We have been following the upcoming filmmakers
and their work on feature length films since the past few months. With a handful
of films under production and some set to hit the theatres soon, everyone can
finally anticipate watching good movies coming out of our local cinemas.
After a gap of two years, a Pakistani film
Chambaili hit the theatre last month and is successfully running across the
country. Dawn.com yesterday had an opportunity to cover the curtain-raiser of
Pakistan’s latest movie “Josh” (Against the Grain) which will be released in
Pakistan on Eidul Fitr. Josh is the story of a privileged woman whose life is
shattered in a single moment as she embarks on the search for a dangerous
truth. A story of the biggest challenge to Pakistan’s still reining feudalism:
the country’s youth. The film explores the internal debates the young are
struggling with, and how solutions can be attainable if and when they stand
united.
The film has an interesting ensemble of some of
the finest actors from the Pakistani entertainment industry, who include Aamina
Sheikh, Mohib Mirza, Khalid Malik, Navin Waqar, Adnan Shah Tipu, Salim Mairaj,
Kaiser Khan Nizamani, Nyla Jafri, Parveen Akbar, Ali Rizvi and Faizan Haqquee.
A remarkable effort for the filmmakers and
enthusiast by Nadeem Mandviwalla and Jarjees Seja under the name of “The
Platform” was launched at The Atrium cinemas on May 7, 2013.
“The Platform” has been created to showcase
movies being made by young Pakistani filmmakers in pursuit of their dreams to
make a contribution to Pakistani cinema and to share their fresh and unique
vision of the world.
“Our mission is to give an opportunity to these
unheard or unseen voices but to be able to make film a hit, is the public’s
choice,” Nadeem Mandviwalla, owner of Atrium Cinemas and the managing director
of Mandviwalla Entertainment said.
He also spoke about how everyone keeps on
debating on the fact that cinemas are being built but films are not being made
out of the country. Till the time there are no cinemas in the country , films
will not be made, he stated.
Presenting his thoughts on the occasion,
Mohammad Jerjees Seja, CEO, ARY Digital Network said, a few years back there
was no sight of box-office in Pakistan and it became a long forgotten thing.
Cinemas were converted into in shopping malls – but today box-office is being
created, now is the time when we need to support our local productions, he
stated.
However, Seja also said that everyone is looking
for something really grand to happen with bigger setups and popular casts. In
regards to this, he mentioned Humayun Saeed, who is working on a film which
will be released on Eidul Fitr as well.
“But we felt there is a gap, a sort of a vacuum
where we need to bring in new voices and young talent to be heard and seen. Our
only motive in this initiative is that we give opportunity to the young
talented filmmakers and actors to come forward and show the world what Pakistan
is made of,” Seja said.
Josh had its first world premier in Mumbai film
festival (MAMI) and has been having various screenings in different cities of
Canada and USA since the past few months. Writer and Journalist Ethan Casey
writes about Josh on Dawn.com, “Americans are accustomed to seeing other
countries, especially Pakistan, as refractions of our own national worries and
self-regarding obsessions. That is our problem, not Pakistan’s, and Josh serves
us well by declining to pander or spoon-feed. It is a very good film, well
conceived and executed on a small budget, and the question in my mind as I left
the cinema was whether and how it might be possible to shoehorn such a serious
piece of Pakistani storytelling into the awareness of some measurable fraction
of the millions who know Pakistan only through TV news and Hollywood movies
such as Zero Dark Thirty.”
Speaking about her debut feature film, Josh,
Iram Parveen Bilal, the film writer, director and producer said, “Despite
having made films for six years, shorts films that have travelled around the
world and have won awards, I now feel like a complete filmmaker because this
one is a full length feature where you can buy popcorn and drinks and watch it
on the magnificent big screens of the cinemas and share it with hundreds of
others at the same time as this is the power and the strength of the cinema
which reminds one of the humanity and love. How in one room, hundreds of people
are crying and laughing together at the same time, this makes one realise that
we all are the same. Come watch the film with passion and unity, this is an
honest film made out of dedicated blood, sweat and tears and it is made for you
Pakistan and it is made by Pakistan.”
The launch of “The Platform” was very much
needed for the re-birth of a film industry which was under heavy rubble since
past two decades. Hopefully, it will bring the new breed of cinema crowd as
well as upcoming filmmakers of Pakistan who ready to tell their story to the
world. And who wouldn’t want to watch good quality local productions and share
their experience with dozens of others in a cinema.
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