Much has been said, written and filmed about India and
Pakistan. For a change let us discuss Indians and Pakistanis today – people in
flesh and blood and people with a heart! This in essence is the crux of
Filmistaan and hats off to Nitin Kakkar for being honest to the storyline and
bringing out this message so effectively. If this movie experience has to be described
in one sentence it would simply be “you just can’t afford to give it a miss’.
An extremely sensitive plot and a tighter script when collude
with larger than life performances you can’t expect anything less than a magic.
The movie with a comical humor delves into the complex topic of creation of
artificial boundaries over a set of people and making these people believe that
they are two different entities with nothing in common.
Filmistaan is a welcome break from the earlier stereo type narrations
on similar plots - movies intending to create unnecessary jingoism. The filmmakers
in the past have either ended up taking sides or fallen prey to the unnecessary
and unwanted call for nationalism especially in sequences when it was not
required. Even a biopic like Bhag Milkha Bhag couldn’t escape that. This movie
however, treads cautiously into this sensitive realm, sticks to the storyline
and ends up making story as the real hero. No wonder the movie has already bagged
awards in international forums. Filmistan also goes on to prove that if you
honest to your storyline you can still grab eyeballs and mint money at the box
office. The preliminary reports do suggest that the movie is a hit.
Here’s a movie that forces you to rethink on the cultural
continuity between India and Pakistan and how movies as art forms have bridged the
artificial hiatus created by history. The name Filmistaan definitely has relevance
here. Hindustan, Pakistan might be two separate entities but Filmistaan is a common
entity that binds together both the regions and their people with films serving
as the crucial bonding element between the two.
Sunny (Sharib Hashmi) is a happy-go-lucky fellow who always
dreams of making it big in films someday. As part of an American crew he lands
up in Rajasthan for a documentary shoot and in a case of mistaken identity is
kidnapped and brought to Pakistan as a captive. Aftab (Imanullah) is a petty
Pakistani villager who makes money by selling pirated Indian movie Cds in
Pakistan.
Aftab is himself a great movie buff and finds a true friend
in Sunny - of course the passion for films in both serves as the boding
element. Aftab fights all odds to help Sunny escape back to India. The movie
ends on a note where Sunny and Aftab are about to cross the border with cross
firing from both sides. The back ground music stops and then we hear the voice-over
of Nehru in chaste Anglicized accent proclaiming the freedom in India and so
does Jinnah in Pakistan. The message is loud and clear! Independence was for
the ruling class!
The dialogues especially those referring to the common
elements between the two countries are definitely food for thought. The madarsa
trained Pakistani jihadi unnerves your spine when he narrates his story of how
he became a jihadi. “Madarse me panch waqt nawaaz to tha par do waqt ki roti
naseeb nahi thi.”
The movie definitely raises questions on the sad state of affairs
on the villages of the border and how these villagers are left at the mercy of
either the jihadis or the security forces. Another interesting and unique thing
about this movie that definitely deserves a mention is that it doesn’t have a
lead or even a secondary female cast in the whole movie. This should definitely
be an eye opener for those filmmakers who believe that movies in India can’t work
without a lead female actor or an item number.
