Faiz festival concludes

LAHORE:The three-day Faiz International Festival concluded at Alhamra, The Mall, on Sunday which attracted the most number of visitors mainly because of a holiday. There was a session with Mahira Khan and singing performance by Bushra Ansari.

The session ‘One Step Forward, One Step Back’ about films having Javed Sheikh, Nabeel Qureshi and Fiza Ali Mirza gave a deep insight into present day cinema. Javed Sheikh was of the opinion that Pakistani film industry was flourishing; however, cinema owners must use new technology. He came hard on the government on censorship issue. Giving the example of recently released film, Verna, he said the approach of the censor board was insane. Nabeel Qureshi said there were three censor boards in Pakistan whereas all over the world there had always been a single central censor board. He suggested that instead of three there should be only one central unified censor board.

Fiza Ali Mirza mentioned the dearth of good film writers and discussed the screening of Pakistani movies at the international level. The ever-green, lively and dynamic Bushra Ansari provided a wonderful time to the audience by singing Faiz’s poetry. Another session which was also well-attended was that of Mahira Khan in which her recently released film Verna was discussed. The moderators were Sarmad Khoosat and Mira Hashmi.

Mahira said she had tried to do justice to her role in the movie. “I did Verna because it was an important issue to talk about and I also wanted to stretch myself as an actress.”

She said she did not like any kind of branded cinema and social issues should be discussed through this medium. She shared with the audience how she was learning Punjabi and how difficult it was for her to learn the language.

The last performance of the night was by Tina Sani, which was a ticketed one. When this report was filed, Sani’s performance had not taken place.