(UPDATE: You can view this movie here).
We had a preview of the movie Khuda Ke Liye at ATP where we had posed a question whether Shoaib Mansoor will be able to revive Pakistan cinema? A probable answer comes from myself who recently got chance to see this movie. The record breaking Pakistani film Khuda Ke Liye has become my favorite film overnight- Hollywood inclusive. Or more accurately I should say, that there hasn’t been a film in the past that has moved and affected me in this way.
Given the standing ovation the film is getting in theatres all over Pakistan from rich and poor alike, one can safely say that I am not the only one. For one thing it is a uniquely Pakistani story, which could have only come out of Pakistan. To sum it up, it is about us - the people of Pakistan warts and all- take it or leave it.
The genius of Shoaib Mansoor was never in doubt for those who have seen his videos or for that matter the famous Alpha Bravo Charlie - the TV Drama on Pakistan Army. What I was unprepared for was the depth in his thought and the way he has managed to capture the Pakistani dilemma on screen. Ours is a complex and rich predicament which needs to be captured in all its nuances and appreciated in all its paradoxical colors. KKL did just that.
I went to the theatre expecting to see the same old liberal v. fundo arguments. There were those, but unlike how these arguments play out in “The Friday Times” and the “Nawai Waqt“, this remarkable film is fully conscious of its Pakistani identity and the strong Islamic component that forms part thereof.
At the risk of spoiling it for those who haven’t seen it, this is the story of two brothers, Mansoor (played by Shaan) and Sarmad (played by theatre actor/musician Fawad of EP fame) both musicians, brought in a well to do Pakistani family. Mansoor and Sarmad are torn apart by the latter’s increased involvement with a certain Maulana Taheri (based most probably on Maulana Sami ul Haq of JUI-S component of the MMA), who turns the soft spoken Sarmad into full fledge Jehadi.
Things are complicated when the brothers’ cousin Mary arrives from London to spend a few days with them, only to discover that she has been tricked by her father into coming to Pakistan to avoid her marrying her Non-Muslim boyfriend Dave. Meanwhile Mansoor leaves for Chicago to enrol at the “School of Music” there. In an epic that switches from London to Lahore to Waziristan to Nangahar Afghanistan to Chicago, these ordinary Pakistanis are increasingly faced with both internal and external conflict. And then there is September 11.
Shoaib Mansoor does not miss a beat, he does not leave any stones unturned. While all characters have more or less the same significance in this plot, it is Mansoor who is at the centre of it: Mansoor who is a proud Pakistani and secure in his Muslim identity, Mansoor who warns Sarmad against extremism, Mansoor who puts the best Muslim and Pakistani foot forward, Mansoor who is abducted by FBI in the middle of the night and beaten and tortured to a pulp, humiliated and abused for being a Pakistani and a Muslim. He is the contrast to Sher Shah and Maulana Taheri. But there are contrasts on the other side as well… Jenny who loves Mansoor for being Mansoor, his classmates who spontaneously join in when Mansoor performs his “music from Pakistan”, his African American professor… all stand in contrast to the American torturers of Mansoor.
The dialogue reaches a fever pitch in a court room in Lahore, where Mary is engaged in a prolonged legal battle. Enter the Bollywood star Naseeruddin Shah. He plays the character of a long bearded progressive Islamic scholar (probably based on Maulana Ahmed Javed and Allama Javed Ahmed Ghamidi of Lahore). In what would be the localised version of “Inherit the wind” Courtroom drama, he engages Maulana Taheri and his coterie in an argument on Islamic law and Islamic dress code.
“There is beard in religion, but no religion in beard,”
declares Shah, adding that
“Two men who did the greatest service to Islam in Pakistan, Mahomed Ali Jinnah and Allama Iqbal, did so without a beard and out of the so called Islamic dresscode, in western dress.”
It was on this line that the entire hall filled with applause. Islam - the universal faith - has no uniform. This lays the stage for the final scene- the most poignant scene of the movie, filmed in Lahore’s beautiful Wazir Khan Mosque- the scene which once again made a Muslim out of me. I’ll let you watch it yourself to understand what I am talking about.
