ISLAMABAD: Two films Minority Girl and Hasan Koezagar screened at the South Asian Policy Network on Friday received rave reviews from the literati and critics.
Although both films had different concepts, there was a common thread connecting them, and that was about dreams that remained unfulfilled.
Minority Girl is about a Christian girl named Rabia who lives in a one—room house with her parents and five siblings in Arya Mohallah, Rawalpindi.
The mother’s wages were not enough to pay the rent of the house so Rabia has no choice but to share the burden. She takes up work as a housemaid in a house in Islamabad.
To reach her workplace Rabia had to travel on a public van and during her journey she often endured insults of wagon drivers and helpers. But she had no choice but to bear them as she had to look after her family.
Rabia’s mother felt scared for her because of the changing attitude of the people, especially after a church was attacked in Islamabad. No one could have thought that a church located in the fortified city of the federal capital would be hit by extremists and militants, and yet it happened, says a Christian pastor.
Rabia often dreams of a bright future when she sees scarlet wedding dresses in TV teleplays. Like any other girl she too would be married but she is putting it off for the sake of her diseased mother and the education of her younger sister who was often found complaining of being forced to attend Islamic lessons despite the fact that school rules forbade children of other faiths to attend Islamic classes.
The second film Hassan Koezagar is special because famed director and actor Zia Mohyeddin has lent celebrity status to it by reading N.M. Rashed’s immortal poem which had the same name as the film.
The film is also about the broken dream of Hassan Potter who gets a spark in life after falling in love with a girl. But there is tantalising business of earning a living and Hassan has to return to his wheel and start creating clay pots and pans.
Kishwar Naheed, who was presiding over the event as well as critics like Imtiaz Gul, Basharat Qadri, social activist Tahira Abdullah and Ashfaq Saleem Mirza praised Sanobar Nazir for taking a leap in this art.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/22/2010
