KARACHI: A special screening for Karachi’s media persons of the latest Pakistani film, Revenge of the Worthless, was arranged at Cinepax cinema on Thursday evening. The film is written and directed by Jamal Shah.

The event was attended by a decent number of showbiz journalists. Describing the gist of the story to Dawn, Mr Shah said: “The focus of the film is the insurgency in Swat. But the background of the story is the three decades of the so-called Afghan jihad and its results. During that period, some events happened in the valley. The movie is based on those events.

“There was a time when I was making a documentary on Swat and came across a lot of stories. Then I thought that a film should be made on them. Basically, it is about cultural narratives and about unsung heroes who tried to defend the honour and dignity of life,” said Shah.

‘My film is about unsung heroes of Swat’

Revenge of the Worthless was released on July 22. Speaking on its commercial aspect, he said: “It has been premiered. I just came here to show it to friends. At the box office, it’s doing all right. But I was not worried about the box office. The motivation behind it was different. You can call it my political commitment, so it was important for me to reflect on it. What (monetary) business it does, is a different thing. I hadn’t thought of it, however, I did get surprises. I think it will break even and enable me to make another film.”

The Swat valley is picturesque and must be a delight to shoot in. Responding to the observation, Mr Shah said: “I discovered Swat properly because of the film. I had been to the valley before, but there were beautiful places like the one where the Taliban held sway, Peochar. It was inaccessible. There’s a mosque there which is 300 years old. So it has great heritage.”

Surprisingly, the next project that the director is working on is a comedy. “It revolves around a filmmaker who is uncompromising and thinks no end of himself. A friend of his introduces him to a boy who is crazy about acting. When he auditions that boy, he finds out that the boy can’t even speak properly. He rejects him. But when others around him push him to go along, he gives in. The story moves forward from there,” said Mr Shah.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2016