Change Your Image
arshadfilms1
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
The Legend of Maula Jatt (2022)
Non-stop thriller
Maula Jatt is an incredible Pakistani epic that deserves to be seen and appreciated world over. With an outstanding cast and contemporarily relevant, almost feminist script, the film is thoroughly entertaining. The critique of society not taking a stand for the downtrodden and the underdog in Pakistan still stands.
The film is a remake of the Pakistani classic with heavy influence from Game of Thrones, but really holds its own.
Faris Shaf and, Umaima Malik stole the show.
I really hope the Indian Punjabi speaking public also gets to enjoy the film. It really is the best Punjabi film of the year for sure.
Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)
Spectacular craftsmanship on screen
This has to be one of the best films of 2022. Tilda Swinton and Edris Alba both give stellar performances in this tale of the Djinn who grants three wishes to his liberator. The film is marvelously directed with clarity in storytelling and a breathtaking production design. The soundtrack alone is a masterclass. The films unfolds like middle eastern folklore with story within a story and each one gives you an insight into the characters and into the nature of love itself.
The film takes us to modern day Turkey and uses Middle Eastern and North African history and mythology very respectfully. The production design is at once fantastical and believable. Not since Tarsem Singh has a film visually moved me so much.
It needs to be seen in the cinema.
Indus Blues (2018)
Essential Film Out of Pakistan
Indus Blues is breathtakingly beautiful, It is a tale of dying cultures across Pakistan - a country that has traded culture and beauty for Wahabism and 18th century colonial prudishness. The film is very bold in its attempt to document the struggles of folk music in a country that has literally started to look at music as something haram (forbidden). Bravo! Everyone needs to watch this film.
Chhapaak (2020)
An urgent and important story that empowers the victims and helps us understand the plight of acid attack victims! Well Done!
A rare gem from Bollywood, this is another masterwork from director Meghana Gulzar (Talwar, Raazi), starring the stunning actress Deepika Padukone in possibly the most challenging role of her life so far. The film is about acid violence in India but it applies to the whole world where women are seen as the lesser sex. The film is empowering despite being harrowing. It was a very emotional and difficult film to watch at times but it never broke the emotional connection to the characters and never took the viewer out of its spell. The music is beautiful and the treatment of the issue and the victims is sincere and honest and highly respectful. This is an important film. Go see it.
Sound of Metal (2019)
Breathtaking performance from an underrated Riz Ahmed
The Sound of Metal is definitely one of the top films this year and it has everything to do with the steak kar performances of the lead actor Riz Ahmed. With blond hair it's hard to even place him as a Pakistani playing the role. Ahmed is an intense actor and takes us into the world of a tormented drummer trying to come to terms with losing his hearing not long after overcoming addiction. This new battle takes him into an unfamiliar world where the sound design helps the audience feel what the protagonist must feel. This film selves into experimentation with the auditory experience of cinema. An absolute must-watch.
Zinda Bhaag (2013)
Zinda Bhaag — ushering in a new era for Pakistani cinema
Zinda Bhaag will not win the Oscar. Not because it is not good enough, but because it is impossible for its nuance, humour and wit to be translated into English. The very thing that will make it a sensation in Pakistan and India will work against it at the Academy: its authentic voice that speaks loud and clear to and for the people that it represents.
When asked about the movie, co-director Meenu Gaur said, "We wanted to make a movie that we ourselves would like to go and watch in the theatre." Zinda Bhaag is a very distinct film that employs cinema verite along with Lollywood kitsch to create a strong narrative that is both entertaining and conscientious. It is a Punjabi film that takes pride in its heritage without compromising its integrity. With Zinda Bhaag, the Pakistani film industry embarks on its nouvelle vague while setting an entirely new standard for South Asian cinema. It is the quintessential representation of the existential crisis facing young Pakistanis. However, most importantly, the film addresses the dwindling middle class and the working poor. The film recounts the story of three friends trying to get out of Pakistan as narrated by Naseeruddin Shah's character Pehlwan, who happens to be the area godfather. In a country where gambling is prohibited by law but still quite rampant, young men are willing to gamble with their own lives in order to realise their 'American Dream'. Zinda Bhaag is a cautionary tale that somehow avoids being preachy.
Pakistani cinema has revived due to the lifting of restrictions against Indian films. As film is one of the most collaborative forms of art, without cross-border cooperation, nothing would have been possible. Art house cinema actor Naseeruddin Shah invested in the industry with his participation in several hit films. With his patronage and performance in Zinda Bhaag, the industry is indebted to Shah.
Farjad and Meenu derive stellar performances. Amna Ilyas plays the true 'hero' Rubina — a young, ambitious woman trying to earn an honest living in a corrupt nation. She sees the potential in Khaldi (played flawlessly by Khurram Patras) and tries to help him. In a brilliant tete-a-tete, which involves proverbs, hilarious Punjabi sayings and play on words, the entire structure of their relationship is revealed. The filmmakers pay a tribute to the industry by offering Naghma Begum the memorable role of a selfish mother pushing her children's buttons while consuming trash television.
Sahir Ali Bhagga's music is an essential element in the construction of the ebbs and flows in the film. Every song is deliberately woven and moves the narrative while layering it. How would the Oscar voters understand the foreshadowing of events and the multiple associations of "Par Chana De" where the conversation between Sohni and her ghara (clay pot) are not translatable? Punjabis, however, will be delightfully reintroduced to the kinship between cinema and literature, and enjoy the language of cinema once again.
Zinda Bhaag is the most beautiful and complex film to come from Pakistan in decades and proves that great storytelling does not need massive budgets or a Bollywood repertoire. This year Zinda Bhaag will run for a spot on the Oscar shortlist with the likes of other remarkable films like Omar, La Passe, Child's Pose, Cannibal, and Gloria. However, in the hearts of Pakistanis everywhere, when they see Zinda Bhaag, they already know it's a winner. Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2013.