Silent Waters..
Yes, Thanx to shiven, i finally watched Khamosh pani. a joint Pakistani-German-French venture, made by Sabiha Sumar, a directorial debut.. this movie was shown at a lot of film festivals and Kirron Kher, an Indian actress won like all the awards everywhere, including Locarno and Cape town film fests.
The movie is set in Pakistan in the year 1979, when the pakistani PM Bhutto was hanged and General Zia Ul Haq came to power. The story revolves around this woman Ayesha (Kher), a widow, living in this village called charkhi. she has a past, the fact that she is a sikh woman, who was left behind after the India-Pakistan partition, abducted, later she married a muslim.. villagers are unaware of her origins, she now leads a normal life giving koran lessons, with her good for nothing son saleem. saleem, who has a very ambitious girlfriend zubaida,realises he has no dream of his own, eventually falls prey to islamic fundamentalists and soon becomes active in politics, supporting general Zia's islamic rule. Soon, a law is passed, allowing sikhs from india into pakistan to visit the sikh shrines, spead throughout pakistan.. A sikh man, comes to charkhi(there is a gurudwara in chrkhi) from India looking for his sister who was left behind 32 years ago. the village starts questioning Ayesha's faith.. the movie ends with a surprising climax.. actually the way the story unfolds slowly is the fun part in the movie..
All in all, it was simple, superbly made movie, my first experience with a pakistani film. There was no overacting, no melodrama (esp when they cud have shown it easily, like the scene where the news of Bhutto's death comes to the village, through a postman!!!) , no cliches and propogandas while making a partition based film. a simple story telling with an amazing film making style. everything looked so authentic! there were some scary facts from the partition portrayed, like the part where Sikhs killed their own daughters/wives in order to not let them be abducted and raped by the Muslims, and vice versa. the flashbacks shown from 1947, when Kirron Kher refuses to jump in the well with her mom and sister, and runs away from her family, only to be abducted and assaulted by the Muslims bring in light the horrifc nature of the partition and how women suffered..
the actors performed brilliantly, all of them, special mention to Kirron kher, her son, and the barber.. Kirron Kher is stunning, into the skin of the role,torn between her past and present, her silence at times is so expressive, there is no need for dialogues. how she watches her son joining fundamentalism and how her past comes back to haunt her. Aamir Ali Malik performs very well as this lazy, aimless, pampered son who is later torn between his duties as a political activist and a son.. There's the happy-go-lucky barber who wouldn't give a damn for fundamentalist forces if they didn't knock on his door.
The fact that the movie was in Punjabi, with english subtitles, i was so happy i understood most of it!! yay! i think they named it silent waters after 'the water in the well', silent and uncomplaining, swallowing ppl..
This is one of the best films i have seen in a long long time, and its not just great to watch, its like this movie quenches ur thirst for good cinema. it will leave an impression on u for sure, MUST SEE for EVERYONE. ask me if u want.
The movie is set in Pakistan in the year 1979, when the pakistani PM Bhutto was hanged and General Zia Ul Haq came to power. The story revolves around this woman Ayesha (Kher), a widow, living in this village called charkhi. she has a past, the fact that she is a sikh woman, who was left behind after the India-Pakistan partition, abducted, later she married a muslim.. villagers are unaware of her origins, she now leads a normal life giving koran lessons, with her good for nothing son saleem. saleem, who has a very ambitious girlfriend zubaida,realises he has no dream of his own, eventually falls prey to islamic fundamentalists and soon becomes active in politics, supporting general Zia's islamic rule. Soon, a law is passed, allowing sikhs from india into pakistan to visit the sikh shrines, spead throughout pakistan.. A sikh man, comes to charkhi(there is a gurudwara in chrkhi) from India looking for his sister who was left behind 32 years ago. the village starts questioning Ayesha's faith.. the movie ends with a surprising climax.. actually the way the story unfolds slowly is the fun part in the movie..
All in all, it was simple, superbly made movie, my first experience with a pakistani film. There was no overacting, no melodrama (esp when they cud have shown it easily, like the scene where the news of Bhutto's death comes to the village, through a postman!!!) , no cliches and propogandas while making a partition based film. a simple story telling with an amazing film making style. everything looked so authentic! there were some scary facts from the partition portrayed, like the part where Sikhs killed their own daughters/wives in order to not let them be abducted and raped by the Muslims, and vice versa. the flashbacks shown from 1947, when Kirron Kher refuses to jump in the well with her mom and sister, and runs away from her family, only to be abducted and assaulted by the Muslims bring in light the horrifc nature of the partition and how women suffered..
the actors performed brilliantly, all of them, special mention to Kirron kher, her son, and the barber.. Kirron Kher is stunning, into the skin of the role,torn between her past and present, her silence at times is so expressive, there is no need for dialogues. how she watches her son joining fundamentalism and how her past comes back to haunt her. Aamir Ali Malik performs very well as this lazy, aimless, pampered son who is later torn between his duties as a political activist and a son.. There's the happy-go-lucky barber who wouldn't give a damn for fundamentalist forces if they didn't knock on his door.
The fact that the movie was in Punjabi, with english subtitles, i was so happy i understood most of it!! yay! i think they named it silent waters after 'the water in the well', silent and uncomplaining, swallowing ppl..
This is one of the best films i have seen in a long long time, and its not just great to watch, its like this movie quenches ur thirst for good cinema. it will leave an impression on u for sure, MUST SEE for EVERYONE. ask me if u want.
posted by Rohan at 6:24 AM
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