I struck up a conversation with a fellow passenger a few years ago on a train ride from Karachi to Lahore. The passenger saw me writing a review of Vikram Bhatt’s romance-horror 1921, and — as if the entire fibre of his being was compelled by nosiness — he started on any film-goer’s favourite pastime: dissing Pakistani cinema by comparing it with Bollywood.

“Why don’t we make movies like that?” he shot out, obviously enamoured of seeing romance and drama in manors and castles in foreign locations.

“But we did,” I told him. “Years ago — and on television no less.” I suggested that he check out The Castle: Ek Umeed on YouTube — a visual predecessor of how Bhatt makes some of his movies.

For some reason, this conversation came back in vivid detail moments before speaking to director-actor Zulfikar Sheikh.

Sacch, which opens in cinemas this Friday, is well described as a ‘family outing’ by its producer. The film brings together director Zulfikar Sheikh and producer Tasmina Sheikh with their daughter Elysee Sheikh in the lead role

Sheikh is a Scotland-based filmmaker who made a string of successful dramas for television once upon a time — Des Pardes (1999), Ansoo (2000), The Castle: Ek Umeed (2001), Thorri Khushi, Thorra Ghum (2002), Maa (2003) — before taking a decade-long hiatus.

I tell Sheikh about this conversation and assure him that the comparison between Bhatt and his works, was made in the best light possible. Sheikh’s directorial film debut Sacch — a romantic drama set in Scotland — has the unquestionable ambience of a Bollywood movie; a striking cross between one helmed by Vikram Bhatt and one by Yash Chopra.

Now, one cannot but make connections. Sacch’s crew of 80 people are from India and the UK, and its cinematographer — and the reason why the movie looks the way it does — is Kabir Lal, the man who lensed Pardes, Taal and Kaho Na … Pyaar Hai.

In fact, with exception to the cast — Asad Zaman Khan, Humayun Ashraf, Javed Sheikh, Uzma Gillani, Nauman Masood, Fazila Qazi, Tasmina Sheikh, Zulfikar Sheikh and Elysee Sheikh (in her film debut) — there is only one other Pakistani associated with the film: the venerable Haseena Moin.

Clearly, there was a method behind Zulfikar’s madness. He wanted to strike a balance by hiring the right people for the right job — and he doesn’t care about what people may say.

“Art should be treated as art,” he tells me over the phone from his hotel room in Lahore at an odd hour in the night. “We don’t have to mix politics into it. Let’s leave that end to the bureaucrats and the politicians. Our job is to spread love, and to [find means] of working together.

“I had brought in Armaan Malik from India and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan from Pakistan together to sing for a Pakistani film, and neither faced backlash,” he continued. “Since this is my first film, I needed a crew who were experienced in delivering the experience on a consistent basis,” he tells me.

Then, there is another reason, he says. “I didn’t need people who would argue with me on set, or tell me how to direct scenes. I needed people who would listen to me, and outdo my expectations.” What he just defined is sometimes a problem with Pakistani talent and crew. Sometimes, though not always.

“I never planned to make a film exclusively for Pakistan,” Sheikh says. “I’m an artist and a filmmaker, and when I do something I make sure it’s universal. Sacch is definitely a Pakistani film but [technically speaking] it is classified as a British film because our company is based in the UK. We have a British certificate for the film, which allows us to showcase the film anywhere in the world, including India.”

An Indian release, he continues, may present its own share of problems because of the Pakistani cast. “However, whomever I have spoken to in India don’t have a problem with me releasing the film there. Having said that, my priority is to first show the film in Pakistan. Every other country is a second priority.”

We continue our conversation, and I tell him that for some reason, out of all his works, the opening of The Castle and glimpses of its first episode have stayed with me. Back then, I didn’t know that he had used a Steadicam shot to float through — what I guessed was at the time — a haunted castle. The show had a striking, filmic aesthetic I couldn’t get my head around back in the day.

