KARACHI, Dec 1: Opening ceremony of the fifth KaraFilm Festival was held on the lawns of the Mohatta Palace Museum on Thursday with local and international film-makers and stars in large attendance. Following an impressive fireworks display, the Festival Director, Hasan Zaidi, took to the stage to reflect on the festival and what it means not only for the local but foreign guests as well.

Summarizing the lessons that he has leant while conducting the festival for five years now, Mr Zaidi said: “There are five points which have served as my guidelines: Don’t give a damn; If you want something done, do it yourself; Make friends; Keep the vision, keep the faith; Never doubt what a small group of committed people can achieve.”

With this he declared the festival formally open.

A performance by Ghaus Bux Brohi followed as he, with his quartet of musicians, played various popular and folk tunes on alghoza, been and flute.

The next Indian guest to be invited on stage was the renowned Subhash Ghai who said that during the 27 years that he had been making films, he had always known the fondness with which Pakistanis watched Indian his films.

Mr Ghai said that the cinema of Pakistan and India bore striking similarities and people of both the countries related to each other through it. “We are never two, we are always one,” he said to a round of applause.

The celebrated Indian film-maker who has introduced stars like Madhuri Dixit, Meenakshi, Manisha Koirala and Mahima Chaudhry to Bollywood said that he feels at home in Pakistan as his father used to practice medicine in Lahore before the Partition and that his ancestors were from this land. “It is a very emotional moment for me to be here, among you.”

A writer and director who prefers to be known as the latter, Mr Ghai’s film Iqbal about a special child who wants to become a national cricket player is the opening gala film.

Also on his first visit to Pakistan, producer and actor Anupum Kher said: “Film has no religion or boundary, only passion which, in this case, binds the two nations of Pakistan and India together.”

Mr Kher has chosen the KaraFilm Festival for the international premiere of his production, Mein Ne Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara.

A regular at the KaraFilm Festival, Mahesh Bhatt thanked fellow Indians Subhash Ghai and Anupum Kher for accompanying him to Karachi and helping him stitch this region together. “I have fallen in love with this place as it is an extension of my own home,” he said.

He chose the words of an aboriginal Australian woman to express his thoughts: “If you are coming to help me, please go away. But if you are coming to me with the realization that in my redemption lies your redemption, then we can work together.” He said that the future of humanity lies in the sentence.

“We are part of the human race and we cannot help but be concerned about one another. Let us dream of a future that brings to us all what we have lost.”

He urged people not to mistake globalization with westernization and to tell stories, look around and understand. “If Europe can become a union then certainly this region can become one too,” he said.

A performance of the Pallavi form of dance by classical Oddissi dancer, Sadia Khan, in raag Bhopali followed with performances by Mohammad Fakir, Drum Overload and a musical concert by Farid Ayaz Al-Hussaini Qawwal.