KARACHI: Of the four Pakistani films that are going to be released on Eidul Fitr, Azaadi, directed by Imran Malik, was the first to have its premiere. It took place at a local multiplex on Tuesday evening.

As it always happens, the red carpet area did not fill up with showbiz glitterati and media personnel in the blink of an eye. Stars are always fashionably late. Apart from the cast of Azaadi (Moammar Rana and Sonya Hussain), other popular actors also turned up at the event to support their colleagues and the film industry — Bushra Ansari, Adnan Siddiqui and Yasir Hussain being three of them.

Yasir sounded particularly upbeat about the project. Talking to Dawn, he said he had high hopes for Azaadi. He requested the media to be encouraging about the film fraternity. He himself is contemplating two movie projects in the future.

Moammar was received with a flurry of questions from journalists. He answered each one of them. He said a lot of hard work had gone into the making of Azaadi and was happy about its music as well. He added Sonya had done a wonderful job in the film.

The director of Azaadi, Imran, who is the son of one of Pakistan’s legendary film-makers Pervaiz Malik, spoke on a few subjects. “The film is based on the Kashmir freedom movement. It contains awareness [for audience] about the Kashmir situation. Apart from being a mainstream commercial film and having a very important script, it is a love story. We are focused on the Kashmir freedom movement, [though].”

About his illustrious father, the director said, “If I’m able to become even 25 per cent of what he was, I’ll consider myself lucky.”

On his box office expectation from the film, Imran said it’s in God’s hand. But the director seemed a little dissatisfied with the way things are currently working in the industry. “There shouldn’t be space for amateur filmmakers. There should be professional directors. Young people come into the business without getting properly trained. [We need to understand] we’ve got another chance at making things better and we can’t afford to lose that chance again. It is because of this that we suffered losses last year. We can’t seem to make films other than comedies. We should come to serious film-making and do something for society.”

After about 90 minutes of red carpet razzle-dazzle, all those associated with the project and showbiz journalists went into the cinema hall where Azaadi was to be shown. And it has to be said that Imran has made his film very seriously.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2018