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An extraordinary first show from Pakistan Cinema

ZIYA US SALAM

A MATTER OF FAITH: Shoaib Mansoor’s “Khuda Kay Liye” from Pakistan provides food for thought this week as does “Shaurya” (above right), quite unlike “Bhram” (below) that provides only illusions of healthy cinema.

KHUDA KAY LIYE

(At Satyam, Nehru Place, and other theatres in Delhi and elsewhere)

No man has monopoly over Khuda. And of all the prophets of Allah, four had special abilities. The last prophet brought a lasting message for all humanity; Moses could make water gush out of a rock. Prophet Isa could cure leprosy, revive the dead. And Dawood had a voice so beautiful that when he read the Zaboor, the birds, animals, men and even the djinns listened in rapt attention.

In this world of diatribes and monologues, when was the last time the big screen attempted to clear a few cobwebs about Islam? Yes, there have been politically expedient depictions in films like “Black Hawk Down” and “Munich”. But until this new release from Pakistan by Shoaib Mansoor came about, there was not a sane voice on Islam. Not that Mansoor’s is the last word on faith, but he at least attempts to free the faith from the shackles of the ill-read, people ready with fatwas with all their half knowledge of Islam.

“Khuda Kay Liye” attempts to take faith beyond the confines of those who equate piety with a beard, a cap and a rosary. Fittingly, Naseeruddin Shah’s character declares, “Deen mein darhi hae, darhi mein deen nahin….” Remember even Abu Jahl had a beard too? It talks of Muslim women’s right to say “no” to marriage, even annul one.

Mansoor’s film is not a sermon the faithful should listen to. Rather it is a dispassionate look at a faith often erroneously equated with terrorism in a bipolar world where a superpower has to raise the bogey of an enemy to justify its military might. It was Communism at one time, it is Islam now. Mansoor’s story has two Pakistani brothers with a talent for music. They talk of love and longing. But the world around them is singing a different song. There are clerics preaching fundamentalism. Music is haram in Islam, they say. And the younger brother listens, dissociating himself from the two-member music band. Only to head for a society where men decide what is religion and women acquiesce.

The other chases his dreams, goes to study music in the U.S. Again it is a world where dialogue is no longer the preferred option. Post 9/11 if you have a certain name, hail from a certain faith, you are a terrorist, or a possible terrorist. It is a hard lesson for the guy brought up on lofty notions of freedom and fair play in America: the West’s principles are all sham too. First challenge and the innate insecurities come to the fore. Just like the cleric’s words which are often divorced from practice.

It is a storyline many people across the world will identify with. There are minorities which have to account for the deed of some misguided souls. There is majority communalism which often passes for nationalism. Mansoor talks of all this and more in a manner most befitting. As a piece of cinema, his work is adequate without being excellent. As a tool to convey a message, “Khuda Kay Liye” is brilliant. The film scores most of its marks in the last half-hour when Naseer emerges as a pious soul who knows what his faith stands for, a man who interprets religion his way, a man who takes solace from the Quran and the Hadith, not local tradition.

Watch “Khuda Kay Liye” if you want to know that cinema can be much more than a medium for entertainment. This, the first Pakistani film to be released here in India, has certainly set high standards.

SHAURYA

(At PVR Plaza, New Delhi, and other theatres)

A couple of summers ago Samar Khan started out on the wrong foot with “Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye”. Now sweet tidings lie in wait, for “Shaurya” is a film that tells us here is a young man who knows his craft. He is beginning to put the pieces together. He is still a work in progress, but with “Shaurya” he scores a couple of points: one, he is unafraid to call a spade a spade. Technically savvy, he is today’s guy, unattached to yesterday& #8217;s mores. His characters speak today’s language, his camera is today’s able companion.

What’s more, Khan takes up a subject many had shied away from: post “Sarfarosh” not a director had talked of the Muslim angst, the pain of a community that has to prove its patriotism at every Kargil, and pay the price for every Godhra. Khan desists from the obvious; there are no diatribes against any community, or even the larger society, just a focused narration of the story of Captain Javed Khan, a man who had everything going for him except his name. It is here that he deserves the most credit.

As a defendant lawyer Rahul Bose does not slip into self-pity of the accused. Instead, the focus is to expose the larger malaise: why the entire community is painted with the same brush for the crime of one individual. It was not the case when the Mahatma was assassinated. Why should it be like that post-Ayodhya, or after a local communal riot?

Khan’s story is simple: Javed is under house arrest for killing his boss, Major Rathore, and faces 14 years in custody. How the lawyer goes about saving him is the core. And Rahul Bose covers himself with credit in a role calling for many shades. But it is Kay Kay Menon, in a smaller role, who steals the thunder. As a brigadier who trusts the Muslims as much as one would the enemy on a battlefield, he is superb.

His body language suitably haughty, his facial expressions make you fear him or hate him. Throw in a bit about intrepid journalism and you know Samar Khan is not just a talented film maker but also a smart one. His second movie may be “inspired” from similar offerings abroad but he shows the brains to adapt them to the Indian context. Well edited, good dialogues and fine emoting make “Shaurya” well worth a visit.

BHRAM

(At Wave, Noida, and other theatres)

For quite some time Dino Morea has been trying to be his own man at the box office. Unfortunately, no one is doing him any favours. Director Pawan Kaul joins the list now with a film so insipid as to be a challenge of patience. A few minutes into the show and you wonder if you can sit through this one. At the end it gives you one lesson: model-turned actors are non-actors. And Kaul does not quite have the director’s acumen to deliver with a story that promise, and a setting that is hip and appealing for the multiplex crowd.

Kaul has two heroes: Dino and Milind Soman. The latter is a rich guy who sheds no sweat for his sweet success. The former is luckier: he gets to flirt with his bhabhi, lock lips with his girlfriend, and never has to push a file to earn his millions. It is all hunky-dory and the family settles down to welcome a new entrant: the younger brother’s girlfriend whom he intends to marry. There is a bit of a problem, though: the moment she sees the elder brother, she is reminded to a certain happening a few years back when his sister was criminally assaulted and murdered. Was he the man?

The story has lots of promise, the actors less so. Soman looks hideous with his long locks and Morea looks perpetually perplexed, wearing the same expression from bedroom to boardroom. And Sheetal Menon as a girl who cannot let go of the past, real or imaginary, is a complete wash-out in her first film. She walks like a model, talks like a beginner. Worst, she does not quite have the looks to get the looks.

And Kaul botches it up with a series of four-letter words. Does he really believe that a multiplex-going guy ends his every other sentence with a word to assail the senses?

Really, “Bhram” does nobody any favours. Get rid of any illusion of catching up with this film. Bad acting, listless music, vulgar dialogue….it has mediocrity written all over.

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