Short indie films show potential among aspiring filmmakers

Karachi

With the year abuzz with a number of films already in their post-production phase, it seems that the time is indeed ripe for young filmmakers to show their potential. Providing a platform for such individuals, the Institute of Business Management (IoBM) has organised a film festival that kicked off on March 10 and will carry on till March 13.

With a wide range of films screened at the IFF 2016 for the participants and audience, it appeared that being amateurs, the filmmakers indeed had the knack of technical aspects as well as scriptwriting and compelling storylines.

Most of the films had serious themes based on subjects like existentialist crisis, psychological disorders, various forms of oppression in society, and the wave of sectarian killing.

The films that stood out were “Mirror of a Madman”, “Aks”, “Naira”, and “Panaah”.

 

Too early to break taboos

In a session “Films and Mindsets” held earlier, the panellists namely Nadeem Mandviwalla, owner of the Mandviwalla Entertainment; Dr Erum Hafeez, faculty member of the IoBM; and Mohsin Iqbal, an executive producer at a news channel, were of the view that Pakistani cinema had barely re-emerged and it was still too early to challenge taboos; rather mainstream films should be promoted generously.

Speaking about this trend, Iqbal shared that before delving into such themes, the audience should be drawn toward the cinema so that later, it could decide on its own as to what to watch. Right now, he added, just the fact that people are returning to cinema houses was a ray of hope for revival.

Mandviwalla clarified that when word cinema and box office went hand in hand, unlike films which could be of various types. He noted that a film was screened at a cinema for business and at this point in time, the cinema could not afford to make films that might be commercially unsuccessful.

He added that he was open to everyone who was willing to contribute to the cinema even if it meant cashing in on patriotism because while a few did not approve of it, there were many who lauded it.

Mandviwalla was optimistic that there was a lot of potential and it was high time that we stopped comparing our industry with that of India.