PakPositive Articles

The few features worth mentioning in the latter part of the festival include Rakshan Bani-Etemad’s documentary titled Roozgar-e-Ma (Our Times) set against the backdrop of presidential elections in Iran in 2001. Etemad has managed to capture the hysteria, the passion, the hypocrisy and the new found enthusiasm in Iran’s youngsters to find a voice and the constant presence of a controlled social system that breeds despair and frustration. The story of one of the interviewees takes on a life of its own and we embark on a real-life journey with a young woman trying to stay afloat in trying circumstances, where she falls through the cracks and the state nor the community facilitate her survival.

The second documentary that highlighted a highly explosive situation, the hindu-muslim riots in Gujarat, was Rakesh Sharma’s The Final Solution. It aims to unearth the prejudices, the political venom, the hatred and vengeance in people’s hearts. The film is an extremely lengthy and hard-hitting depiction of how ordinary folks lose all sense of humanity and morality and embark on vengeance and destruction blinded by a hatred which is fuelled by the ring-leaders who are holding rallies churning people on whilst they comfortably sit in their parliamentary seats. The documentary gives you plenty to feel sick about, plenty to reflect on and encourages foresight on the part of viewers all over the world. Documentaries of this stature raise questions and urge people to find solutions and to defy the hate-fuelling policies and political rallies and religious fundamentalist movements on both sides of the border which can lead to catastrophes if they are not curtailed or quenched.
Alongside brilliant works from foreign directors, there were several well received contributions from Pakistani film-makers. More and more young people have been encouraged to find a medium to express themselves, many have taken to scripting, many have taken to face the camera and many yet have decided to use the lens to capture their ideas on screen.

One such film-maker, who is carefully carving his niche at a time where the entertainment industry is undergoing a massive explosion, is Syed Ali Nasir, the brains behind 25 short films to date, some of which played at KaraFilm Festivals. On completing his Economics degree, Nasir worked with TV stations and a stint with Disney in LA unearthing his passion for film-making. The majority of his work so far has been short-films as he confesses, “I’m the kind of person that needs to be completely satisfied with what I make, a perfectionist of sorts, so up till now I felt that I had a great deal of experience to gain form making short films and unless I got this figured out I would not take the next step”. He admits he has already been through a transition and sees a change in his own work from the time he started out till today, and has an award for Best Short Film (Room 708) of 2003 at Kara, to his name. Lust which showed at the festival this year deserves a mention; with its chilling confession by the Pakistan first serial killer and paedophile and a collage of stills we catch a glimpse of the man’s reality. Nasir through his films offers a slightly unconventional cinematic experience where the audience is left without a clear-cut explanation. His films are highly subjective and open to interpretation and hence unique in their treatment and impact.

After a short stint at a Pakistani TV channel, Nasir decided that the pace and pressure that TV directors work under was not for him. He prefers a more gradual medium where time constraints and daily deadlines do not dictate creativity. Nasir feels answerable to himself for the kinds of films he makes and does not see himself as a crusader for any kind of cause and insists that he will take on projects as and when he feels ready. Having just completed his first documentary for The Citizen’s Foundation, Nasir confesses, “My ultimate dream is to make films about Karachi. This is a city of millions of people from distinct ethnic and cultural backgrounds and each has a story to tell, form the fundamentalists to the neo-liberals, from the makrani and balochi to the urban youth. We have such a rich diversity of languages and histories which should be captured and put out there for people to appreciate”.

Nasir mentions films such as Requiem for a Dream, Amores Perros and City of God as his favourites and in the broader sense feels drawn towards Spanish cinema. “Hispanic cinema is far more visceral and honest in their treatment of real issues, and that is why I feel inspired to take films like City of God and base it on the metropolis that is Karachi”. Nasir ended his experiences at Kara 2004 with an award for Best New Talent and a confession, “film-making for me is mainly about putting my ideas and concepts out there, I haven’t worked so far with a specific issue or target audience in mind, which I’m sure, will happen in time. But each phase is a stepping stone for me. I love making films and that’s why I do it, not for market value but for self satisfaction, it’s as simple as that”.

Hammad Khan, BAR at Law, working for the British Board of Film Classification in the UK, comes across as unmistakably amiable and driven in his approach. His family was forced to leave Pakistan in the 80’s but on his return he spent some of his adolescent years in Islamabad and Peshawar and felt a great sense of relief and belonging. Hammad recently felt inspired to cast aside his role as bystander and step into the foray of film-making with Samovar. Hammad has entered with a clear purpose in mind. “I want to put Pakistani cinema on the map; we have no excuse for not being there”.

Hammad talks about the experiences of making this short film and how he discovered that his fictional storyline was far more real than he had anticipated. He began to realize that what he was capturing on screen using ordinary local residents was doused in reality and a great number of young men shared experiences with the main character Owais. Hammad took on the story of this young graduate boy who is jobless and constantly hounded by radical Jihad recruiters. In order to lend authenticity to the film it was shot entirely in Pashto with a loose script where the actors were encouraged to improvise and act as naturally as possible under Hammad’s direction. The result is a darkly honest film where you find yourself understanding the characters mindset and choices. This film uses a great deal of symbolism to carry the story as he does not believe in over-stating emotions and situations. The boiling samovar (tea container) and the leaking tap, the parrots trapped in cages, snake charmers, and posters of political parties with their false promises on walls convey volumes in Owais’s story.