“I always wanted to make a film,” he tells me, “and there was always an ilzaam [accusation] that I was making a film, shot-wise, script-wise, music-wise, even when I was making a drama. [I chose to do serials] in the mid- to end-90s and early 2000s because films weren’t doing well, so I ended up using those cinematic aesthetics elsewhere,” he says.

The Castle, Des Pardes and Ansoo had also starred Zulfikar’s wife Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh in the lead. Talking to me immediately after landing in Lahore from Scotland, Tasmina, who is also the producer of Sacch, tells me that her career was one of the main reasons why Zulfikar didn’t make a film earlier.

“We took a 10-year break because I was in politics [she is a member of the Scottish National Party], had won an election, became the first Pakistani Muslim woman from Scotland to be elected to any parliament and pursued a legal career.” She says that with Sacch, they want to put their best foot forward.

“He [Zulfikar] had a script that made sense to both of us, and that script wouldn’t have had justice done to it if it had been done for television. It is very much a silver screen script,” she says.

Making films in Pakistan is still a risk, I tell her — especially this year, when cinema and audience footfalls are at an all-time low.

“Every business is a risk, and film is just as much, even more so than anything else. [However], it’s a moral obligation for those in the industry who are able to [make a film to] do so, because Pakistani cinema has very much to offer to the world, and we can’t afford to have it lag behind other countries when we have so much talent here,” she says.

Does she miss acting, I ask.

“I don’t really miss it, because I’m doing so many other things, being a mum, politician, lawyer. [I feel that] acting is very similar in many ways to other professions — [in essence, it’s about one’s] ability to stand up, be confident and improvise.

“I do have a small role as the mum of the heroine, playing opposite Zulfikar, and I hope the public will enjoy seeing the husband and wife duo they know so well on-screen again, playing opposite each other. Hopefully, it’s a nice, quirky thing for the audience,” she says.

“All of our products have some moral line and principles running through them,” Tasmina says, moving on to another aspect of Sacch. “In this movie, it’s about the strength of women — of female empowerment, normalising the idea that women should be in leadership roles. We need to teach our young girls that the sky is the limit, and we need to teach our young boys that it’s very normal for girls to be in a position of power, and that it benefits society as a whole.”

Citing Sultana Siddiqui (CEO of Hum Network which is distributing the film), herself as producer, Haseena Moin as dialogue writer and Kumat Chaudhry as the screenplay writer, Tasmina says that the film is all about female empowerment, right down to its core.

However, she’s not trying to be preachy. Tasmina says that Sacch is the perfect end-of-the-year release. It is a family-friendly film that “allows family members, who are often busy in their jobs, an opportunity for an outing together. Sometimes the importance of doing things as a family is left behind [in these hectic days],” she says.

Sacch may very well be counted as a family outing — the film also stars Zulfikar and Tasmina’s daughter, Elysee Sheikh, as the lead of the film.

Looks, though, are deceiving, I’m told.

Zulfikar tells me that her daughter was recommended by Haseena Moin when she came over to pen the film’s dialogues. At that time, he had already entertained two other UK-based candidates for the main lead’s role.

Elysee, to whom Zulfikar had passed the phone on to when I spoke to him, tells me that she has a BSc degree in anatomy and MSc degree in microbiology. “My focus in research is to find new treatments to tackle the problem of antibiotic resistance within the next few decades,” she says.

However, despite her interest in academics, she also “really enjoyed dancing, singing and acting in school,” joining the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where she studied acting and musical theatre for several years. She remembers being fascinated by actors and how they emoted when her father directed them. She was, she says, maybe six or seven years old at the time.

“For as long as I can, I want to continue doing both acting and science as I’m doing right now,” Elysee writes back in a message. “I love both so much. Science fulfils my desire to help people and acting fulfils my passion to perform.”

The father-mum-daughter trio are currently caught up in a dastardly schedule, hopping planes to and fro from Karachi to promote their venture, with actor Asad Zaman in tow. One is reminded of what Tasmina had said earlier, about the importance of doing something together as a family. Well, Sacch may very well be that — a business-savvy, glossy-looking family venture that may just be more than what meets the eye.

Published in Dawn, ICON, December 15th, 2019