By Jonaid Iqbal
ISLAMABAD: People waited patiently for about an hour for the screening of the Punjabi film, Muhabbatan Sachiyan (true love prevails) at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) Thursday evening.
This might be an index of the exuberant reception the film received from an excited audience that expected the film to be an extraordinary one, not only due to wide publicity about its double showing at the Muscat international film festival six weeks ago but also because of the ceremony held before its screening.
The ceremony might be in order since PNCA Director-General Tauqeer Nasir told the gathering that the council had been assigned the task of acting as a bridge between the film industry and the government. He hoped the decision would help revive the industry, boost its morale and help them produce 112 films each year.
“We may not stop screening Indian films. However, by adopting such measures it would bring confidence back to compete with them and come up with quality films as was the characteristic of Pakistani films during and before 1977.
The presence of two senior additional secretaries from the culture ministry as well as film director Shahzad Rafique, poet Riazur Rahman Sagar, who wrote the lyrics, and film star Maria Khan confirmed the new portfolio of films assigned to the PNCA.
The story of love is true of this film Muhabbatan Sachiyan produced in 2007. However, it is not a story of the usual love between a rich boy and a pauper girl. In this film the hero Nomi played by Adnan Khan, villain Samir (Behzad) and heroine Saira (Veena Malik) belong to affluent houses of the village.
It transpires that the father of the villain gets his son engaged to Saira when they were children, and promises to marry them off when they become adults. However when they grow up, the hero Nomi, who also lives in the same village, falls in love with Saira.
In the meantime the villain, Samir, questions his father’s authority to decide his future 15 years in advance. He questions his father not because of any liberal thought but because he was having a whale of a time with a new girl in the city (played by Maria Khan).
This is the novelty of this film. It introduces a new theme in Punjabi movies, the habit of questioning of old living styles and ways, because, as of now, Punjabi films are full of long boasts and loud dialogues between Chaudhrys and the peasants of the village. The film also has good music and bold scenes.
Notwithstanding the plaudits that Muhabbatan Sachiyan received at the PNCA, it still remains behind in modern story concept relevant to our time.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/7/2010
