KHUDA KAY LIYE
A Thought Provoking, Coming of Age Revival Of Pakistani Cinema
by Vishal Verma
Rating: 
What is it?
Bravo! Shoaib Mansoor, this guy has done the incredible with a 2 + hr flick. Mansoor has dragged ‘Khuda Kay Liye’ into the history books for many reasons. First of all it needed balls to utter a brilliant attack against a clergy that encourages hypocrisy, cruelty, inflexibility, ignorance and medievalism. Picture this, Naseeruddin Shah, playing Maulana Wali - a long bearded progressive Islamic scholar (probably based on Maulana Ahmed Javed and Allama Javed Ahmed Ghamidi) comes in court and provides fodders for thought, clarifies and asks questions with stark liners (excellently written) like ‘main haram ka paisa le kar, halal gosht ki dokan dhoondta houn" (I search for halal meat shops having earned money from false means) and the salvo actor gets the required applause. But it doesn,t ends here. The best one according to me which was witty and also hard-hitting “deen main darhi hai,darhi main deen nahin’ (‘having beard is in the religion, the religion is not in beard’).
Secondly, the movie has smashed all records on Pakistan and has won accolades in Muslim countries. It has picked up the Award for Best Picture at the 31st Cairo International Film Festival, the Best Foreign Film award at the Muscat Film Festival and the Roberto Rossellini Award in Italy, apart from generous applause at the Goa Film Festival last year.
And thirdly, ‘Khuda Kay Liye’ — is the first Pakistani film to be officially released in India (April 4) and it’s a sincere attempt to decode “Islamic” fanaticism, to tell the world that irrational cynicism against the religion is self-defeating.
Pakistan was known as ‘turkeyistan’ as it used to churn out turkeys every now and then but Mansoor has changed the face with ‘Khuda Kay Liye’ and brought people flocking back to cinema halls and the most commendable part is, (Indian politicians take a note), the movie got appreciation both from the rich and poor and it was not banned though it had a statement against the hardliners.
It is indeed a pity when we come across a film like ‘Khuda Kay Liye’ in Pakistan enjoying the needed appreciations and in our own Hindustan, we see ‘Fanaa’ being ‘damned’ to death by vested interest in Gujarat for no reasons as such. ‘Baghi’ (Punjabi film) pulled down from theatres on caste lines – the film later won the national award for the best Punjabi film. Line from a popular song gets chopped to please a section of the society.
Jodhaa Akbar being denied entry initially in some parts for the reasons better known to them.
I wonder what will be the scenario when an Indian maker makes a film on hardliners over here.
Anyhow, that is a different matter all together.
What makes ‘Khuda Kay Liye’ work as a meaningful cinema is the story that is interesting as it handles two major issues – religious extremism and racial profiling - and twines them well. There are other issues also that the movie tries to focus on; condition of women during Taliban days in Afghanistan, theological issues of acceptance of music and cultural contextualization of Islam and the way various groups are putting forward their own version of the religion. Shoaib Mansoor (the writer and the director) has been able to put the things in perspective pretty well.
What is it all about?
The movie revolves around two musician brothers – Mansoor ( Shan – excellent) and Sarmad ( Fawad Khan – brilliant) - one of whom transitions into religious extremism and the other fells victim to racial profiling. It depicts an upper middle class/rich family in Lahore with a mix of traditional and liberal values. The movie plot starts somewhere in pre 9/11 timeframe and ends in late 2002. The brothers have their own music group and are shown as beginning to make a mark on the music scene in Pakistan. The younger brother Sarmad gets involved in an extremist company whereas the elder brother Mansoor moves to Chicago to attend a music school.
Two more angles enter the movie where Mansoor gets into a romantic relationship in Chicago and eventually marries a white American ( Austine Marie Sayre – fine) and Sarmad deceitfully marries his British born and raised cousin ( Iman Ali – fantastic). In the latter case, the UK based uncle of the boys, worried by the prospect of his daughter having an affair with a white British, traps her into a visit to Pakistan and sends her into an Afghan village where she is forcefully married.
The movie moves into post 9/11 territory when Mansoor is picked up by law enforcement agencies in the middle of the night from his apartment and detained ostensibly in an extra constitutional prison and humiliated in all ways. Sarmad on the other hand gets involved in the battle between Taliban, US forces and Northern Alliance.
Later the girl files a case in court against her forceful marriage and the clergy gets his beating in court by Maulana Wali (Naseeruddin Shah – superb in a cameo) a long bearded progressive Islamic scholar.
What to look out for?
Mansoor has shown his brilliance in the highly entertaining Pakistani drama ‘ Alpha Bravo Charlie’ and here he goes much further in ‘Khuda Kay Liye’ which has depth in his thought and the way it manages to capture the dilemma on screen.
The movie is about the problems faced by the modern, educated and liberal Muslims in today’s times who are disliked by the fundamentalists in their own community because of their modern thinking and their western attire and at the same time they are viewed suspiciously by the western world too because of their Muslim names, post the 9/11 incident.
The film tries to answer some of the most important questions which every Muslim wants to ask; questions which interfere with the daily lives of millions of Muslims.
Such as; is music haram? Is it necessary to have a beard? Is it a sin to wear jeans,etc.? Is it sinful for a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim man? Does Islam encourage terrorism? The film answers these questions in such a convincing manner that you can`t help but agree with everything. The music of the movie is also noteworthy with tracks like ‘Bandya’ and ‘Allah Hoo’.
What not?
There are some glitches like why Iman did not send the letter to UK earlier which she sends later in the movie? Or why Mansoor did not intimate his family about his sudden marriage in US? Or how the judges or the lawyers in a Muslim country are not aware about the Islamic rights of the girl in a marriage?