After many 'sold-out' shows, we finally managed to watch the much hyped about 'Khuda ke Liye' a couple of evening ago. The storyline was interesting, (although reactions post 9/11 have been done to death in books and articles and movies) The music was certainly memorable, sufiesque and haunting. I also feel in love with the way the 'azaan' was sung by one of the lead characters.
Overall, the movie felt like an on-screen theatre drama(point in ref: In a court scene, women cry 'shame shame'!). The movie is not slickly packaged like a 'Chak De India', but thank Khuda for that, we don't have heroines running around trees or shaved torsos!
The actresses gave mediocre performances, especially the character of Mariam, she did not play the role of a Brit or a saddened and angry daughter the way a Nandita Das or Ayesha Dharkar could have played it.
My take? : It is certainly one of the better movies I have watched in the recent past(others being 'Race','4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days' and 'Shaurya'). Not necessarity a theatre movie, it can be a DVD watch. Beware if you do not speak good Hindi, there are severely Urdu portions in the movie.
Doubt: One of the characters talks about the majority of Pakistanis being able to read Arabic, but not understand it. Can someone explain why or how?
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ReplyDeletePakistani cinema hasn't evolved as much as the Indian counterpart (i wish though that our story telling would also evolve as much) and it's nice to know that they have come up with decent stuff, if not very good.
ReplyDelete"One of the characters talks about the majority of Pakistanis being able to read Arabic, but not understand it."
Pakistan is a Muslim country (not Islamic as there is a difference between the two) therefore majority of people know how to read Quran, which has been written in Arabic. So most Muslims can read Arabic but do not necessarily understand the language (exact translation).
Pakistani's reading/understanding Arabic - think of it as a lot of Hindus recite Sanskrit shlokas or read them out loud from a book (the script being devanagri this isn't all that difficult) but hardly any really understand any of it ....
ReplyDeleteholly-bolly .. bolly-holly .. same wood different tree :)
well, thats the dilemma of our nation (Pakistan). We can read arabic but not understand it. That is why we are away from the real teachings of the Quran. Therefore, most people head to the Mullahs for explainations (coz most Mullahs can also understand arabic). As a result, the extremist mullah's plant hatred and stray the young uneducated minds in wrong directions.
ReplyDelete# Taz: I wish our story telling is as good, especially in Hindi cinema. I have the advantage of understanding Tamil and (50%)Malayalam. Some of the storylines in regional cinema are spellbinding. One Hindi movie I loved in the recent past is 'Hazaaron Kwaishen Aise'. I urge you to watch Khuda.. as well, if not for anything else, simply because of the hype it created!
ReplyDelete# Nutty: That is a great analogy. Perhaps that is many of us are not into rituals or temples these days... we don't understand them!
# Kamran: Thank you for your insights. I agree that a young mind can be taught even to kill without realizing the enormity of the action. With the political changes now in Pak,is there a shift away from Mullahs or has it created more confusion leading people to go to Mullahs for some stability? Btw, why have you stopped blogging? :)
Hey I heard great reviews of the film...and didn't get tickets last to last weekend!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting point you brought out of Pakistani's who know how to speak in Arabic but do not understand it.
Heard a bit about the movie, will have it on my list.. As far as the Arabic reading goes, well, many of my friends read Sanskrit and not understand it.. And oddly enough, dont we read English or our language words and sentences that we dont' understand? Guess, it is the same.
ReplyDeleteBoohoo!! I'm missing all the good and not-so-good movies!! :((
ReplyDeleteNirmal - Thank you!
ReplyDeleteCandid - Yeah, it makes sense. Somehow Sanskrit seems closer to Hindi than Arabic does to Urdu. But yeah, I guess we read English and words in French and German in English and yet not fret!
Still Searching - Oye, I found it easier to watch good movies in the US than in India. Are you a Netflix member or NOT???? Shame on you if you don't watch atleast 3 GOOD movies a week. I can send you my Netflix list if you like.