A homage to the cross-border appeal of Hindi cinema
Director: Nitin Kakkar
Cast: Sharib Hashmi, Inaamulhaq, Kumud Mishra and Gopal Dutt
Sharib Hashmi is a man who lives on the fringes of the film industry, a fighter always have the opportunity to make some extra money by being a local guide for an American crew making a documentary on Rajasthan. What looks like a dead easy job turns out to be a can of worms when captured by the Taliban. What sustains through his predicament is his love for cinema. It helps that he is imprisoned in a house where the eldest son (played by Inaamulhaq) is a fan of Hindi films himself and what’s more, even pirates. An unlikely friendship develops between the two. So much so, that his new friend promises to take her safely to the other side of the border …
History and taut script, the black humor and the explosion in dialogue complement each other. It was established moving through subtle gestures of how the forced separation of India and Pakistan has not stopped the similarities in language, customs and flavors. Or how there is still the flow of music and culture. The madness of our films through the gap comes out in scenes like a film on DVD for Maine Pyar Kiya, for all the people of Pakistan becomes night. Or that our protagonist, instead of turning a loaded AK 47 of his captors, is used to teach children from the village of the different styles of cooking various Indian film stars.
The situations are real and not become melodramatic. Sharib The main actor is the soul of the film. His nuanced performance keeps us interested in the process throughout. The rest of the cast also not step out of line. There is mention of Kumud Mishra who plays a terrorist Stone T front, as well as Inaamulhaq, whose dream is to make good Pakistani films and then hack them by the Indian side.
Rarely do introspective films mixed with black humor. It’s great to find such a superlative effort from first time filmmaker. We must invest in cinema as such it is important that young filmmakers should not lose faith in your vision. Go see the movie to understand the futility of partition and laugh at our obsession with film. And yes, to support good cinema, so …