Zahid Khan and Firdous in Aansoo (1971)

Capsule Review: Based on Riaz Arshad’s novel “Andhi Jawani”, Aansoo was one of the best films made during the early period of colored Lollywood films. The film dealt with the sensitive issue of rape and its after effects. Farida (Firdous) gets raped by a stranger Akhtar (Masoud Akhtar) while travelling from Karachi to Rawalpindi by train. The trauma of rape effects her psychologically for the rest of her life. Firdous who was then a popular heroine of Punjabi films gave one of her best performances in Urdu films as a character artiste. Highlights of the film were its songs including Mehdi Hassan’s “Jaan e jaan to jo kahey” – Ummer Siddique

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 1971, Genre – Drama, Country – Pakistan, Language – Urdu, Producer – Masood Khan, Director – S.A.Bokhari, Music Director – Nazir Ali, Cast - Deeba, Nadeem, Shahid, Mahpara, Firdaus

Rehan in Zinda Laash (1967)

In a day and age where even the mere mention of Lollywood elicits shudders of contempt, it is a relief to watch a resurrected classic Zinda Laash. Horror film buff and filmmaker Omar Khan decided to bring this desi gothic classic to life to show what Pakistani cinema was once capable of – and this effort culminated in the film being screened recently at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Boasting an impressive cast of the stars of yesteryears such as Nasreen, Deeba, Habib and our own answer to Christopher Lee – the exceedingly handsome Rehan – it also has the infamous Rangeela doing a cameo. Unfortunately these names may not strike a bell to the new generation, but they are icons of an industry that was once creative, successful and vibrant and garnered widespread respect and popularity. Zinda Laash belongs to an age where films and going to the cinema were very much the norm and diverse subjects from romance to humour to even horror were explored. Zinda Laash is a testimony to such creative expression and was an experiment of boldly delving into an unchartered genre of gothic cinema.

The term Desi Gothic implies blood, gore, women in burqas spinning spears out of control (akin to Omar’s debut Zibahkhana), yet despite being a horror classic, the 1967 Zinda Laash lacks all of the above. A remake of Bram Stoker’s renowned Dracula, this Pakistani version is an understated film that creates horror through actions and facial expression, since cinema in the 1960s was still in black and white. It may not appeal or compete with the technical effects that contemporary films of the same genre have but it certainly, to quote Omar Khan, ‘would have caused a few sleepless nights in its day’. It is also the first Dracula tale to have been modernized, where the vampire is seen to drive a car and offer a baby as fodder (a highly contentious issue) to his fellow vampire friend.

It must have been quite the challenge to create terror without gore, but Khwaja M Sarfaraz’s direction and the actors’ meticulously delivered expressions, lend this film that aura of mystery, murder and horror.

And it was clearly quite effective since Omar recalls a memorable moment of the film’s release back in the 60s – “a woman died of fright of watching Zinda Laash at a cinema in Gujranwala!” The film relies entirely upon the quiet menace that Rehan creates with an unparalleled finesse through his superbly nuanced acting skills and the dignified manner in which he walks in that long black stylishly donned overcoat. He certainly makes a most impressive Dracula. The film also boasts elaborate stylized sets that showcase the swinging 1960s and 1970s, grand bungalows and mansions, sprawling lawns, immaculate suits, boisterous singing, drinking and dancing. These were all characteristics of a fabulously fashionable and indulgently decadent era long gone.

However, Zinda Laash does have a few amusing features, like scenes of women luring men, that are a necessary evil of all films produced in the subcontinent. But these can be discounted for the seamless flow of the story, melodious score and the coherence in the direction. The finesse with which this film has been made leads one to automatically assume that it must have been pictured in Germany or Prague than in Murree or Lahore and a critical mind can detect very clear and tangible elements of German expressionism.

Zinda Laash also has the distinction of being the first ever horror film to be screened at two major film festivals abroad; the Sitges Fantastic Film Festival in Spain and the Neuchatel International Festival of Fantastic Films in Switzerland.

The film has been available abroad since 2003 and was mentioned in the ten best DVDs of the year in three American publications. The DVD is a definite collector’s item, which features newly filmed interviews with the cast and crew of the film, as well as a documentary on South Asian horror films.

Part of our lost filmi heritage, Zinda Laash is needed now more than ever to provide us with a sense of pride. It is a definite must watch, particularly for those studying film or gothic literature, or those without “irrational or persistent fears of ghosts and demons!” – Hani Taha Salim (Rating – 4 OUT OF 5)

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 1967, Genre – Horror, Country – Pakistan, Language – Urdu, Producer – Abdul Baqi Director – Sarfaraz, Music Director – Tassaduq Hussain, Cast – Rehan, Habib, Deeba, Nasreen, Yasmin, Asad Bokhari, Chham Chham, Allaudin

Kaun Bane Ga Crorepati is based on Dabir ul Hasan’s (Shamim Ara’s husband) shamelessly plagiarized script that has two young men trying to woo a rich girl who exchanges personal status with a girlfriend to test the sincerity of people professing love and find out if they were attracted to her person or her wealth.

