Producer of ‘Maula Jatt’ aims to revive values through films

LAHORE

The renowned producer and creator of the epic movie Maula Jatt”, Muhammad Sawar Bhatti, has broken his silence after 29 years with a mission statement that the revival of our long lost moral values is the only way to save our coming generations from falling into the pit of immoral, non-productive and destructive activities, and to rise and shine again as a great nation.

The man who gave the world the unforgettable legendary movie “Maula Jatt” which changed the entire fabric of our society and immortalised two super stars of this country, namely late Sultan Rahi, and Mustafa Qureshi, poured his heart out to The News after 29 years, in a very heart to heart frank talk at his residence, with his prodigy and illustrious son Muhammad Muttaqi by his side on Monday.

“Maula Jatt” was not just a movie to me, Sarwar Bhatti pointed out, “it was a message, a personal statement about the true character of Punjab, the character full of moral values, chivalry and a great sense of pride in our centuries old healthy moral values”. “I have been raised with the strong moral values, the values representing the real Punjab, a Punjab of peace, love and respect for each other, and that’s what is lacking now”, Sarwar Bhatti maintained. There is a need for a hero, a role model, which we had in the form of “Maula Jatt” and Noori Natt” back in the 80’s. They were the personification of our glorious past, custodians of our ethical values.

Sawar Bhatti has not put down his tools yet. Now, he is looking up to and guiding his young and brilliant son Muttaqi, who is all set to take up the cause of his father in a new garb, a revival of our glorious traditions, our ethical and moral values of Punjab for our highly intelligent, and brimming with potential youths who are groping in the dark directionless and confused.

According to Muttaqi, the main reason behind the downfall of our film industry is that we don’t like to use our mind in creative and analytical thinking and making new concepts. We use all our energies and abilities in copying the work that has been already done. What film makers did was either they copied a concept of a film or else made a concept after watching few films and took situations from each of them and made a new film. 

Maula Jatt is the biggest example. After Maula Jatt most film makers started making Maula Jatt according to their intellect using different names and started using the concept with racist’s approach and started making films on Gujjars and Arayin and so on. However, they ignored the soul of the concept of Maula Jatt and took Jatt as a symbol of ethnic superiority and started making the films promoting and glorifying their own castes. On the other hand, the man who made Maula Jatt was a Rajpoot and yet Muhammad Sarwar Bhatti made a film on difference between right and wrong (justice and injustice) using Jatt and Natt as metaphoric symbols. 

Muttaqi believes “That’s why Maula Jatt is Maulay Nu Maula Na Maray Te Maula Nai Mar Sakda. And when most film makers started making films like Maula Jatt, there was a lot of monotony which made the audience lose interest gradually and then after that, a huge amount of film viewers silently and subconsciously boycotted the cinema and the cinemas started vanishing. There is no doubt about Maula Jatt worth getting inspired by, but, getting inspired with good intellect and understanding is also very important. I used to listen to a lot of intellectuals talking negatively about Maula Jatt, which is also a success, but what makes their arguments hilarious is that they have a very poor understanding about films or I would say we have a very bad habit of accepting the opinion that is based on our own imaginations rather than on facts. 

Another issue is with our aesthetics and ethics. I remember when I was studying in NCA and when we have to make a college project, a short film etc and not for any commercial purposes. If we have to use someone’s content or any content which we do not own, we used to ask for the permission of the authority who has the rights. But I have seen in the media industry they used to violate the rights on daily basis. I have seen people studying abroad and now working here but lacking the basic code of ethics. Which is also very sad and demoralising for those who own the rights and for those who want to come up with the new and different ideas? Banners like us can defend their rights but those who are still struggling couldn’t be able to do the same. They are unable to trust the industries because their ideas and concepts get stolen even before they go further with them. We talk about change yet every leader is violating the rights of their own junior members by asking them to tell a good point in the ear of their leader so their leader should get a high rating for that and yet we say we are fighting for the rights of the people not even giving a simple basic right to people.

My father, Sarwar Bhatti, wanted me to take over the production house he made in 1978, “Bahoo Films Corporation” but I refused by saying I want to do justice to the legacy and want some experience in this field. So after few years of experience I took over our production banner as CEO and me and my father were silently working on a film “LPD”. I cannot reveal anything about LPD right now because “LPD” is going to reveal itself gradually but I just want to say that “the world wants to see something different, so I am deriving sea from the dessert”. I want to add here that it has been said that “Truth is stranger than fiction” so I am making the strangest truth, not fiction”.

The young filmmaker hopes and wish that the films which are being made these days with or without the banner of “revival of the film industry” will not make the same mistake and will come up with the original concepts and ideas. There are a lot of subjects which still haven’t been touched.