Reclaiming the audience; a review of Pakistani cinema in 2014

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Reclaiming the audience; a review of Pakistani cinema in 2014

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LAHORE (Dunya News) For a long period of time Pakistani cinema halls remained mostly isolated because of poor quality of our home industry, Lollywood. There were some good Pakistani films once in a while, like Khuda Kay Liye, but when Indian films attracted the general public and people again started going to cinema as a family outing; our local industry also tried to increase the quality of its movies. 2014 was relatively a good year for Pakistani cinema.

During 2014, Lollywood screened just 21 films in Urdu, Punjabi and Pashto, while only 6 of them are worth mentioning and top grossing movies. Here are the 6 top grossing Pakistani movies of 2014:

 Na Maloom Afraad:

It was a comedy thriller written and directed by Nabeel Qureshi, who made his directorial debut. As compared to its name, the movie itself was not all about just the situation of Karachi. It was a lighthearted comedy which in its own way showed how the culture of curfews, protests and violence has become the routine life matter for the people living in the metropolitan city. Film introduced sophisticated television actors to the big screen and audience really liked to watch their favorite drama stars on silver screen instead of all those worn out heroes and heroines of Lollywood. A UK based Pakistani model Kubra Khan also debuted in this movie.

O21:

 It was the first spy thriller film of Pakistan. Versatile actor Shaan played the lead role. Senior actress and director Zeba Bakhtiar co-directed the movie with Summer Nicks. Plot of the movie is as follows: After 30 years of war in Afghanistan, Abdullah (Ayub Khoso) wants to save Afghanistan from another 50 years of corporate warfare. He met Kashif Siddiqui (Shaan) to save both Afghanistan and Pakistan from further turmoil through a plan which can cost them their lives. His plan has 21 hours to be executed, that is why film was first named Operation 021 but then changed to simply 021.

The System:

It’s an action drama film. The System is set in an area near Lahore and will start from the everyday lives of a middle-class family to expose local corruption. This movie was directed by Norway based Shahzad Ghufoor and produced by a Norway based producer Ghafoor Butt. Director Shahzad Ghufoor himself played the lead role in the film.

Sultanat:

Sultanat was an action romance movie with a heavy budget and stars from Both India and Pakistan. Syed Faisal Bukhari directed the movie while producer Aslam Bhatti also played the lead role in the film. Budget of the movie was said to be Rs 22 crore.

Dukhtar:

It was a drama thriller film, written, directed and produced by Afia Nathaniel. Dukhtar was screened at Toronto Film Festival on September 5, 2014 while it was shown in Pakistani cinemas on September 18, 2014. This film was also selected as Pakistan’s official entry to 87th Academy Awards in category of Best Foreign Language Film but was not nominated. It also became the second consecutive submission from Pakistan to Oscars as well, as Zinda Bhaag was the first one. Samiya Mumtaz played the lead role in the film. This film had very good cinematography but as a whole its plot was not so strong, though its theme was very fertile but filmmaker could not fully do justice to the topic of child marriage.

Tamanna:

It was a neo-noir drama film. The very first Pakistani film in this genre, Tamanna was directed by a British director Steven Moore and produced by Pakistani producer Sarah Tareen. Tamanna had some very good music tracks sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Ali Azmat and Amanat Ali. The film incorporates elements of dark humour, melodrama, crime, passion and revenge and is based on Anthony Shaffer’s play,Sleuth. It was a good effort but it looked more like a desperate attempt instead of a fine piece of work.