Adil Najam
(UPDATE: You can view this movie here).
Shaib Mansoor’s feature film Khuda Kay Liye: In The Name of God is to be released in Pakistan on July 20, 2007. There is great buzz about it; as there should be.
Regular readers know how much respect, even reverance, I have for Shoaib’s work. For me he is one of the single most talented Pakistanis I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.
Indeed, one of the single most talented Pakistanis ever.
As we have written before, he may also be the single most under-rated Pakistani artist, since his contribution to TV music, to TV drama, to TV comedy, TV stage shows and to popular music remains unknown to many; too many.
I have not seen the movie myself yet and have been hearing about it from a number of people – including some directly involved – for quite some while. The promo clips are now available on YouTube and – no surprise – the quality of cinematography, of artistic composition, of music, of attention to detail all look great. Typical Shoaib Mansoor. Of course, how the whole package comes across remains to be seen. This is, of course, his first feature film but he is already a master of each of the genres in a movie and his long plays (like Alpha, Bravo, Charlie) must have trained him well for this.
To me, of course, the story is Shoaib Mansoor. For others, however, there are other draws. The cast includes Lollywood superstar Shaan, Bollywood maestro Naseeruddin Shah, Iman Ali (who is PTV’s Abid Ali’s daughter and was in Shoaib’s Anarkali music video), and other notables. But the real story here is the story. Or, rather, the topic of the story.
The film has a wonderful and wonderfully rich website, and according to the synopsis posted there:
The film is about the difficult situation in which the Pakistanis in particular and the Muslims in general are caught up since 9/11. There is a war going on between the Fundamentalists and the Liberal Muslims. This situation is creating a drift not only between the Western world and the Muslims, but also within the Muslims. The educated and modern Muslims are in a difficult situation because of their approach towards life and their western attire. They are criticized and harassed by the fundamentalists and on the other hand the Western world sees them as potential suspects of terrorism just because of their Muslim names. This paradox is resulting in great suffering for a forward looking Muslim.
This paradox of the divided society is, of course, a constant theme of ATP too. It is always a controversial subject here and will be much much more controversial for Khuda Kay Liye. It is, despite the controversy, a topic that we as a society have to confront. Thoughtfully and seriously. Since I have not seen the movie I cannot say how he has treated the subject, but based on his track record if there is anyone who has the ability to deal with this difficult issue sensitively and without turning things into slogans, it is Shoaib Mansoor. All the more reason to watch the movie and refrain from judging it in advance.
But there is another important angle to this too. GEO is promoting the movie as a ‘revival’ of Pakistan cinema. As a long time fan of Pakistani cinema, I certainly hope it is. Again, if anyone can do this, Shoaib Mansoor can.
I saw a post today in Metroblog Lahore that made me think that he just might. It was not about this movie, but about a new very modern movie house opening in Lahore. I have long believed that the reason Pakistani cinema declined is not just because of the movies, but also because of the state of movie houses. Well, this new theatre – the DHA Cinema – is quite something.
With tickets at Rs. 250 and Rs. 500 it may be pricy, but from the pictures at the site, it is clearly something that could attract a lot of people simply for the theatre experience. Interestingly, this theater also opens on July 20, and one of the movies it is opening with is Khuda Kay Liye. Coincidence? Probably not.
I must confess that I have been planning to write this post for nearly two weeks now. I had originally thought of calling it something like ‘The Other Lal Masjid Story’ simply because Abdul Rashid Ghazi had taken an interest in this movie. According to Daily Times (July 3, 2007):
Lal Masjid has demanded a ban on a yet-to-be released movie, Khuda Kay Liye, declaring it blasphemous… “The film is against Islamic norms and traditions and is being released on a private TV channel without prior approval from a censor board. We won’t allow this,â€? said Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the Lal Masjid deputy mullah, who did not mention his source of information about the movie. He said he would not object to the movie if ulema approved it. He demanded that the government form a board to review the film. “The government will be held responsible if the film is released without being censored,â€? he said.
