Watch it, KHUDA KAY LIYE!
Khuda Kay Liye is a story of grave ironies and deals with some inescapable issues centered around religion.
The lives of two brothers, Mansoor and Sarmad, belonging to an affluent, liberal minded family in Lahore and pursing music as their profession, take unexpectedly cruel turns. One falls prey to indoctrination towards religious extremism. The other becomes a victim of racial profiling in the US, post 9/11. Add to that some interesting characters, each bringing in his own take to the issues: the retrograde Maulana Tahiri, who has a problem with everything that brings happiness to people- as the elder brother Mansoor tells Sarmad; or the chauvinist dual-faced Uncle who has lived his life in London and had a gala time with English women, but dumps his own daughter into Afghanistan to be deceptively married to her own cousin- just to prevent her from getting married outside the religion; or Maulana Wali(played by Nasseruddin Shah) who finally uses his learning and interpretation of the religion to set things in perspective and expose the propaganda spread by Maulana Tahiri.
Khuda Kay Liye makes a bold statement. It is an eye opener for a society where intolerance of various kinds is spreading its tentacles far and wide. It clears the air in the most assertive manner on vexed issues such as the pursuit of music and the marriage of a woman outside her religion- where a section of the clergy has always had an extremist take. The process does look didactic at times; but what stands out is the noble intention of the maker. And full marks for that should go to the director Shoaib Mansoor.
In India, the movie has got a fairly decent response at multiplexes. The solitary show at Fame Adlabs last Tuesday had a near capacity crowd. And for most part, the audience remained spellbound.
I’m not sure whether the issues are that relatable in the Indian context. At least, ban on music would seem rather wishful here. Perhaps in Pakistan they are, more so in the interiors and the regions closer to Afghanistan. Also for a person of Sarmad’s social class and upbringing to get swayed so easily by the Maulana’s diatribe looked a bit simplistic in the movie.
But like I said, what matters in the end, is the statement that the director makes and the honesty in his effort. And Shoaib Mansoor deserves a standing ovation for what many believe is the best film to come out of Pakistan.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
i recently had a Pakistani friend raving about this movie…. heard even the music is out of the world… have to see this….
@tuhin
and thanks for posting this…
passionforcinema.com/khuda-kay-liye-in-the-name-of-god-a-flight-of-reason/
passionforcinema.com/khuda-ke-liye-the-perfect-kind-of-pak-cinema-to-come-to-india/
passionforcinema.com/khuda-ke-liye-pakistani-take-on-the-so-called-%E2%80%9C-jihad-%E2%80%9C/
this article by Tavleen Singh abt KKL is pretty much what i feel .. good read
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/296165.html
and btw the film is pure propaganda to me .. music/painting is actually haram (disallowed) in islam and has been proved by their numerous scholars ..
@filmibhai
thanks for the link.tavleen writes ..
“In Khuda Kay Liye, the prejudices against India come through as well. The hero, when he lands in Chicago, finds that his future wife does not know that Pakistan is a country. When he tries to explain where it is geographically, he mentions Iran, Afghanistan and China before coming to India. It happens that India is the only country she knows and Taj Mahal the only Indian monument she has heard of.
@filmibhai
do you go by opinion of some “scholars” who have thier own opinion of what is haram and halal or you go by what muslims actually do !
Some of the leading and renowned names in music and film industry over the years have been muslim . They are more prominent than the scholars . Do muslims not see movies or listen to music ?
if muslims are ignorning these “scholars” why are you listening to them ? is it because what they say and what tavleen singh says matches your stereotype of what a muslim is ?
Well, yes the comment about “We ruled India… was irresponsible and avoidable.
I thought the comment about ‘we ruled India’ was Shoaib Mansoor mocking the attitude some Muslims in Pakistan have about the Mughal Empire being ‘us’. Therefore, the character who said it, was shown to be ridiculed by the american at the end of the conversation, since she knew all along where Pakistan is and who Nusrat Fatel Ali Khan was.
Wow, I thought Pakistan was full of narrow-minded viewers who take what they want out of context to make their point.
It’s nice to see some Indians have that quality as well. At least we have commonality somewhere.
‘i thought the comment about
@morph .. k i dont want to start a debate .. am too lazy to keep on arguing on forums .. ys i agree that many muslims have contributed immensely to music and films .. but my point was that the the film says music is not forbidden acc to their religious texts .. which is false .
kind of like many muslims drink beer and hindus eat beef even tho both are forbiden in their religions .. becoz everyone likes to get on with life
‘It
your forum fatigue doesnt stop you from bringing up the topic here regularly isnt it ?
really ??which religious text ?? are you after arguing and browsing on forums became an expert on myriad of islamic religious texts and several interpretations of it?
maybe you should ask Rahman , a devout muslim who after composing music all night and finishes his morning prayer and goes to bed about these texts? he feels its the faith in his religion that helps him compose good music !!!
The movie has pulled in people cause of its place of origin.This itself garners curiosity here in India.The movie is strictly OK with some decent background score..the screenplay isnt that great and its quite dragging towards the end.Nothing great.
Mansoor to make sequel to Khuda Kay Liye
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/2008/04/18/11258/index.html
Seriously speaking,
i being a muslim do not feel that painting or music are restricted in ISLAM…as a so called muslim i might not be extremely religious but at the same time i have studies enough about my religion…..knowing that the quotes given out by Naseeruddin Shah in the movie quoting art and music are actually well researched….
Its fine for u to comment that way if u feel its actually forbidden in our religion filmibhai but matter of fact is that every point and statement quoted by the film maker is thorougly researched and me being a muslim could relate to that when watching the movie….
Unfortunately , there are myths created abt ISLAM as well….Really cant help it na??????????
=15
beat the stupid maulvis whu decide 4 muslims whether they r alowed 2 fly with kingfisher or not…
this is ur life.how 2 fly nd which airline is ur right….
act nd myths ll b vanished:d