All in the name of God…

Okay so the last day of the freedom of Iblees gets spent by watching the movie everyone was talking about, at the place to be seen at, i.e. Cineplex.

And before everybody runs me down for commenting on what is now supposed to be a very discussed, ghissa pita and cliched topic, let me explain that this rambling is just my two cents worth on the “Revival of Cinema in Pakistan”.

Everything is fine with this movie being a “different” one from the usual load of crap that Lollywood produces every year. The storyline was interesting, the cinematography was commendable and the soundtrack is refreshing. But the major thing that put me off? The actors themselves… Everybody except the angrez people seemed out of place and out of touch with their roles.

For starters, what’s with the lead-man-must-be-a-popular-actor mentality of the Lollywood/Bollywood arena? Shan tries mightily to fit in the elder, mature brother role of Fawad but fails in more than a few places. He has probably saved his lot only with the experience he has had over these years of showbiz. Fawad? Cute, tailor-made for this role, probably like Afridi is for One Day Internationals, but never delivers like Afridi never does. Come on, I know his role was of a shy person, but who in the world is SO shy that he could never utter a word?

Iman Ali never looked like a British born desi, nor sounded like one. Probably she could have taken some cues from Katrina Kaif’s “Jass” in a recently released movie (don’t know the name and probably it was recently released, and since it is Iman Ali so we can be a little less cruel on her :p). And hey, who was her dad in the movie? Were the directors so short on people for casting that they would use just anybody for a major role? That guy didn’t look like he was willing to act, just filling in the spaces maybe…

The best act was of the Hollywood hottie Austin Marie Sayre, who really looked like someone deep in their role, besides Rasheed Naz and Naseeruddin Shah, two very accomplished actors. She stole the show with the vivacity she put into her tiny role, better than anyone else of the lead cast.

So it all boils down to this: to really revive the cinema culture in Pakistan, we definitely need movies with different and thought-provoking topics, but also with better acting, casting and a tight control of the storyline.

And I would not comment on the legality of music in Islam. I think it is useless to comment on an issue involving religion raised by a movie based on the movie itself, when the status of movies themselves is a little somewhat controversial.

Crossfire is welcome.