I had not understood then, nor understand now, whether his source of objection was the subject matter, the fact that it has an Indian actor in it, or a statement of support for the Censor Board. I guess we will never really know. I do know, however, that it is bound to be controversial for same for at least two of those reasons. As for myself, I will reserve my judgement until after I see the movie. But anything from Shoaib Mansoor, and anything on this subject, I do want to see.
@Kamran,
freedom of expression is allowed in Islam. U can openly say u dont like it, u dont believe particular thing A to Z in it. But you CANNOT make adjustments in its teachings and say, hey this is the new moderate Islam.
If it hadn’t been for people who wanted to change Islam to meet their needs rather than change themselves to meet Islam’s, our Islamic societies would have been upto date today through a very sound process of Ijtehad. If you read the history, people misused this facility and as a result, scholars had to take a more conventional set of rules for later times as well.
What disappoints me is that these so called moderate ones are really short of reasoning most of the times, other times, they do have a point to make.
We just cant criticize a religion’s current status quo by just ‘assuming’ its teachings. This is where we have to focus first if we really want to be moderate.
@ Mus
you have a very valid point. But before seeing the movie we cannot judge what exactly they are trying to portray and what will be the moral that people will take away from this.
From what I gathered, it was basically what happens with a lot of moderate muslims living abroad, who are treated as extremists and have to suffer even though they did not share the extremist ideology. So they have to suffer because of somebody else.
And I feel for Shoaib Mansoors comments regarding Junaid Jamshed. He had contributed a lot in the success of Junaid Jamshed and with him we wanted to create a modern view of Islam. So after working for 16 years for that vision, when someone suddenly turns his back on you, you do feel cheated.
Remember, what Shoaib is trying to do is give a moderate view of Islam. The failing of most of the muslims is that we can’t seem to see the world outside our own religion. No religion teaches to be bad. If all the religions are combined we will see that every religion preaches that we should be good to other human beings. That is what God (in every religion) intended too. And it even works for Agnostic and Athiests.
But maybe these are very hard words to swallow and I do expect very harsh reactions. But just trying to give a much wider perspective to the visitors.
@Urooj Bakht
you know you are very right.
– Anything unislamic should be banned in Pakistan.
– Freedom of speech against Islam should not be tolerated.
– Every minority religion should also convert to Islam.
– Every women should wear burqa from head to toe and not express herself.
– All entertainment relating to movies and music should be deemed haram.
– We should stop using technology, as it gives rise to evil.
You know with these thoughts we don’t need America to bomb us back to stone age. We can very well take ourselves back.
it was against Islamic values and was an attempt at disturbing law and order in Pakistan.
those who were troubled were taking peace from society away. Suicide bombings were killing innocent people everywhere and were creating panic and terror throughout the country, and in such situation, the movie, which was scheduled to release on July 20, would only add fuel to the fire.
the movie was a joint venture of the United States (US), India and Pakistan and was funded by the Pakistan government. Naseer-ud-Din Shah, an Indian actor, was playing the character of a Muslim scholar, who permitted music in Islam, saying that Hazrat Dawood was a good singer. He said that Shah in the movie also declared a Muslim woman’s marriage with a Christian man as allowed in Islam.
Pakistanis are very touchy about Islam and would not accept anything against it. According to Pakistan Penal Code, hurting religious feelings was an offense. Playing the movie was against Islam and was unconstitutional. I am hopeful that the movie would be termed illegal and would be banned.
Salamalikum,
Atif, well said; great comment. Completely lame argument by Shoaib Mansoor.
I can’t believe some adult can make such immature, useless comments. So Junaid Jasmshed turning to religion was a damage that he needed to “rectify”. Maybe his well-wishers will tell him what a fool he has made of himself. To those who think he is something special: He is not an asset. Anyone who thinks the best two things Allah gave were music and painting can’t be an asset for his own household let a lone a whole set of people. If I have to go by his comments, he is quite immature. After reading his childish comments (“I had given him sixteen years of my life”…did Junaid Jamshad force you to? Did you do it for free?) I don’t even have to wait to read opinions after the movies comes out…I know what will be the movie like.