Filmistan

Its 14^th June today.

Which by default means, that it was 13^th June yesterday. And it was slightly special as a date. Because yesterday it was 13^th and the day was Friday.

So according to the modern times horror, it was an inauspicious day  - Friday the 13^th, falling in the Gregorian calendar.
Why a modern day horror? Because, no reference about this term Friday the thirteenth, was seen before 20^th century, 1907 to be precise. And the hype saw a ‘snowball effect’ after a book called - Friday the 13^th – was released by Thomas W. Lawson – which had nothing horror in it, just that the protagonist broker, used the wall of this number to spread a terror in the wall-street.

Some really believe that this is a day of bad omen and many people, professors, prefer not to begin with anything new on this day. After 1907, as the people started relating to this number and date, the references were seen in numbers and references were found going back to dates as old as 13^th century during the rule of King Philip IV.

Rest just call it inauspicious as Friday is regarded as an unlucky day by most of the Italians and 13^th an unlucky (odd to be precise) number, which is followed by the number 12 which is regarded as divine and blessed number. (12 months, 12 zodiac signs, 12 Apostles of Jesus and 12 successors of Muhammad)

References of all this were taken from the Google…! Seriously, I never ever thought of this so seriously until I wanted to write about it!

Something about news – Indo-Pak news.

When India’s current PM, Narendra modi, was to take his oath in New-Delhi, he had invited Pakistani Prime-Minister, Nawaz Shariff and had a long talk with him, in which Shariff was told by Modi to shut the terror-exporting machine and not allow Pakistani terror soil come to India. The talks of peace in the countries went well according to the news from both the sides. However, Pakistani troupes’ ceasefire violation at Rajouri, Jammu, put the peace relations talks in questions. The firing started from the other side, retaliated by us went on for about 25 minutes. Modiji is yet to comment on this.
Opposition Congress tells Modi to sort it out as when Vajpayi (former BJP PM of India, 10 years before) went to Pakistan, Kargil happened and when Shariff came to India, Rajouri happened.

However, the stupid fellows of Italian illegitimate former ruler forget that most of the terror attacks happened during their own tenure and they were unable to sort a shit out. Therefore, the one who doesn’t know that the flame cooks the food, should better not advice the chef on cooking.

We come to the review section :
As the fight between Hindustan and Pakistan is going on, I saw an awesome and above the class movie, Filmistan.

Filmistan

Released just a week before, Filmistan is a very low budget film. It is simpler than you think, It looks boring than Humshakals in the poster. It does not consist of one known actor of whom you can take the name and say, he is the one. Yet, this film is the talk of the town, it’s the David from the David and Goliath of 2014.

A ‘wana be’ actor – played by  Sharib Hashmi, gets a chance to be an assistant director to an American crew to shoot their documentary at various places of Rajasthan. The things go out of hands and fate takes a turn. No one’s fault and the next thing Sharib (film name Sunny) knows is that He is held by the typically Muslim attire people holding AK47 and he is held hostage. The film continues to tell the story of his escape back to India, his homeland.

The Film also stars – Innamulhaq, another lesser known actor, who is going to rise to fame if he holds himself doing the character roles. (Not all actors are born with Nawazuddin destiny)

This one is directed and written by Nitin Kakkar and the dialogues are written by Sharib Hashmi himself.

I would like to talk about a few things I loved about the film and the script.

Presentation of bollywood as a culture and religion. I mean, it’s true, the one who just love bollywood or the world of cinema to the core, holds it higher than his/her own religion and culture. Any of the like ones, who love Cinema, is a relative of ours, the connection the relation is built and the person belongs to us. The acceptance of Sunny, portrayed by Aftab (Innamulhaq) just by the dialogue – ‘Tujhe toh main paani bhi pilaunga’ (I will pour you some water as well) defines what I meant.

            The urge of both the nations to like each other. The film subtly shows that people from both the sides have some sort of soft corner for each other. India’s softness is narrated by Sunny, giving the example of his grandfather’s wish to go back to Lahore once after the partition, before he dies, where as Pakistan’s urge is told by the person who played the Hakim (doctor) saying…’ek dafa punjab main baithe kulche todne ka jee karta hai, par ab naseeb main sirf yahi raha hai’. (It feels to go back to Punjab and have some bread there, but this is what is left in my fate now.)
Even Aftab says one specific dialogue that hits the mind – Ab kya hai, yahape uss taraf ka kuch raha nahi hai, ek bollywood hi hai jo abhi bhi uss taraf se jude rakhta hai.

            Friendship. The friendship of Aftab and Sunny. Only with the roots of bollywood and cinema, they become friends, so much that the last conversation between them ends with the line – Jaunga toh tere sath. (If I go, it’s going to be WITH you)

            Humanity. When Aftab and Sunny both are held by the terrorists, Aftabs father pleads for the release of the kid (baccha). And he later confesses that by kid he meant Sunny and not his own Son, even though his own son not being at fault.

            Satire. Every small thing that bring up the emotions of, the stands, the roots and the attitude of all the three – Hindustan, Pakistan and Filmistan in the perfectly satirical manner. Sunny saying – Yeh Pakistan hai? Jagah vahi, khana vahi, shaklein vahi…mujhe kaise samjhega yeh Pakistan hai? (This is Pakistan? It’s the same place, the same food, the same faces, how am I suppose to know that this is Pakistan?)
The extremely funny part where the whole village is listening to India-Pakistan cricket T20 worldcup final and Sunny starts dancing when India wins.

            The superb climax, given with the voice-over of freedom speeches of Pakistan and India, spoken by Jinnah and Nehru respectively, makes it the perfect film for above the class audience.

            And my personal favourite part of the film, and my personal favourite dialogue by Sunny to Aftab– Maine kisko yeh baat batai nahi hai, kabhi khudse bhi yeh baat maine nahi kahi, aaj tujhse keh raha hu. Main jaanta hu k mujhe achi acting nahi ati, yeh mimicry yeh nautanki koi kaam ki nahi hai. Par kya karu, iske alawa jeene ka matbalb hi nahi dikhta.
(I never said this thing to anyone, never told it to myself either, I am confessing this to you today, I know that I don’t know how to act very well. This Mimicry, this dramatization is of no use. But what do I do? I don’t see a reason to live if I do not keep doing all this.)
And Aftab replies – Oye, chup reh, ab rulayega kya…mere liye toh tu sabse bada Star hi hai!! (Oh! Shut up. Are you gona make me cry now? For me you are the biggest star.)

These lines, they brought tears to my eyes, made me still for a moment. Made me think…that do I myself hide it from me that I am not a great director? Is it a thing that I know but I do not tell myself? Do I have some Aftab somewhere for whom I am the Star director? Made me shiver at that time.

But the film proceeded and so did my feelings washing away the negative thoughts. The film is Funny, the film has the best humour it can have. It has a potential to make the world know about what bollywood means to few people from both the nations.

It’s a low budget and high on value film.

Nitin Kakkar and Crew once again proved that to make the great films you do not need to have the billions costing Superstars, you do not need the best production design, you do not need to have the costliest of the Cinematographers, you do not need foreign locations and a 6K output camera, you do not need millions of dollars to be spent on visual effects…all you need is a highly dedicated group of actors and a great script. Hats off, to Sharib Hashmi, Innamulhaq and rest of the artists and to the writers.

            I won’t rate this movie. Rating is for the product. Not for the emotions. This one, Filmistan, is a hidden emotion in every Filmistani living his Filmy life out there.