Film ‘Qurbani’ to be screened on Saturday

Islamabad :

Director-Producer-Screenwriter: Producer: Pervaiz Malik

Dialogues: Masroor Anwar, Amjad Islam Amjad

Music: M. Ashraf

Cast: Nadeem, Shabnam, Khurram, Aurangzeb, Afzaal, Deeba, Najma Mahboob.

Lok Virsa Mandwa Film Club unspools Urdu film ‘Qurbani’ from 1981 on Saturday (January 19) at 3 pm. Produced, directed and scripted by Pervaiz Malik in 1981, it is largely a remake of two Hollywood smash hits: ‘The Champ and Kramer Vs Kramer.’

Nadeem is past jockey at the horse racing club. He goes to a wedding where the bridegroom and ‘baraat’ leave unattended and the bride Shabnam and her family are devastated. Nadeem is too good to leave them alone at stress. After a brief chit chat with Shabnam, he becomes instant bridegroom to save the bride and her old father from tons of utter disgrace, insult and humility. The marriage works out well for while. The family now with a son feel the financial crunch and Shabnam decides to opt for singing to share the household load. This is not acceptable to macho Nadeem and this also is the beginning of marital conflict, ending on a divorce. ‘Qurbani’ can then be rolled up into one: marriage, separation, divorce, child custody, return to horse race track, fatal injury, and a painful tragic end.

The main premise of the film works on irreconcilable difference in the marriage. This subject has rarely been tried on our screen but the original source (The Champ and Kramer vs Kramer) has been by millions on screen and faced in life. This then is a weepie with 10 handkerchiefs - sad and tragic. To get strong tear-stained response, Pervaiz Malik uses the child star Khurram as the shield all the way to the climax and beyond but does that pretty well and with finesse.

The cast lead by Nadeem, Shabnam and Khurram is impressive. Aurangzeb and Afzaal as vicious villains (as owner at the racing club and lawyer) work out well. Even Deeba in an extremely brief role as guest artist, leaves strong impression.

One of the major highlights of ‘Qurbani’, apart from its emotional manipulative strategy, is a musical number ‘Mera tujh sey aisa bandhan hai’ rendered first by Ghulam Abbas, then Mehnaz, and finally by Naheed Akhtar. M. Ashraf was a low-B Class music director, affordable to all mid-level and below-the-line poor producers. He worked in bulk and composed instant forgettable melodies. However, here M. Ashraf rises above his mediocrity and creates a spell not once, not twice but thrice with same melody rendered by three singers separately.

Go watch ‘Qurbani’ at Mandwa for these three songs, Pervaiz Malik's intelligent handling and believable performance by all actors.

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