The remarkable aspect of this film, which earned Hammad an award at this year’s KaraFilm Festival, was its ability to make the audience understand why Owais does what he does without dramatizing his situation or providing a definite conclusion. Hammad wanted to highlight a social ill affecting our society not only in the frontier but all across Pakistan and feels there is a deep crisis of identity amongst Pakistani youth. “The reason I chose this subject for my film is not to show our local or western audiences what is wrong with our society but to show them a true picture of what is going on and possibly unravel the causes and underlying forces behind social ills. I want to make films which challenge the audience, which requires them to develop an understanding of films so the viewer feels involved”.

Hammad has learnt a great deal from the styles of Satyajit Ray, Stanley Kuberick and Terence Mallick and is taking on several ambitious projects. “Frames” his next short film, currently under production, will be a spiritual journey of exploration and discovery, the story of two people living on different ends of the spectrum in Pakistan and the indelible connection between their lives. Hammad is determined to make his mark as a Pakistani film-maker in world cinema and feels he will continue to handle socially relevant subject matters in his films. He states with a sense of urgency and vigour, “This is what I feel passionate about at the moment, I have a number of ideas and concepts based on social issues and want to see them materialize. If I embarked on a pure commercial film I wouldn’t bring anything to the table. But we need to understand that we must inculcate a cinema culture in the younger generation and use cinema to express ideas, to raise questions to call people’s attention towards things that matter”.

In this impressive anthology of young Pakistani directors Adnan Malik is certainly a name which will create ripples on the circuit in days to come. Adnan is younger brother to Saqib Malik the well reputed adfilm maker turned music video director. Inspired by Saqib’s fascination with the Pakistani film industry, Adnan’s began research for his documentary Bhooli Hui Dastan (the Forgotten Song) which premiered on the final day of the KaraFilm Festival. This documentary highlights with precision, humour and uninhibited candour the state of our film industry, the factors behind it and the possible solutions to this quandary. The film is not cluttered with big names or spotlight seeking celebrities, but with a select few well known actors, directors, producers and cinema owners. The honesty and rawness of their opinions is brilliantly captured and a thought provoking debate ensues on camera.

The blame for the demise of Lollywood bounces around from film financers to unprofessional attitude of actors to apathy from the audience and no one takes responsibility nor accepts their role in the neither destruction nor resurrection of the film industry. But what does emerge through this documentary, is an awareness of cinematic history, of political interventions and social changes and their repercussions. The point that comes across is that cinema relies on audiences for support and Lollywood is an integral part of a society whether we acknowledge it or not. This documentary portrays the need for cinema, the conviction of those who produce films today and the persistence of the small percentage of patrons. It tries to cover as extensively as possible the strengths, the failings and the handicapped state of the cinematic industry. In the words of one of the individuals in the documentary, “pakistani film industry died 20 years ago but its taken decades to finally bring it to the graveyard that is why everyone has suddenly taken notice of the situation and created a fuss now”.

During the session with the audience a popular Lollywood actor and director were present at the screening and both established an argument that far too much pressure lay on the Pakistani film industry to improve itself in a small period of time without the proper financial support. Adnan, while discussing the restrictions that are choking the industry raised a valid point, “No liaison exists between the film associations and the government at the moment, and they are both working in isolation and therefore can’t reach a viable compromise”.

After his return from the US having studied film-making Adnan treaded the obvious path and his first film “Bijli” won awards at Karafilm 2003 as well as in India. He chose to return to Pakistan as he felt this where he needed to establish himself and wanted to create a cultural identity for the generation today. “I wanted to engage people with my work, because there is a serious identity crisis in our society right now. We once had icons and films that people admired and empathized with, because back in the 50’s and 60’s cinema was the decisive pop culture”. Adnan’s motivation at the moment is to make films which provide young Pakistanis with something they can relate to, but he does cater to specific commercial dictates or financer’s whims, but instead wants to fill a void which exists today. “There is a segment of our society, the 4% elite who look to the west for heroes, and the rest of the youth which is the largest social class in our country at the moment is lost without icons, without self-awareness. What I want to bring about is a change in attitude. I want people to realize that it is trendy and fashionable to be Pakistani and to be aware of what makes us inherently Pakistani”.

The near future will see Adnan embarking on a series of films looking at Pakistani pop culture through the ages, highlighting what it was, how it changed and where it stands today. He wants to invigorate the youth with a sense of pakistani culture, all aspects of it, ranging from language to music, from past to present, just so the youth can have a tangible and sophisticated sense of who they are. “I want all the mobile phone touting, Hrithik and Shahrukh imitators with their bolay to street lingo, to find something within the realms of Pakistan to identify with”.

Adnan’s attention detail is obvious throughout the smooth flow of the film, as he undertook painstaking editing measures condensing 50 hours of footage. The unbiased feel throughout the film lets the viewer analyse and decide for himself which is a commendable effort on the director’s part. Adnan in his typically pensive and articulate manner explained, “I want to be a channel for the audience and use cinema as a medium because honestly the power of the word is dead and gone, it’s the visual now, its all about imagery and language and how its understood and manipulated to evoke reactions from the audience”. Films such as these trigger a great deal of reactions, laughter, shock and spontaneous applause from the audience and prove that if a film-maker handles his subject-matter honestly the audience will take notice of all the subtleties, the wit, the humour and the understated profound messages embedded in the story. Adnan provides an inkling of what we should expect from him in the future, “I want to pull people in and capture where we are today and where we are headed; my films should play the role of a Trojan horse. In one blow I want to entertain them as well as plant a seed in the audience’s mind, to make them think, to make them react, to make them discover, what it means for all of us today, to be Pakistani”.

With the diversity of Pakistani talent emerging on the scene in all spheres of the entertainment industry, the next few years promise to be exciting with respects to exploration and discovery of identities and cultural contexts. Our film-makers who have dared to take the initiative today and the audiences who are supporting these efforts are writing a page in history which will prove to be a most volatile and significant time for this generation.

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