Once that issue is settled, distrust is introduced by out of context photographs of Moammar and Noor to accuse them of treachery. The medicine is repeated by catching Reema and Babar in a similar hug to clear the misunderstanding and bring culprits Deeba and Shafqat Cheema to book. They are a couple of sly gold diggers out to deprive Reema of her inheritance.

Deeba is rich Reema’s deceptive governess and Cheema is lover boy Babar’s scheming father.

Performances

Reema seems to have worked hard to attain a pleasant degree of consummation with the demands of the art in every respect; others have put their heart in performances and make for limitations either in talent or in some other respect. This is not to distract from their contribution, particularly from Noor’s numbers. One of them is excitingly rapid fire and the other charmingly slow paced.

The boys, Moammar Rana and Babar Ali could not have been previously suspected of being capable of distinguishing hop-step and jump from rock or even the current swinging body-beat and physical abandon. In Kaun Bane Ga Crorepati, they show a welcome capacity for responding to professional guidance and handling. As for Reema, she is near superb. A reportable aspect of dances in Kaun Bane Ga Crorepati is that they are free of the prevailing vulgarity currently presented by local films as entertainment.

The cast also includes Rambo and Veena Malik. Mystery man Rambo reveals his identity at the end; Veena is his infrequent female companion who is given entries, exits and a dance to perform but is forgotten by the time it is curtainfall. Teaming her with Rambo makes her irrelevant fiddle. No slight intended for Rambo except that it is time filmmakers decided as to how to use him.

Review

Actress Shamim Ara emerged as a director of outstanding talent with her very first lifting fo the megaphone. Playboy (1978) heralded the arrival of a creative director whose idea of a film script was contemporary, issue based and imaginative yet commercially viable.

She quickly adjusted directorial sails with the slide down in Pakistani cinema with a series of movies woven around Singapore, Hong Kong and Colombo ‘girls’. The films were entertaining, successful on the circuit and represented competent direction but contained nothing more for a dispatch.

Then Shamim Ara went out of circulation, returning to production some years later with a movie in 1999 titled Pal do Pal. Her own work was woefully slipshod but a script of extraordinary atrociousness by husband Dabir ul Hasan was the main cause of her fall from professional grace.

That, besides bad health was the reason why no producer commissioned her for a fairly long period. Producer Jamshed Zafar revived Shamim Ara with Kaun Bane Ga Crorepati, but he failed to realize that whatever were the qualities endearing Dabir ul Hasan to Shamim Ara as husband, writing good scripts for films was not one of them. He is present in Crorepati with the kind of script that can sink the greatest director.

Here Shamim Ara has managed to survive a story that is doubly stolen: two Indian films are joined together to produce Kaun Bane Ga Crorepati. Dabir ul Hasan has reduced the originals to distorted versions and added to them some pathetically tasteless, indeed stinking humour of his own plus mirthless, stale jokes. How does the director cross this tottering bridge?

Pappu Samrat and Ashraf Shirazi, both top names of Pakistani cinema in their field, have choreographed the dances. Cinematography is the responsibility of Akif Chaudhry and Sajjad Rizvi. I am familiar with Chaudhry’s work. Rizvi, I am told, is good. This quartet gets together to produce a series of dazzling dances, their picturization giving a new and brilliant dimension to the filming of dances in Pakistani films. A demonstration of craft of comparable quality by editor Z.A.Zulfi turns them in to a memorable feast.

This is Shamim Ara at her most commanding as a director. Popular numbers by singers Abrar ul Haq (one regrets his controversial lyric of uncultured taste) and Jawad are used for two of the dances. Scores of dancers add grandeur to the footage; in one case, it is an all male cast. Based on compositions by Wajid Ali Nashad and lyrics by Aqeel Rubi, the remaining dances are equally slick, charming and artistic.

It however takes more than choreographer, cameramen, editor, composer, singers and even a director to produce brilliant musical sequences. Unless dancers perform with comparable class and possess rhythmic facility of movement with figures to match and they are professionally qualified for a high level rendering of the art, impactful totality would escape production. They are infact the starting point for a song-dance sequence. All these requirements are admittedly not fully met but distance between ideal inputs and available talent is fortunately not too wide.

Filmgoer’s unfamiliar with the writer’s source of inspiration may have enjoyed the movie but irritating stupid clowning and offensive and silly humour are enlisted to put them off. Shamim Ara apparently could not curb the plagiaristic and low taste ambitions and inclinations of her hubby. One wishes her happy conjugal life but Jamshed Zafar should have exercised the producer’s prerogative and judged the script strictly. One hopes he does that when he is presented another such yarn, regardless of the relationship between the writer and the director.

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 2002, Genre – Drama, Country – Pakistan, Language – Urdu, Producer – Jamshed Zafar, Director – Shamim Ara, Music Director – N/A, Cast – Reema, Moammar Rana, Babar Ali, Noor, John Rambo, Veena Malik, Deeba, Shafqat Cheema