‘Jinnah’ and ‘Khamosh Pani’ at PNCA

Islamabad : Divvy Foundation and Pakistan National Council of the Arts conclude their six-week series of film screenings with Sabiha Sumar's ‘Khamosh Pani’ and Jamil Dehlavi's Jinnah on November 13 at 6 p.m in PNCA Open Air Theater.

The past six weeks brought us dozens of enormously well-made shorts, features, documentaries, fiction, animation and much more. This was a kind of crash course in film appreciation with introductions, meeting filmmakers, discussions and Q&As.

And now the concluding screenings. Director and co-screenwriter Jamil Dehlavi's ‘Jinnah’ from 1998 is no ordinary film. Starring Christopher Lee (Jinnah), Shashi Kapoor (narrator) and James Fox (Lord Mountbatten), ‘Jinnah’ successfully attempts to bring out the conviction behind creation of Pakistan. Homeland for Muslims in the subcontinent is only one reason. The film revolves around the struggle of Quaid, Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah and others for a mission with purpose. Horrors of partition come out loud and clear with massacred bodies in trains.

‘Jinnah’ did raise eyebrows for casting Dracula -fame Christopher Lee as Jinnah. The fact remains that all said and done, Lee brings conviction to his role and that is all what counts in the end.

According to Jamil Dehlavi, he wanted to: 1) correct history 2) present liberal view of Islam, and 3) present a person not known to young Pakistanis both here and abroad. He pretty much succeeds at that. Jinnah begins with the end. Quaid is brought back to Karachi, and on the way from the airport, the ambulance breaks down. It is grilling both inside and outside and there is no help or support. This speaks volumes on how we treated Quaid in his last hours. Additional volumes come later on how we treated Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah in the sixties during the elections. Tons of shame in respective quarters. Coming back, Jamil Dehlavi brilliantly takes us into flashbacks with the narrator into the dramatic events of the past. Jinnah is a highly commendable cinematic event from our film history of 1998.

Director Sabiha Sumar and screenwriter Paromita Vohra's ‘Khamosh Pani’ from 2003 with Kiron Kher and Aamir Malik shows us late-seventies Punjab village with a widow and her teenage son. Watch both ‘Khamosh Pani’ and ‘Jinnah’ and praise the filmmakers for bringing something different from the mediocrity of box office. Do bring cushions. Warm clothing must for mid-November chill.

— aijazzgul@gmail. com