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For sometime now, Indian films are having regular commercial releases in Pakistan – as far as I understand, on a case-by-case consideration. And after the initial euphoria of at last getting to watch Indian films legally on the big screen after all these years of watching grainy, pirated DVDs, the Pakistanis, I am told by some of my Pakistani friends from the film world, are starting to treat Indian films with the respect or contempt that they deserve.

But all this time, there had not been a reciprocal release of Pakistani films commercially in India, barring the limited release of the Pakistani-French-German co-production Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters) directed by Sabiha Sumar. Come March 28, things will finally change. That is the day when Shoaib Mansoor’s Khuda Kay Liye (In the Name of God) – a huge hit in Pakistan – is releasing in India. And there could not have been a better film from that country to give Indian viewers a taste of new Pakistani cinema, even if it is one of the rare examples of it.

KKL is an important film in the Pakistani context for several reasons. First and foremost, it takes up an issue that is being debated hotly and widely in the Muslim world – the way Muslims are being viewed in large parts of the world post 9/11. It is the first Pakistani film with a top star from the hardcore commercial film industry in Lahore – Shaan – to take up such a sensitive subject. Secondly, KKL has none of the tackiness that the usual Lollywood brand of Pakistani cinema is identified with. It is slickly made, and is shot in several locations – Lahore, London, Chicago and Para Chanar in the tribal areas of Pakistan (which itself should be a big feat, considering the political situation there). Thirdly, it is the result of joining hands of several media companies like the Jang group, the News and Geo Television which – as a note available with the publicity folder of the film, a copy of which I collected at Nantes in France after viewing KKL at the Festival of 3 Continents, says – want to revive Pakistani cinema. And fourthly, the first-time director has been able to take on the subject head on.

Yes, the film has its weak points, the worst of which is its length of nearly 3 hours. Since the subject has a background of music, it has got several songs, with interesting compositions, but as you watch the film, you get a feeling they are adding a drag quotient to an otherwise hard-hitting subject. (the version I got to watch had just one complete song, but I am told the full version has got all the songs). For a film with a politico-religious subject, sometimes things tend to unfold a tad too slowly in the film – sometimes you might feel that it could have unfolded in a Black Friday sort of pace.

But then, Mansoor has been able to hold his film together quite remarkably, even though it has three parallel but intertwined stories going on. Without being a spoiler, I can just say this much about the story – it is about two music-loving brothers, one of whom gets influenced by fundamentalism, and the other becomes a victim of the result of fundamentalism, while in the third track their cousin sister tries to find her identity in a world kept orthodox by ultra-religious dictates.

The fact that KKL is going to be the first widely-released Pakistani film in India has its own significance. We Indians always view Pakistan with a great deal of suspicion, and even though we develop excellent personal rapport when we meet a Pakistani, the image of a feudal, ultra-religious society always lurks somewhere at the back of our minds. KKL surely breaks that image. It also breaks the image of Pakistani cinema generally being the poor cousin – and poor copies - of Bollywood masala films. The most important thing about KKL, I feel, is the fact that it was a big Box Office hit in Pakistan – with a lot of debate in the society about the issues raised by it - despite angry reactions from a minority orthodox religious section to the way it questions their hegemony.

The film has uniformly impressive acting, whether it is by superstar Shaan, Fawad Khan, newcomer Iman Ali (keep an eye on this girl, she might just be the toast of Indian filmmakers after the release of KKL, where she does not betray any nervousness of a newcomer portraying a complex role – a perfect combination of beauty with grey matter it seems), Austin Marie Sayre, or our own Naseeruddin Shah, whose turn as the keeper of religious sanity and consciousness amidst the cacophony of turning religion into a tool of hatred, is a highpoint of the film. And, of course, Rasheed Naz is simply captivating as the fundamentalist Moulvi.

What is remarkable about KKL is that despite the sensitivity of the subject, the director has been able to stay remarkably detached from the core questions that he seeks to raise, letting the viewer develop one’s own opinion. Things are not portrayed as pure black or pure white – there is always some shades of grey in between – as it takes a close look at the tension between fundamentalists and liberal Muslims, and the paradoxes that Muslims are having to face post 9/11.

KKL is the right kind cinema to introduce the viewers in India to Pakistani films. The only issue here is whether they will embrace it as well as the Pakistani viewers did, though there is no reason why it should not. The wild reception it got at the Goa IFFI in November, 2007, where it was in competition, could be a reasonable indication of its potential market in India.

PS: Mansoor developed the idea about the film after a lot of thinking, but one incident really triggered it off. As he says in the film’s booklet, “One morning I was going through a newspaper and I saw my friend Junaid Jamshed’s interview in it. After looking at his new attire in the photograph published with the article, I could not stop myself from reading it. The more I read, the sadder I felt. He had announced quitting music after being convinced that it was “haram”. It really shook me very badly. I have never believed that God could hate the two most beautiful things he has given to mankind - music and painting. I felt that a confused man like Junaid had no right to confuse thousands of his youthful followers. I had given him sixteen years of my life as a true friend and had played my role in his professional life to the best of my abilities. How could he throw away our sixteen years just like that without even consulting me? I felt that it was my duty to rectify the damage he had done to the already suffering society under the influence of fundamentalists. I thought that the need of the hour was to study the whole mindset which gave birth to such wrong notions about Islam. I have no doubt in my mind that instead of taking the present age fourteen hundred years back, we have to bring Islam to the present age. The best service to Islam today is to make it applicable to modern day requirements.”

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