Khuda kay Liye: The title says it all

It has been a while and the much lauded debut feature film by the once wonderkid of PTV Shoaib Mansoor has come and gone with all the splendorous fanfare. The film was hailed as the much deserved revival of Pakistani cinema but you know what (and some of you do) Khuda Kay Liye is a substandard film. It's not really the kind of film that merits critical attention or if that is not important for some people dismissing it as just another frivolous irritation the film simply fails to lodge a place inside of us as should all good films. Demonizing American authority (the American imposition) after 9/11 isn't exactly the most original of ideas.

The brutal interrogation of the Shan character (aptly named Mansoor) is not as much a liberal and frank and balanced view of interrogation methods as it is a sensational call for sympathy for the proud eastern hero (a part and parcel of our hero worshipping heritage, plus throw in a dutifully weeping American wife to further spice up the sentimentalmeter). Shoib Mansoor stretches a bit more on same line, assigning his name to the hero. In his website he refers to the falling out he had with Juniad Jamshed (his one time protege and "brother") over the same argument Shan and his brother (not named Jamshed) had in the film which in turn inspired the film. 9/11 is a topical subject that is hard not to get away from and Pakistan being the frontline nation in the proverbial war against terror is obliged to make a film that not only condemns the catastrophe but also to deny it has anything to do with it.

Other than that the girl from UK main plot/sideplot is soooo derivative, I'm sure it happens but PTV dramas of all kinds have already mined the topic and now we get a cinematic depiction.

Where I charachtersitcially flinched at most of the (make it all) songs from the soundtrack, I admit the score was something of a rarity, sparse and atonal. The photography was impressive as well save for the sepia tinged look reserved for the Pakistan portions of the film. The courtroom scene went on and on and on and on and with Shah jee (read Nasiruddin Shah) coming off as the good maulvi to Rashid Naz's bad maulvi. That particular scene was executed in a heavy handed manner and attempted to justify all the undoings happening uptil that moment throughout the film in one big scene. Cinema's way of giving us easy answers.

Rashid Naz is excellent in the way he gives equal measures of soft spoken charm underlined with unsettling threat so commonly associated with charismatic maulvis. Shan manages to put a bit, just a bit of proper restraint and that girl (Iman Ali) was just plain awful, being sexy helps a little but not much in a "meaningful" film. Other good actors were underused, the always reliable and emotive Ayub Khosa was only given one scene and one expression. Such a waste. The same goes with the talented Hamid Sheikh assigning him a token character whereas the rest of the cast positively appeared comatose.

Though the film with all its apparent failings has managed to do one thing that no other Pakistani film, including the Titanic fate of Jinnah has ever done. It has generated polarized opinions and sparked off a debate. I sure hope this launches way for other Pakistani films that won't be labeled Lollypollywood.

And lastly, before I had seen the film, just by reading the synopsis of the film I had already declared the film to be an apologetic exercise on part of Pakistan on the 9/11 fiasco. So maybe that was undue but watching the film only strengthened my criticism. the good Pakistani boy Shan is beaten to the brow and yet he declares his love for USA chalking it through his dingy cell. With all the beatings and abuse and humiliation and the stench of piss it only takes the vile abomination and loathing of swinemeat to make him love usa-ma. Last straw some would say.. puh-leeez