fool in popular culture (p. 74), demonstrating, through a thorough analysis of both, that this fusion has fluidly shaped the work of the Bhānd. Importantly, this section offers a detailed discussion on the structure of the Bhānd form, allowing the reader to make links with the historical and cultural influences that resonate in its contemporary practice. The second part of the book contextualizes the contemporary Bhānd form through its various manifestations in wedding performances, the popular Punjabi theatre and its appearance more recently in satellite television shows.
Pamment elucidates how the male comic duo of the Ranga (the authoritarian figure) and the Bhigla (the ‘radical clown’) (p. 6) in the Bhānd form draw from the model of historical jesters and Bhānds, and challenge social hierarchies and class boundaries in multifarious iterations. In aligning themselves with the lowest social order, Bhānd performers confront authority, using their marginalized status to question contemporary social structures. As entertainers at weddings, comedians in the popular Punjabi theatre and commentators in satellite television shows, they expose and challenge power structures in these arenas to generate social, political and cultural transformation.
In illuminating this dynamic form, Pamment has succeeded in drawing attention to a practice that has long been dismissed as vulgar and unworthy of a place in the history of theatre in Pakistan. Through case studies of plays, she demonstrates how the Ranga–Bhigla duo challenge sociopolitical concerns. Significantly, the marginalized role of women in the popular urban Punjabi theatre, where they remain extraneous to the narrative and provide entertainment through dance, is challenged through the example of the dancer Nargis. Shifting comfortably between appearances of the seductive dancer and the ‘tomboy’ (p. 144), Nargis teased the male gaze, and in playing the masculine, acquired the ‘bighla-type’ roles (p. 144) to create parity with her male colleagues.
In arguing that the Bhānd mode continues to reinvent itself in contemporary contexts, Pamment has positioned the form and its practitioners as significant players in the everyday. By demonstrating the Bhānd’s presence in popular television shows such as Hasb-e-Haal (According to the Situation) and Khabarnaak (Dangerous News) (p. 173), and its influence in the news media, Pamment has proven its vitality as a ‘living tradition’ (p. 6) that continues to advance and enrich itself.
This book is immersive for the uninitiated reader, and expands the subject for scholars in the field of performance in Pakistan. A supporting glossary of terms and extensive notes in each chapter illuminate the subject at hand and provide contextual information comprehensively. Through her research, Pamment compels us to consider the Bhānd as an indefatigable voice in the social, cultural and political landscape of Pakistan, and, in the same spirit as her subject, defiantly situates the practice at the very heart of academic research on Pakistani theatre.