As for the film itself, there seem to be a few technical glitches earlier on but they are easily forgotten. Iman Ali’s performance as Mary or Maryam in the beginning is annoying and one finds her concocted British accent a little annoying at first. However it grows on you and one discovers the fullness of her effort- which is by far the best I have come across by a Pakistani actress. As for the music, those of you who have only heard Bandaya, you are in for a surprise. The film is as a whole an incredible musical experience. What is more is that you discover how aptly Shoaib Mansoor has placed his music in the various scenes. Indeed, driving back from Lahore on the motorway, I could recount/recollect every scene just by listening to the soundtrack.
This is a movie no Pakistani can afford to miss.
I congratulate Shoaib Mansoor and Pakistan film Industry Lollywood for making such an effort, I always had desire of watching the progress of my neighbourhood industry, as then my neighbour, my brother will be progressing. I think this film has made a start of revolution atleast in the minds of people living in and outside Pakistan, either belonging to or having any relation to Pakistan. This film and Bollywood film, “Black & White” have released very near to each other and somehow touches each other on some messages like of changing the minds of people of present age and their thoughts who have gone against Muslims especially of Pakistan and of Afganistan. The time has changed and soon media and these sorts of films will bring a right revolution.
I must congratulate Shoaib mansoor on presenting such an art, heart touching film and a big big film with so many locations, actors and messages.
hi ,
I am an indian.I saw the movie khuda ke liye, i think it was a sheer piece of brilliant directorial. Mr shoaib mansoor has justified his talent. i have seen his work for the first time & i want to see more of his new & previous work.The way he has addressed to the religious interpretation & misinterpretation is mind boggling, not only has he picked such a senstive & the need of the hour topic bur also the way he has justified the very esssence of it with his talent is worth applauding.Talking of religion whether hinduism or islam or anyother, i think being a young mind myself, i was always confused with what actually my religion hinduism says. Acc to my elders they say that woman are supposed to keep a fast called karvachaut for the long life of their husband as per our hindu epics, but why? today any logical woman may ask that if i am important for my husband as he is important for me then in that case we both should keep a fast & pray for each others long life.I dnt think there is any harm in doing that or that u r violating ur religion.According to ramayana god ram abandoned his wife sita as she stayed at ravan’s place & so she was considered impure , now this reflects that every hindu woman should take good care of her character. but how about men, ramayan was never interpreted in a way where it should also be taught that god ram sweared on getting married to only one woman , he said that one man should marry only one woman.but how many hindu men are honest to their wives & still swear to be a hindu. I think the whole point lies on how our religious books & epics are interpreted to our generations to come.As the director has shown in the movie that how the same quran was depicted in two different ways to the character played by fawad- one which made him wear jeans or wat ever he liked & sing & be a happy man, a good son, a good brother & a good human being and the other way which made him into cheating a girl & even raping her against her will.Now one can easily sense which way of following ones religion make one a better person. I think religion is a guide to man & his soul but blindly following it without actually understanding the essence of it as why it was said , who said it & under what circumstances is of no use.Every religion preaches love & peace& us to have humanity . I think the movie was awesome & it will touch every human soul of all religion & caste. I am planning to be a movie directo too, so having a flair for cinema , i am always hungry for art. Acc to me the director was brilliant. great screenplay, great visuals, good background music. The movie seemed authentic, the characters& their life seemed so natural.I think actor shaan acted real naturally. fawad enacted his characters diellema wid great brilliance. The only thing that i dnt like in the movie was actress iman ali, i think she was not meant for this role, unlike other actors who suited their characters and looked so natural, she looked like a typical movie actress & not her character maria. she was wearing makeup in afghan which was a loophole in the masterpiece. I am not trying to comment on her acting skill, but as from an audience point of view & director’s vision i would have not choosen her for this role , she was an out & out no no. Otherwise the movie was gr8& i wish to work with actor shaan & the director once i plan to make a movie.
salamalikum.. sab se pahle mein yeh keho ga ke shoaib mansoor or shan ager mujhee nazar ayee to slute dono ko kay film banaye hai app neh kasam se dil se arab baar good movies…… mein mantaa hoon ke all world mein koi bhi aise admi nehi hai (shoaib mansoor) jesa ke writer bhi producer bhi and sab se bardi baat diractor bhi ho ker itni achi movie hai sir againnnn sluteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee……….ok ji allah afiz and nice singer ahmad jehanzib and sayen zahoor….
