MERE BROTHER KI DULHAN: LONDON PREMIERE
By : Sohail Anjum Photo-credit: Sohail Anjum/Asiana.TV The BFI at the Southbank was abuzz with activity last week as Bollywood hotties Katrina Kaif, Imran Khan and Ali Zafar, along with director Ali Abbas Zafar, were present to talk about their latest film with Ameet Chana. The occasion was an exclusive “In Conversation” with the stars and the director of the latest YRF blockbuster – Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (translated as My Brother’s Bride) – hosted by Yash Raj Films in association … Read entire article »
Considering Slackistan
By Zia Ahmad Slacker: i: a person who shuns or avoids work or other obligations; ii: a person who avoids military service; iii: or an educated person who is antimaterialistic, purposeless, apathetic and usually works in a dead-end job. In 1991, the beginning of Richard Linklater’s seminal feature debut Slacker offered a clear denotation of its title. The film showcased all the variants on the meaning of the word inherently attached with the spirit of Generation X and subsequently … Read entire article »
Veena Malik does not represent me
By Zainab Imam Much has been made about Veena Malik’s “behaviour” in the Bigg Boss House from the twin flirtations she struck to the short clothes she wore. To me, this spells Veena’s victory. Out of 14 housemates — including a global star, Bollywood actors and Bhojpuri film industry’s Shahrukh Khan — Veena managed to make an impression. While she was busy inside, the world outside was delirious with anger: how dare a Muslim, Pakistani woman conduct … Read entire article »
Filed under: Arts and Crafts, Bollywood, Cinema, Uncategorized, Women
Has Anyone Seen Zar Gul?
By Zia Ahmad A good fifteen years ago, in a previous century, there was this little talk of a film that made tall claims of revitalizing Pakistani cinema and provide a much needed breakaway point from the atrocious and tedious exercise which goes into defining Lollywood. Salmaan Peerzada, the then reclusive elder of the Peerzada clan, had returned to Pakistan after a lifetime of appearing on British television and odd feature films. Lesser known in Pakistan as his younger Peer brothers, his debut directorial feature, Zar Gul, nevertheless garnered media attention in the mid 90s. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Arts and Crafts, Cinema, Pakistan, Reviews
The Problem With MNIK
By Yasser Latif Hamdani Warning: SPOILERS Late last week I attended a packed show of “My Name Is Khan” in Lahore’s DHA Cinema and while I went through all the emotions the film maker wanted to evoke, I found the film entirely misplaced and misdirected. The film itself was well made 70 percent of the way. It began to go downhill from the time our hero returned to Georgia to find it stuck in the Civil War era … Read entire article »
A Realist with a Heart: Remembering Raj Kapoor
By Mohammad Taqi چناں قحط سالے شد اندر دمشق کہ یاراں فراموش کردند عشق ( سعدی شیرازی ) Saadi of Shiraz wrote with great dismay that “the famine in Damascus is so bad that friends have forgotten how to love”. Something much worse has befallen our city, Peshawar. It is difficult, if not impossible, to talk about music, art, films or love when the terror reigns supreme and war has ravished the city and its citizens alike. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Arts and Crafts, Cinema, culture, drama, Heritage, History, India, Media, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan, Peshawar, Photos
A Recipe for making Pushto films
By Zia Ahmad (courtesy of Friday Times) Overweight beauties, middle aged gruff leading men, starched hair pieces, logic defying plots, garish costumes, mind boggling dance and fight sequences and pelvic thrusts performed with uncharacteristic gusto, all are hallmarks that define the cornerstone of Pakistani film culture that we know as Pushto films. Over the years Pushto cinema has formed an identity that is utterly unique in offering a brand of entertainment that no self respecting man would want to see with his mum and kids. It didn’t use to be this way though. Earlier Pushto films used to be based around folk tales that paved the way for wholesome family entertainment. Parallel to the rise of Gandasa films in Punjab, during the 80s, Pushto films witnessed a notable dip in quality. Producers … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cinema, culture, Humor, North-West Frontier Province
Sardar – A Must See Film
I saw this film a while back but I decided to check it out again and was surprised by how close it came to admitting the truth about partition. Here is a sample.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XAB9lDExYc&feature=related] … Read entire article »
Film Theory in Pakistan: Recognizing the Need for Theory
By Zia Ahmad There are parts of the world where writing meaningfully about films has generally been deemed as a subversive indiscretion; so much so you have to keep looking over your shoulder every two minutes just to make sure nobody’s prying on you. Pakistan finds it effortlessly easy to nudge into the ranks. Films have been consistently and categorically relegated as the most trivial pursuit for any no-nonsense individual to entertain. As an artform, cinema has seldom been seen anything more than means of entertainment in Pakistan. The mere idea that films may have to say anything of importance positively baffles and even offends upholders of our tradition. Hardly a fresh observation, cinema in Pakistan has failed to evolve from its “entertainment for the masses stage. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Arts and Crafts, Cinema, culture, Media, Pakistan
Sir Christopher Lee talks about Jinnah of Pakistan
With all the buzz about Jaswant Singh’s book, our regular contributor, Aisha Fayyazi Sarwari, has shared the transcript of a radio show she did some time back. In 2001 I had the opportunity to Interview Sir Christopher Lee for a radio show I produced for Pakistan News Service in California. – Aisha Aisha Sarwari: Sir Christopher Lee, we are honored to have you here on the show (Previously Pakistan News Service), thank you for your time. Sir Christopher Lee: … Read entire article »
The Films before the Fanaticism
By Nadeem Farooq Paracha Last weekend I finally managed to get my hands on the DVD versions of two Pakistani films that I had once seen on the big screen many years ago, and was looking to do the same again, but this time in the privacy of my TV lounge. I went looking for them after a friend and I discussed the possibility of finding the cultural roots of what grew into mainstream socio-political extremism and myopia in Pakistan. … Read entire article »
Cinema Institutionalized
By Zia Ahmad In an effort to demonstrate a searing and incised account of film, cinema itself is identified by some as institutional. People assemble in a designated building and don’t seek to interact with one another. They pay to be silent spectators in a darkened hall. This identification of film aligns itself with obvious social as well as political and economic perspectives. However, on closer observation, going to movies can not entirely constitute a social activity. … Read entire article »
Bollywood,Reality TV and Indian secularism
Bradistan Calling Indian TV has seen numerous Bollywood reality shows, competition where common boys (and occasionally girls) have won places on movies by top directors. The Show that I want to talk about is Bollywood, blind-date and arranged (and staged) marriage all rolled into one big media circus. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Activism, Arts and Crafts, Cinema, Citizens, culture, Dance, drama, Heritage, History, human rights, Humor, Identity, Images, India, Islamism, Kashmir, magazines, Media, men, minorities, Music, Pakistan, Partition, Politics, poverty, Punjabi, Religion, Rights, Rural, sex, south asia, Terrorism, Theatre, Women, youth
A Postmodern Wedding
By Zia Ahmad “Hope is a dangerous word” – just like any other pearl of wisdom that I am only too eager to pass on to the next available ear, this too has been derived from the ever-wise and reflective dream factory that is Hollywood. Do we ever pause to consider how drastically films have affected our humdrum lives, and how in moments of joy and sorrow some of us look up to movies as templates that our real-life actions and words should subscribe by? No other art form in human history has provided us with as many pertinent points of comparison in our lives as films (or for that matter TV shows) have. … Read entire article »
PTH biweekly Cartoon
Picture of the Week
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Sunrise at the Arabian Sea, Charna Island
24 Dec 2011
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