Horror films are meant to scare viewers or to elevate their sense of fear with the help of terrifying scripts, incredible direction and special effects. They linger in the subconscious of the viewers like a nightmare and make people look over their shoulders on their way home from the cinema. But unfortunately, the case has been exactly the opposite in this part of the world where not too many horror films have been attempted because of lack of budget, story and guts.
“Directors don’t give the horror genre the time it requires and actors opt for four songs and fight sequences rather than don false teeth, heavy make-up and be overshadowed by the magic of special effects. The loss, in both cases, is that of local cine-goers.”
When Khwaja Sarfaraz’s Zinda Laash — inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — was released in 1967, it was termed as an ideal foundation for horror movies in Lollywood. The plot was simple — a professor, in an attempt to live an eternal life, transforms himself (accidentally, of course) into a vampire. In the end, good prevails over evil as a Van Helsing kind of hero defeats the bloodsucking Professor Tabani after a fiery ‘end ki fighting’, but not before the fake-toothed-but-heartless ‘Dracula in Pakistan’ has sucked the blood of countless innocent characters.
Soon after Zinda Laash was released and was declared the first X-rated movie in Pakistan, the thinking directors decided on their own that seductive dances and cheap one-liners would be more beneficial to them monetarily than a convincing horror film. This brought an end to what would have been a dazzling future of horror films in Pakistan. The risks involved in making a horror film kept producers away from attempting the genre, which is usually the amalgamation of suspense, thrill, murder, heart-stopping monsters and not to forget, vampires. It was only a couple of decades after Zinda Laash that Saeed Rizvi — son of veteran film-maker Rafiq Rizvi and himself an accomplished TV commercial director — decided to make Shanee — the subcontinent’s first science-fiction film.
Released in 1989, the film was unlike anything ever produced in Lollywood and witnessed on the silver screen in Pakistan. Featuring model Sherry Malik as Shanee, Babra as his fiance, Asif Khan as the zalim jagirdar and veterans Nayyar Sultana and Mohammed Ali in memorable roles, the film borrowed its theme from John Carpenter’s Starman. But unlike the Hollywood flick, the desi version was set in a remote village where an alien lands and assumes the identity of Shanee, a brave villager murdered by the henchmen of the wicked landlord. He discovers the good and bad aspects of human nature, falls in love with the dead man’s fiance, destroys the evil-doers with the help of his super powers and in the end, returns to his planet because of his health ... but only after fathering a superhuman boy.
The special effects used in the film, especially when the spaceship lands and when Shanee does his disappearing act on a motorbike, were a treat to watch. It won Saeed Rizvi the Nigar awards for Best Picture and Best Director, stretched Babra’s ailing career and made Sherry Malik famous overnight, especially among kids, as Shanee bhai. The most important factor in the success of Shanee was the lack of songs which, according to Saeed Rizvi, increased his belief in special effects.
Shaani was followed in 1994 by Sar Kata Insaan, based on the popular bringing-the-dead-to-life theme. It featured Ghulam Mohiuddin in the title role as a headless creature with a killer instinct, supported by Izhar Qazi, Babra Sharif, Ajab Gul, Qavi Khan and the late Agha Talish, Nayyar Sultana and Aslam Latar. Sar Kata Insaan was the story of a man who was created by a mad scientist, with the experiment going horribly wrong and resulting in a monster. Ghulam Mohiuddin’s memorable acting helped this movie become a box-office hit while late musician Kamal Ahmed’s Kyun tu ne mujhe helped vocalist Tehseen Javed get a Nigar award and lyricist Qateel Shifai the praise he so rightly deserved.
After two amazingly fantastic films, the trilogy came to an abrupt end with Tilismi Jazeera, which was produced in collaboration with the former USSR’s Soviet State Corporation. Termed as an adventure/fantasy film rather than a horror/sci-fi flick by the director, the film had all the ingredients of a successful film as it featured a fire-breathing dragon, a gigantic cat, picturesque locales et al. Despite doing fine business at the box office, it dented Saeed’s reputation as a man who could make a difference. According to the director, who laments the fact that the fall of the Soviet Union was the main reason why his film couldn’t live upto expectations, Tilismi Jazeera would have been a finer film had the USSR not disintegrated. Keeping his track record in mind, one doesn’t doubt his claim. After all, it was the Russians who offered him to direct the movie after watching Shanee dubbed in Russian!
Zinda Laash is believed to have given a woman a heart attack in the movie theatre. Shanee made children ask their parents to go to theatres as it was a sci-fi/horror flick targeted mostly at kids. All was going well when suddenly, Lollywood lost the way due to many factors. Maybe it’s because directors don’t give the horror genre the time it requires or maybe it’s because of the actors who would rather opt for four songs and fight sequences rather than don false teeth, heavy make-up and be overshadowed by the magic of special effects. The loss, in both cases, is that of local cine-goers and it seems it would take more than a Saeed Rizvi to revive this bloodied, battered and murdered movie genre.
Horror films are meant to scare viewers or to elevate their sense of fear with the help of terrifying scripts, incredible direction and special effects. They linger in the subconscious of the viewers like a nightmare and make people look over their shoulders on their way home from the cinema. But unfortunately, the case has been exactly the opposite in this part of the world where not too many horror films have been attempted because of lack of budget, story and guts.
