After more than 20 years in the theater, the play "Body Guard" by the great artist Adel Imam came to light, after it was recently shown on the "Shahid" platform under the auspices of the General Authority for Entertainment in Saudi Arabia.

The long-awaited play has sparked a great debate about whether it really deserves all this anticipation and this great success that made it the longest-running plays in the history of Egyptian theater.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Entertainment Authority, Turki Al-Sheikh, commented that the number of views of the play exceeded half a million views on the witness platform on the first day of its presentation, describing Adel Imam as "the legendary hero who planted a smile in our Arab world."

The number of views of Bodyguard in a witness exceeds half a million on the first day in the whole world ... Very popular for the leader, Adel Imam, the legendary artist who planted a smile in our Arab world ... Greetings to him and, God willing, we will enjoy more ... and this is a call to Rami Imam to work on producing more works for the leader👏🏻 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/fvCNjfcRbo

- TURKI ALALSHIKH (@Turki_alalshikh) February 27, 2021

The play tells the story of the prisoner Adham - Adel Imam - who is charged by a corrupt businessman and his colleague in prison - Saad Ezzat Abu Auf - to work as a bodyguard for his wife, and the events follow through the consolidation of the relationship between Adham and Saad's wife - the artist Raghda - so that Saad discovers his wife's betrayal and tries to fabricate an accusation against Adham and escape With what he stole.

The play was shown regularly from 1999 until mid-2010, and it was composed by Youssef Maati, directed by Rami Imam, produced by Samir Khafaji, and starred in it - next to Adel Imam - the artist Mustafa Metwally, who died a year after the beginning of its presentation, was replaced by the artist Muhammad Abu Dawud, The starring role was played by Sherine Seif Al-Nasr, who later apologized, and was replaced by artist Raghda.

The play achieved success that no Egyptian play had ever seen before, even compared to Adel Imam's previous plays. There is no doubt that the great success of the play "The Leader" - which preceded his last plays, "Body Guard" - encouraged the audience to watch it in the famous stage of the pyramid theater, where he used to Imam to present his plays.

The play "Body Guard" was described as the worst work of Adel Imam (communication sites)

Criticism

With the play being shown on the witness platform, and its leakage on other websites, the audience’s reactions continued, which were overwhelmingly critical of the play, describing it as bored, vulgar and vulgar, and some even described it as the worst work of Adel Imam.

The most important note in dealing with "Bodyguard" is that the scenario dates back to the end of the nineties of the last century. The jokes in the play date back to that time, and it is difficult for 2021 audiences to respond to them, but who said that good comedy dies with the passage of years?

Classic comedies and movies still spark laughter from one generation after the other.

Even by the standards of the 1990s, one cannot imagine that the author of the play would think that a famous joke such as "You sit on coffee? No tea?" Would make the audience laugh, even if the one who said it was the star of the comedy Adel Imam.

Banality, boredom, and repetition

The following remarks that angered many of the audience on the communication sites focused on the leader's insistence on presenting many sexual overtones, vulgar expressions and other things that he used to present in his plays, so this cannot be a surprise, but this time it comes within a boring, repetitive story, most of its scenes are inspired From the leader’s previous plays, such as the "Court" scene from "Shahid Mushafish Haja", and the bedroom scenes from "Al-Wad Sayed Al-Shaghal."

Overwhelming success

On the other hand, some believe that the play had achieved great success at the time, so Arab tourists would come to visit Cairo to attend it, and thus each era has its own joke, method, and vocabulary "efhit", and if the play had its time shown on television, the reactions would have differed, due to the difference in time.

Others commented that he credits Adel Imam with his presence and agility on stage, despite the fact that the play was filmed on television at the age of 70.

The campaign of widespread criticism prompted the artist Sherif Idris - one of the secondary actors in the play - to defend it through a post on Facebook, refusing to insult the audience in their views on the play, and explaining that he traveled with the play to more than one Arab country, and he was always surprised at the audience’s turnout and the frequency of its presence. To the point that some of them memorized it.

Idris described the play as "the most expensive play followed in the history of theater," and added that its real success in the audience, which was attended by 11 years, is more important than money.

Is there an ethical message?

In the last minutes of the play "Bodyguard", the theater's makers try to present a target for their play, by talking about sabotaging the Egyptian economy and corruption of businessmen, and an imam shouting to his audience, "Work, reject injustice, love beauty, goodness and Egypt." Then the chant turns into a dance show before the curtain falls .

But could a clichéd comedy, as a large segment of the 2021 audience described it, deliver an important moral message?

Or is the message attributed to the time it was presented two decades ago, at the height of the era of former President Hosni Mubarak?