Mujahid:

It was made in 2003. It is on DVCam and is 105 minutes long.The cast includes some prominent Pakistani actors. It has received a couple of screenings but TV channels here are too afraid to telecast it (fear of Govt policy as well as militant's reaction). I sent to the film CD to a festival network in US and it has been selected by Festival de Cine de Granada, 2003 but I am not sure if they screen it or just make the information available.

The film is a balanced account of the story of two young Pakistani jehadis, who have returned from Afghanistan after Taliban defeat in 2002. Their journey from Torkham border to Lahore is traced and their reintegration into or isolation from the mainstream society is followed. The focus however is on one whose actual name is also Mujahid. In flashbacks, the personal and social circumstances of his decision to join Jehadis is told. The film attempts to show the aimless and hopeless existence of Pakistani youth
which makes them vulnerable to jehadis recruiting teams. The question of who is a shaheed (martyr) and who is waging real jehad (holy war) is posed by a group of street youth and it is left to the audience to make up their mind.

Raison d'etre! Jehad is the single most important issues confonting Pakistan. The pressures from within and without are playing havoc. The social and political fabric is being torn apart by the opposing forces.
Until recently, the Pakistani Establishment, Politicians and the media have either supported the Talibanization of Pakistan or at best ignored it. The secular and democratic forces have been on the defensive as the concept of "jehad" is regarded as an important pillar of an Islamic society. The
fundamentalists have misled the people by presenting foreign causes as jehad and so far very few have challenged them. More importantly very little thought has been given to trying to understand the circumstances which create these jehadis. Not the fanatic leaders but the youth, who are used as
pawns. It is a fictional account but there have been so many stories unfolding around us which are very similar to the story of our "Mujahid".

Bulha:

I wrote this play in 2001. It was first performed in Lahore in April 2001. It is two hours and 15 minutes long. It is about the life and time of the great 16th Century sufi poet Baba Bulleh Shah. It is a musical
play which uses several qawwalis and songs of Bulleh Shah. The play was recently taken to India and Iran and the response has been overwhelming. In November 2003, Bulha became the first play from Pakistan to tour Indian Punjab and their was an incredibly emotional and moving response from the
audience in all six cities where the play was performed. The Indian media coverage of the tour was also very positive and extensive. The play was invited again, by ICCR this time, to Delhi where packed Kamani Auditorium audience gave standing ovation on all three days. Now the play has been invited to perform at the National School of Drama festival , on 20th March. The play has been translated into English by me and an LA based theatre person, Naila Azad. A reading of the play will be done on 8th March at Cal Arts, Northridge, CA. There was a reading organized in Januaru 2003 in Bay Area, directed by Vidhu Singh.

The play is extremely relevant to present-day South Asia. It addresses the question how to respond to tyranny, by counter-violence or by a message of peace and love? This question is equally relevant in the US, especially after 9/11 and in the context of Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The play will particularly interest the South Asian Americans, as Bulleh Shah very strongly exposed the religious extremism and exploitation.

Third Knock:

The play was written in 1971 but was first performed in 1992 in Lahore. The story revolves around a group of slum-dwellers who face eviction. Having nowehere to go, they resist eviction and kill the landlord. They make themselves believe that they are free now and celebrate. But soon the landlord returns again demanding eviction. They kill him all over again, ensuring that the landlord is dead. They are arrested for murder and only women and old people are left behind. The landlord knocks again, for the third time. The play starts as realistic play but takes a surrealist form later. It is easier than Bulha to read. This play also poses questions are response to injustice, violent or peaceful. The eviction situation has an indirect reference to the globalization phenomenon. The play had a reading in LA in September 2001 (a week after 9/11), directed by Peter Levin. We had a cast of South Asian professional actors for this reading. The audience was mixed (half South Asian, rest others) and the response was very good. LA Times ran a good story on it. The English text is availabel. Michael JC may have a copy.

— Shahid Nadeem