There are good films and bad films — and then there is Jeewan Hathi. Award-winning directors Meenu and Farjad’s second outing has the right ingredients but the still film couldn’t impress audiences the way Zinda Bhaag did a few years ago.

Commissioned as part of the ‘Zeal for Unity’ short film initiative by an Indian TV channel, Jeewan Hathi (JH) is good for a few laughs here and a smile there. But the overall execution deals a rude shock to all those who watch it given its writer Fasih Bari Khan’s and the directors’ reputation.

Inspired from the scriptwriter’s earlier play Lunch with Lubna, this film is an hour-long. Not even the free popcorn and cold drinks could satisfy the viewers who entered the theatre expecting a family flick. What they got instead was a half-baked satire against morning shows and suddenly the hour seemed to stretch on endlessly.

Jeewan Hathi doesn’t live up to expectations

The film revolves around a morning show that doesn’t get ratings because the hostess is the owner’s wife and highly incompetent. The producers try to get rid of her by giving her another show where she would have two couples participating for the prize of a 60-inch television. Things go awry when the director tries too hard to get the ratings at an all-time high, and the set paints a picture of ‘Jeewan Hathi’, an elephant that is under nobody’s control.

The story seems ideal for a telefilm or a long play with the potential to generate TRPs because it would have hit the mark for TV audiences. For a film, it lacks punch and instead of being expansive, it comes across as an hour-long student project sans song and dance. The target wasn’t the masses but a select one.

Jeewan Hathi has less positives and more negatives, which is exactly what our nascent film industry doesn’t need at the moment. Hina Dilpazeer has the biggest role in the movie and at times she makes the audience laugh but when you don’t have a solid script, things go haywire. Theatre actors Adnan Jaffer and Fawad Khan do manage to show their acting prowess with Adnan looking every inch the socially privileged guy he is supposed to be. Fawad has been active on the theatre circuit and impresses us with his expressions. He might be able to do even better if he switches to character roles.

Veteran actress Samiya Mumtaz is utterly wasted here as the wife of Adnan’s character while debutante Kiran Tabeer impresses as the India-born Pakistani housewife, although her Bihari accent does slip at times. The ever-dependable Saife Hasan plays the man in charge of the fiasco and is the saving grace of the flick. Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah seems ‘inserted’ in what is his third Pakistani film. Anyone could have played his role considering the character didn’t have to interact with any member of the cast except the new morning show host and the producer (via phone).

The story seems ideal for a telefilm or a long play with the potential to generate TRPs because it would have hit the mark for TV audiences. For a film it lacks punch and instead of being expansive, it comes across as an hour-long student project sans song and dance. The target wasn’t the masses but a select one.

JH may be a black comedy for some but it also leaves a black mark on the resume of the talented directors. They seem to be in a hurry as not all aspects of post-production are first-class, notably sound and editing. The theatrical treatment is also a letdown, though in the past the audience had forgiven them for the same in Zinda Bhaag. One wonders why the writer uses Hindi words in the movie especially when they are uttered by Pakistanis.

Sadly, the ‘revival of Pakistani films’ is following the same route as its earlier version in the ’90s where, after a handful of family films, the directors lost the plot and ended up making mediocre ‘Gujjar’ films.

Our writers, directors and producers must learn from that debacle. Otherwise we might end up in the same vicious cycle where a good film is followed by a dozen or so bad ones, and cinemas are eventually replaced by shopping malls.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, November 13th, 2016