Adil Najam
The greatly trumpeted, fairly controversial, and mostly disappointing movie Jinnah was released in 1998 to even lesser acclaim than it deserved.
Despite all its flaws–especially its overly convoluted and philosophical plot which contributed much to its failure to excite ordinary non-Pakistani film-goers–it was thought-provoking rendition for Pakistanis: for those who liked the movie, and even more for those who did not.
It is sad that it ended up being seen by very few Pakistanis. The movie’s distribution was extremely sloppy, mostly due to the bickering between the principals of ‘The Quaid Project’. It played in Pakistan (in Urdu and in English) but very briefly and in very few theaters, and was never picked up for serious distribution abroad. Many who wanted to see the movie could not, simply because there was no place to see it at.
That has–belatedly–changed. Someone (it says Jamil Dehlavi) has recently placed the entire movie on video.google where it can be viewed if you have a reasonably fast Internet connection.
You can view it here by clicking on the image below, or go to video.google. The movie is just under 2 hours long, and in two parts.
For Part 2, click for rest of this entry.
was very beautiful and meaningful, and construction would take great pleasure watching amazing wonderful thank you after watching that I felt very different
Dans
Its a very nice movie indeed. The movie cannot be held responsible if there is nobody to have a historical taste and desire to know about ones own past. Everything that was pictured in the movie has enough potential to awaken the sense in Pakistanis why did they got Pakistan.
I found my self besides Quid-e-Azam during his struggle for Pakistan while i was watching the movie
A very good film, Lee and all the other actors were excellent. For the writer that said it was a horrible waste of time for a non-South Asian audience, nothing could be further from the truth. The computer scene at the gates of Jannah was a little far fetched. The Quaid-e-Azam’s dream of what Pakistan could be is still not fully realized as many still believe that courts, lawyers and even women have no place in Pakistan’s government. Like the man in one scene they are fearful that educating women will eventually destroy their privileges and power. The wives of the Rasul (SAW) had public lives!
Comments on Jinnah movie: The acting was good. The movie shows a fast-forward to Jinnah watching destruction of the Babri structure- a disputed site and has not been used since 1935 (by Muslims) to justify that he was right in demanding a separate homeland. Would it not be more appropriate to have him also watch the on-going periodic destruction and bombing of numerour Shia-Muslim mosques and killings of Shia in Pakistan? And that most Sunnis in Pakistan now consider Shias heretics? That would really hurt Jinnah since he was a Shia Ismaili (Khoja). No religious place should be bombed or destroyed anywhere. In India, the Shias do no have this problem and there have been 3 Muslim Presidents of India since 1947.
I saw the movie about a decade ago when it first came out and I thought it was a pretty good film–certainly not a blockbuster like Gandhi but a good film FOR A SOUTH ASIAN AUDIENCE. That is, for people who had substantial background knowledge already and could make sense of it.
For a non-South Asian audience, it was a horrible waste of time: didn’t make much sense and nothing was put into context. The shame of it was that with some voiceovers, it could have been made a much better film for a non-ethnic audience.