Finally saw the movie.
After all the hype I was not so impressed.
I found the character development shallow. The acting quality was not so hot. I hated the American actress. Hated her. She enunciated like she was in a high school drama class. Was this because Mansoor was afraid that his audience wouldn’t understand idiomatic American English?
Iman Ali is lovely to look at, but it takes more than that.
I think esp. in the portrayal of the cross cultural relationship the screenwriter could have dug much deeper. The stumbling blocks don’t really revolve around the woman agreeing not to wear shorts or eat bacon. They revolve around the complete inability of Americans to understand the Pakistani concepts of, among other things, family obligations just to give an example (”why can’t we put your mother in a nursing home, dear? What?! You expect ME to look after her?”)
I don’t know, I felt the movie was skimming along the surface where some topics were concerned.
But a great start and hopefully more projects of this type will follow in the future. I hope American audiences will warm to it if only to learn from another’s point of view.
Hi ppl. I’m Himanshu from India. This movie was released in India on 4th apr, 2008. I have no idea about the overall response of crowd, but this was not just another topic based movie. For Indians, it was an extremely informative movie narrated very well.
For me personally, I have never seen such spectacular movie. Now i know something more about Islam and thats really positive.
Especially in second half, hall was pin drop silent and everybody was totally engrossed in what was goin on screen. This clearly shows how good the movie was.
I like the movie overall but i am really upset about why Shoaib has used the name of Hazrat Imam Hussain (A.S.) while picturing the die hard and terrorist kind of religious people in the movie. We all know there are good and bad people, extremiests and modest people in every religion but by showing Hazrat Imam Hussain (A.S.)’s name in Afghanistan Shoaib has tried to propogate the concept that most of the terrifying religious extremiests come from a Shia background even the terrorist Afghanis are also Shia. I am sorry to say but my knowledge says most of the Afghanis are so poor they are not getting good education, neither Islamic nor Academic so actually they are not following any specific religious group or any of the Rasul-e-Paak (S.A.W.W.)’s Sahaba or Grandsons properly.
Any illiterate person who does not have religious or proper academic education is going to destroy his ownself and other peoples’ lives too while following his own stupid conceptions whether he pretends to follow Hazrat Imam Hussain or Hazrat Abu Bakar, it never means a learned man like Shoaib should have had shown some specific name in the desserts of Afghanistan to prove most of the Jaahil Afghanis are following Shiaism, and that is absolutely incorrect.
Amazing movie. But I Have to disagree with Kamran somorro about the music as he is saying that they were few things that were Halal but later they were declared Haram. But what about the Hazrat Ayesha argument where Hazrat Muhammad (
P.B.U.H) asket Hazrat Ayesha to send some singers with the barat. and onestly i havent read anything in the Quran about music being Haram.
Hi all!
Please don’t propagate this movie to be a step in the right direction…Some people, including Pashtuns, have strong reservation about this movie. There was a discussion done on this movie in a Pashtun group. Following are two posts from the discussion.
“Actually, your evidently rabid Paki-ism/Desism -the daming disease as it is - is not letting you see the whole point i.e. the oversimplification and reductionism “employed” in the movie when showing the misuse of Islam for social oppression…Religious extremism and intolerance is something that has dynamited the minds of the Muslims accross the globe- and more so of the Muslims bred and groomed in the liberty of the West - but the movie has targetedly picked only one community to epitomise all that is evil about Islam…that is Pashtuns…How just that is? How can you claim that “in the name of God” is in play in the Pashtun society only and the rest of the Muslim world is all liberty ?
