So,
After being told about it by more than a couple of people, caught the screening of Khuda Kay Liye. This film which was groundbreaking, as in it was the first Pakistani feature film to get a theatrical release in India, after a long time. Also as someone who had grown up watching a few Pakistani television serials, it was one of the first mainly distributed DVD films in the US, too, from Pakistan.
While short of terming it a classic, the story had enough of a contemporary appeal to me, and my short attention span, to keep going further as it unfolded in front of me.
The music was great too and went well with my increased expectation of the current music that we are hearing in Bollywood films, from Pakistan.
What needed to be improved were the production values and the acting. Having said that, it gave a start and a revival to a country and a film industry which has shown tremendous potential in it's visual communication. Also the story took a very unique look at society in Pakistan, which again, was a fresh perspective from what we read in newspapers and other current media.
While I don't see actors such as Iman Ali, Fawad Khan, and Shan making much headway in Bollywood, the director Shoaib Mansoor shows a lot of promise to one day direct a Bollywood film, let's see, time will tell where they go.
But overall a fine watch and the one extreme positive is an absence of intense and unnecessary melodrama, especially given that a sensitive topic was being enacted and there was scope to go overboard, but to the credit of the director, that is not done and in fact the presentation is very matter of fact, which further enhances it's appeal.
The pace is also crisp and the story movies forward without too many unnecessary scenes or songs. Look forward to seeing more films from both Shoaib and Pakistan.
Sincerely,
Vivek "movies are the best way to showcase culture to the globe" Kumar
