Lollywood coming to Bollywood

Cinema acts, as a cultural bonding between countries and the film Khud Ke Liye is a step towards promoting cultural exchanges between India and Pakistan.

Distributors have fixed their hopes on Pakistan after the government of Pakistan officially lifted the ban on exhibition of Indian movies in Feb 2008. Firoz Nadiadwala's 'Welcome' was the first Bollywood movie released in Pakistan Feb 8 after 'the Senate standing committee on culture recommended to the government to allow exhibition of Indian movies under a proper censorship policy’.

While Indian films are being screened across Pakistan for quite some time “Khuda Ke Liye’ will be the first Pakistani film to be released in India on March 28Th 2008 after 1968. The first-ever Pakistani film to be released in Indian theaters.

The movie has already been talked widely and has great reviews to its credit in Pakistan except the conservative and dogmatic clerics of the country, who have relentlessly criticized the movie and issued fatwas. In Karachi, 20-25 madrasas even prepared a three-page fatwa stating that whoever watched Khuda Kay Liye would be excommunicated from Islam.

The film features Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah as a Muslim scholar. The theme on which it is based is relevant to contemporary society. The film has not only brought curiosity through its music release in India but will sure broaden the horizons of creativeness. The audience will search out new relations. The creativity cannot be massacred by boundaries.

The film was exposed at the International Film Festival of India last year with a huge reception. Let’s see how Khuda ke Liye get along and attracts audience in India. Already honoured with the Award for Best Picture at the 31st Cairo International Film Festival, Best Foreign Film at the Muscat Film Festival and the Roberto Rossellini Award in Italy and appreciation at the Goa Film Festival in 2007 the film was screened for a select audience in New Delhi on Thursday. It is due for commercial release on April 4, 2008.

One of my friends who saw the movie in Delhi revealed that the film deals with the post-9/11 dilemma being faced by Muslims in general and Pakistanis in particular. The rational have to face humiliation for the wrongs done by the rather irrational. The movie again proves that talent has no boundaries. Naseeruddin Shah can be seen in a small yet powerful role. He did not charge a single Rupee for acting in this film. The post-production work of the movie was done in Mumbai’s Ad labs Studio. Khuda Ke Liye – the first Pakistani film to be officially released in India since 1968 – is a reel attempt to decode ‘Islamic’ fanaticism, to tell the world that irrational cynicism against the religion is self-defeating.