My favourite movie is Chupan Chupai, as it’s my film and it’s total entertainment....
Celeb talks
Zahid Ahmed
My favourite movies have to be Logan and Hidden Figures and my favourite book that I read this year was Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak which describes the wonderful meeting between Rumi and Shams of Tabraiz.
Ali Kazmi
I love talking about films and books. My favourite film of the year - there have been some really good movies - is Ladybird, which is directed by Greta Gerwig and stars Saoirse Ronan.
It is a fabulous, superbly directed, film with beautiful screenplay and performances to die for. Saoirse is Irish, but you’d never be able to tell; she played an American girl in Ladybird so well! It is one of those cohesive movies that make you fall in love with the coming-of-age story and makes you remember what it was like in those teen years and what it felt like growing up, the teenage angst, etc. There is also a message of hope and love. And it has 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes as well, which seldom happens, so it’s worth watching.
There’s another film called the Breadwinner; it’s a little bit of shameless self-promotion and not only because I’m in it, I swear. It’s an animated feature film which is produced by Angelina Jolie and directed by Nora Twomey, an Oscar-winning film director, based on the bestselling novel by Deborah Ellis. It’s basically about a young girl in Afghanistan whose father was a teacher but is now retired; as a girl, she can’t work in Afghanistan so she basically dresses up as a little boy to become breadwinner for the house. I play this character called Darya, who is ex-Taliban with a heart of gold; he helps her family to escape from their situation in the war-torn Afghanistan. It’s really fitting these days as well because of the whole women’s movement and how important it is for education for girls all over; it’s quite sad how slowly that’s happening, actually. It’s nominated for Golden Globe Awards and also has some Oscar buzz.
Acha jee, books! So many books, so little time. What I’m reading most, I’d say, is The Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy (the only trilogy in four parts). It’s an easy read; it’s fun and clever. I’m a bit of sci-geek. This book talks about this strange universe that Douglas Adams has created; he compares it to Earth and all the mistakes that we make here and it really fits.
Just another recommendation: The Windup Bird Chronicle and 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.
Ali Noor
So I read a book called Forty Rules of Love. I really liked it. Somebody recommended it and I found it interesting.
I really liked this movie called Secret Superstar because I can relate to the frustration of a musician.
Ahsan Khan
My favourite movie is Chupan Chupai, as it’s my film and it’s total entertainment, and full of fun. My favourite book is Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak.
Umair Jaliawala
Tools for Titans by Tim Ferris was an interesting read; and loved watching Designated Survivor.
Make 2018 the best year of your life and the way to do that is to pay attention to your life and make every moment count. Don’t do what’s popular, but do what’s right for you! It isn’t easy, but nothing great ever came easy. So chin up, decide now and make it happen!
Sanam Saeed
In 2017, I haven’t watched or read much apart from work stuff. My favourite thing to read was the script of my film Cake. And Ladybird was my favourite movie.
Kami Sid
I loved Wonder Woman - its concept, its picturization, its story. I am a feminist and the movie is quite familiar for me; what we are doing nowadays in the whole world. Wonder Woman portrays a good side of women. Why always Superman? Why not a woman can be be a SuperWoman or Wonder Woman?
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy is my favourite book. The way she gave shut up call to all society; i love her!
Ayesha Omar
I really enjoyed reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson in 2017. In this self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be “positive” all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people. Favourite movies from 2017 are American Made, Okja, and Murder on the Orient Express.
Adnan Malik
My favourite reads of 2018 have been Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Professor Yuval Noah Harari and The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison.
The former because it opened my eyes to human evolution, our development as a species and it demystified so much of what is canonised as ‘history’. The latter because it’s a beautiful, felt book of short essays. Beautifully crafted and evocative writing on empathy.
My favourite films include Baby Driver, written and directed by Edgar Wright which was just exhilarating and brilliantly crafted, Get Out because it was genre-breaking and so deftly directed and Disaster Artist because it made me relook at the values of appreciating cinema and a top shelf performance by James Franco.