In the other threads that I read you have strongly reccommended this movie to the members to watch and have praised it to be something of a rare artistic accomplishment. Now you have modified your opinion a bit- begrudgingly though-and have accepted that ” a couple characters were portrayed negatively in the one-third of the entire movie who happened to be pashtun.” Your Desi biase, alas, would not allow you to answer the question, honestly, that why were mostly Pashtuns choosen as negative characters!
As for positive portrayel of one or two trvial Pashtun characters, that was of course necessary for effective propaganda—make it realistic and bit palatable for the common observer…
My Pashtun brothers and sisters here are so innocent that they have recognized only one aspect of the malicious intentions of the movie maker i.e. the reinforcement of the stereotype…
The other rather more sinister motive behind the movie-making is not evident to them due to their lack of knowledge…that is to popularise a new interpretation of Pashtuns culture to advance the Desi geopolitical agenda in that region… that, strict interpretation of Islam is somehow in congruence with the practices and tenats of Pashtunwali and as such Taleban phenomenon has a logical association with and strong supporting ground in Pashtun Culture ….Once I heard the Dravidianized views of a Desi general (Gen Asad Durrani), who was telling a Western audience that Taleban are a logical manifestation of a Pashtun’s social disposition and has precedence in Pashtun history in the person of Ahmad Shah Baba, who was a Taleb…They are selling the world the idea that moderate Desis with their Barelvi creed are sort of bulwark to the the expansionist orthodoxy from west of Indus.
In the movie in question, they characterize a Lahore mullah, whose name is Javed Ahmad Ghamidi as Nasiruddin Shah and Mualana Samuil Haq, the mullah of Akora Khattak, as another character to bring home the point above. It is pertinent to mention that Javed Ahmad Ghamidi has emerged as a liberal mullah after 9/11 who espouses liberal Islam because that is what is currently popular with the Western capitals of power. These Desis can prostitute any thing for their petty motives…democracy, religion, communism, secularism, etc.”
“You are still hypocritically avoiding to answer the fundamental question and focussing only on the secondary/lateral issues…The point is why were ONLY Pashtuns choosen to portray the ills that have plagued Muslim communities globally? Why have ethnic sub-qualification assigned to the main characters?In one previous post, you’ve said, “a couple of negative characters HAPPEN to be Pashtuns” …as if the movie appeared by itself from no where and was not the handi-work of some brats out to populaise a certain image of Pashtuns and mispresent the political situation in that region…?
Again you say “the portrayel was not deliberate”…Excuse me, is there any limit to your dishonesty? Even a kid can understand you are trying to defend the undefendable by implying that all this was not pre-meditaed…that the movie-makers didn’t develop the idea, the script writer didn’t choose the plot and characters carefully according to the main idea, that the production team didn’t discuss the story and the characters thoroughly, and that the director didn’t materialise the idea and the plot as realistically as possible….and that all this was an arbitrary initiation that randomly evolved into what it is?
By the way, have you some Desi associations for I haven’t seen any Pashtun to be so defending of Paki things as you are of this movie? Probably, you posted the link on this site out for same intentions (just kidding) to achieve same effects with it as other Paki mechinations i.e. making Pashtuns feel embarrassed and apologetic about their culture and weaken their national resolve and sense of identity…
Anyhow, if you say that the film aimed at projecting the sociale impact of the orthodox interpretation of religion within Pakistan, even there the characterization was grassly inadequate, misrepresentation of the situation on ground, based on malafide intentions, and indicative of the the deceitful nature of the Desis. It is pertinent to remind Desis that when their Mohammad Iqbal–that fake philosopher- and other Desi leaders were fanning religious passions in the Subcontinent at the behest of their British masters, our great Ghaffar Khan was laying the foundations of one of the most lively secular and liberal movements/party -duely called one of the two truly secular and liberal political movements in South Asia, the other being the Indian National Congress…
The Desis try to conceal that every single ideology of terror in that region is a product of the subversive and treacherous mentalities of Desis(Indic Muslims) injected into our society from accross the Indus…Tabligh, Deoband, Bareliath, Maududiath, and all kind of other fanatic ideologies…
Even the attempt to find a connection between Islamic orthodoxy and plight of women in Pashtun society was a ridiculous effort to make it fit into the current geopoltical scene…”