frazbama Reviews

The Legend of Maula Jatt (2022)

Reading too much into The Legend of Maula Jatt

[10/10 · 18 October 2022]

Most Pakistanis have never watched the 'original' Maula Jatt film of 1979. Those who have, often scoff at its implied contribution to the cascade of degrading imitation 'gandasa' films it unleashed in the 80's and 90's. It was as if the original Maula Jatt film was to be blamed for the downward spiral of cinema as filmmaking became a convenient conduit for money launderers.

But it did not have to be so. Fiction both mirrors and feeds reality, including the current reality of the nation with its trials and tribulations. The Legend of Maula Jatt may or may not change fortunes, but it does give an uplifting peek at what could have been...or could be.

I met Nasir Adeeb at Bari Studios in Lahore in 2001, eyes closed, lying on a sofa, attempting to generate another dialogue sequence for yet another re-hashed, re-done film script churned out dime-a-dozen. The writer for the original Maula Jatt was condemned to scraping the bottom of the barrel. He had bowed to circumstances and made the best he could out of the proliferating rot of Pakistani cinema.

Stories and examples of artists having to settle for side-shows are not new. Major characters in The Legend of Maula Jatt like Fawad Khan and Ali Azmat were once leading vocalists of their respective rock bands and for one reason or another had to settle for a career in acting.

Some decisions are a result of changed circumstances, testimony to life's meandering nature, while others are self-inflicted.

Like the passive acceptance by Punjabi Muslims to the wholesale rejection of the Punjabi language in favor of another thereby instantly creating a self-deprecating social hierarchy which the younger generations are acutely aware of, and sadly, abide by. In the span of a generation, thousands of years of cultural heritage carried by the language has been eradicated, the umbilical cord feeding the spirit snapped.

What does any of this have to do with The Legend of Maula Jatt? Maybe nothing - as stated earlier, all this is reading too much into Lashari's film.

Is the character of Maula Jatt, himself an orphaned sardar, an antidote and challenge to a putrid dynastic rulership represented by the Natt clan? Was Nuri Natt's sadistic masochism the necessary evil to challenge entrenched patriarchy?

Or was the film simply a revenge-driven roller coaster?

As I left the cinema, I could not help being moved by what the film showcased beyond the primordial-vengeance motif the storyline revolved around.

Lashari offered so much in the film. A way to do things right. To re-do the wrong turns of the past - not out of criticism, but out of respect. Taking the same ingredients and imagination of Nasir Adeeb, using the same discarded and dis-reputed Punjabi language, and building something beautiful, musical and healing.

Travelers read the constellations to navigate their way through seas and deserts of the earth.

There is a constellation in The Legend of Maula Jatt, revealing a way forward for the wayward, the lost and the rejected. There is a way back home. We may never get there. But it is a journey worth taking...and a story worth remembering in a language worth saving.

Twitter: @frazbama.

Bol (2011)

Thank you Shoman!

[10/10 · 27 June 2011]

Sometimes the prevalent brutality of reality subdues our senses for long enough to declare barbaric actions as legitimate. Barbaric laws as legal necessities. Allow this status quo to brew and grow for generations and centuries and it results in a stymied populace perpetually terrorizing itself through doctrinal teachings that classify and rank human beings. Bol not only rejects the age-old foundations for grading humans based on gender, but provides inspiration to a self-terrorized society about the beautiful possibilities that emerge if we choose to speak up and break the shackles inherited from the past.

Shoaib Mansoor (Shoman) knows how to paint a story in all its hues without losing the end picture if you will. His previous works are a homage, a reverence and a celebration of dance, poetry, music and art. His foray into film with Khuda Kay Liyay gave the impression that Shoman was not content with making great music or entertaining television serials. He wanted to take on a society that was increasingly duplicitous and constantly bending to the whims of obscurantism and willing to bury its beautiful heritage. With Bol he has again come out all guns blazing. Shoman isn't merely showing the mirror to society but goes for the jugular in a nihilist barrage against a decadent order represented by Hakim Syed Shafqatullah played by Manzar Sehbai.

Shafqatullah's inherited but hopelessly dwindling business in herbal medicine in an era where exposure to medical science had won over the sick contrasts with his attempts to maintain a secluded, pure existence at home. His daughters cannot leave home much less work. However, his unmet desire to father a male child infuriates him and the frustration is taken out against the females of his household.

In many ways it is a reflection of contemporary Pakistani Muslim society which cannot cope with the brutal truths of science and seeks remedies in the shrubs of faith. When that doesn't work economically weak individuals, groups and minorities are made scapegoats and used to create a mirage of power for the majority.

But this is a movie, not a post-modern feminist narrative. Furthermore, it is a Pakistani movie in an era when desperate attempts to resuscitate the film industry have yet to deliver results. Shoman continues to carry this national burden along with his socio-political message inserted in an entertainment medium. How does a single director take up these challenges within a three hour time frame while not losing the audience? Enter Shafqat Cheema playing the role of Saqa Kanjar from the Old Lahore red light district where moral standards are turned head over heals with female children valued and males seen as a burden. Apart from infusing the film with heavy doses of comical entertainment, the character simultaneously sets up as the foil to Hakim Shafqatullah. While the preference for female children as future money earning prostitutes offer a resounding contrast, it also highlights the middle-class urban religious moral standards where women are only be perceived in two categories: either as heavenly pure or slutty whores. These extreme ends give comfort to morals of mortals. So Syed Shafqatullah can digest sleeping with a dancing girl but refuses to allow his daughters to find a clerical job since that would be morally confusing.

Today's Pakistan is society in a flux where everyday honor killings have become an acceptable norm. The demonic of codes of honor have become the moral standards which need to be met for living a dignified life. Thus, Saifi, the eunuch child of Shafqatullah, meets a fate often read in the headlines of daily papers. Shoman deliberately refuses to grant audience the ease of moral extremes and constantly forces them into the gray unknowns of life where the purity of human emotions and desires prove to be more resilient and worthy of admiration than edicts and mechanical structures of faith. When Humaima Malik declares she has committed murder, but not sinned, we are forced to question the concepts of crime and punishment in theological jurisprudence. The sequence of sin equaling a crime necessitating punishment is broken. A sin may not be a crime, and so negating the need for punishment.

There are several flaws one can point to in the film. Atif Aslam's role was under-utilized. Cinematography was weak. At times Humaima's dialog turns preachy and may have been better and more powerful if left unsaid - but then again, the title of the movie suggests otherwise.

Shoman's ability to hit the nerves sets him apart from from many a famous director and script writer. He could achieve far greater success and fame if he stuck to merely entertaining audiences. But Shoman uses cinema with all its potential to plant the seeds of change. Khuday Kay Liyay was one of the three most successful films of all time. To this day, its music and message cause headaches as they confront the conservative orders of society. Bol goes several steps further. Sometime from now, the National College of Arts or other institutions teaching film studies, will be analyzing these films that carry within them both the analysis of a nation as well as a positive vision for the future.

The Happening (2008)

Incredibly poorly done

[2/10 · 25 June 2008]

The movie is filled with red herrings, poor acting, and excels in incoherence. It is as if the Shyamalan himself was a victim of the plant kingdom's 'virus' and gone into self-destruct mode.

I don't think any of the actor's performance could be faulted. The storyline was in shambles. But Shyamalan's produced great stuff before and an apologetic rebuttal is that it was all intentional and that the storyline was mean to be irrelevant. It's stretching it, but too often when watching 'The Happening', you feel the need to defend and explain the movie.

That said, the movie, while frustrating keeps you interested in the sadistic sense: it's intriguing seeing people kill themselves for no apparent reason.