Zero IQ Thirty

Published January 31, 2013

Recent Hollywood blockbuster, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, was quite an experience. Though sharp in its production and direction and largely accurate in depicting the events that led to the death of Osama Bin Laden, it went ballistic bad in depicting everyday life on the streets of Pakistan.

With millions of dollars at their disposal, I wonder why the makers of this film couldn’t hire even a most basic advisor to inform them that

1: Pakistanis speak Urdu, English and other regional languages and NOT Arabic;

2: Pakistani men do not go around wearing 17th and 18th century headgear in markets;

3: The only Urdu heard in the film is from a group of wild-eyed men protesting against an American diplomat, calling him ‘chor.’ Chor in Urdu means robber. And the protest rally was against US drone strikes. How did that make the diplomat a chor?

4: And how on earth was a green Mercedes packed with armed men parked only a few feet away from the US embassy in Islamabad? Haven’t the producers ever heard of an area called the Diplomatic Enclave in Islamabad? Even a squirrel these days has to run around for a permit to enter and climb trees in that particular area.

I can go on.

The following is what I have learned …

Pakistan according to Hollywood

Zero IQ Thirty 12

Zero IQ Thirty 4

Zero IQ Thirty 7

Zero IQ Thirty 9

Zero IQ Thirty 2

Zero IQ Thirty 15

Zero IQ Thirty 14

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America in the eyes of Pakistanis

Zero IQ Thirty 6

Zero IQ Thirty 11

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Zero IQ Thirty 3

Zero IQ Thirty 8

Zero IQ Thirty 5

Zero IQ Thirty 1

Zero IQ Thirty 10

Zero IQ Thirty 13


Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn.com

 


The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

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