Just two days after its premiere in Karachi, Dukhtar was nominated by the Pakistani Academy Selection Committee for consideration in the Best Foreign Language Film category in the Oscars. I personally don’t feel it will get selected, or even come near to being seriously considered. That’s not because I feel Dukhtar is a bad film, it’s passable at best. It has its moments, but they don’t extend for the duration of the film and don’t leave any kind of lasting impact.

Dukhtar is a story about a mother (Allah Rakhi, performed by Samiya Mumtaz) risking her life to protect her daughter (Zainab, performed by Saleha Aref) from becoming a child bride. They come from a remote village in the north of Pakistan. Their eventual escape results in a brutal manhunt by her husband and the men of the jilted ‘groom’ who take this as an attack on their honour and an offence that can only be remedied through the death of the mother and daughter. Allah Rakhi and Zainab are helped by a Punjabi truck driver and a former Mujahid (performed by Mohib Mirza), who agrees to safely escort them to Lahore.

The film fails to ‘hook’ or establish an emotional connect with the audiences to the characters and the story. You sympathise with the characters and their plight, but aren’t moved by them. The script comes across as very much ‘on the surface’ and doesn’t appear to tackle the issue of underage marriages or even the characters involved with depth.

The film has its share of flaws and raises questions which can only be answered in a sequel, writes

On the plus side, Dukhtar has been shot beautifully — if only they had used a better camera as there is no clarity or sharpness in the images being shown at least when viewed on the big screen. You’re treated to the beautiful mountainous, rocky landscape of the Northern Areas of Pakistan. The soundtrack by Sahir Ali Bagga complements the moments in the film perfectly and the title track by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is quite moving — especially when heard in the context of the story.

The film has its moments and those moments usually revolve around the characters of Allah Rakhi and her interactions with her daughter. In some scenes the mother displayed a playful innocence that made her appear more of a child than her daughter — while they’re playing or when she’s being taught to read and write by her daughter. With Zainab, Allah Rakhi is a completely different person and with her husband, she is quiet, submissive, fearful and withdrawn. It is hard to imagine this woman — who appears weak and fragile at best — to find the courage to risk her life and that of her daughter’s and head out into the great unknown to prevent Zainab from becoming a child bride. But she does. Samiya Mumtaz is an actor par excellence and she not only delivers but carries most of the film on her shoulders. Although young, Saleha Arif shows immense potential as an actor in the film.

The end is quite abrupt and seems somewhat premature. It leaves the audience asking many questions — which they discussed after leaving the cinema hall. We’re not shown what eventually happens to Zainab, who does she stay with? Do the men from her father’s village successfully manage to track her down? And so on. It was the desire to save Zainab which led to the mother-daughter duo to flee their village on the eve of her wedding to a rival tribal leader, a man her father’s age. And yet, by the time the movie ends, we’re not clear about her fate. Maybe there’s a Dukhtar 2 in the making that might help us find out.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, September 28th, 2014