Picture Perfect

Sarmad Khoosat is all praise for the lead pair — Saba Qamar and Hamza Khawaja — of his now critically acclaimed film Kamli. Feeling compelled to talk about the two of them, he wrote the following on his Instagram page: “Even though it might sound immodest because I’m talking about my own work but, if there could be a picture perfect example of chemistry between two actors, this is what it’d look like.” We wouldn’t disagree with you Sarmad K. In fact, we’d like to say that not just the chemistry, the psycho-sociology and geo-physicality between the two of them was also perfect.

Left In The Can

It is always saddening to know when a project made with a lot of heart doesn’t see the light of day. This happened recently to two ambitious ventures. The first was a film called Sorry — A Love Story, directed by Sohail Javed, with Faysal Quraishi in the lead role, and the second was titled Senti Aur Mental by Yasra Rizvi. The makers of both projects have announced that they have shelved the unfinished projects for reasons that have already been given on social and mainstream media. Well guys, buck up. Your efforts will not go in vain and bear fruit in some other form.

Praise For Sajan

It’s been more than a decade since the Mekaal Hasan Band came out with the song Sajan, beautifully sung by Jawad Bashir. The power of art is such that, last week, Indian singer and composer Vishal Dadlani (of Vishal-Shekhar fame) reminded his fans on the internet what a marvelous composition MHB had come up with and what a brilliant singer Jawad B is. To remind everyone of the tune, he himself sang its opening few lines. While politicians keep making efforts to pick out the differences between the people of the two countries, artists keep reminding us of the sajan that they are.

Disparity Discourse

Taapsee Pannu is a wise, talented gal. You will seldom find her come up with a statement that’s not well thought-out. Take for example her view on the payment disparity that exists in India between male and female actors, which is usually blamed on the producers. According to the actress, for female-centric movies, people wait for reviews more than advance bookings. But for male-oriented films, the pre-bookings are so high that the footfalls are collected within the first weekend. She wants people to stop blaming the industry for the problem because the audience, too, has something to do with it. Spot-on Taapsee P! Give the gal a raise just for this thought...

Fifty Shades of What?

It’s been seven years since the film Fifty Shades of Grey became a gigantic hit, earning enviable box office returns. Anyone who thinks that shooting for it, due to the nature of the subject, would be fun, well, not true. Dakota Johnson is opening up about the whole process since she wasn’t able to talk about it ‘truthfully’ earlier: “I signed up to do a very different version of the film we ended up making. It was a combo between the studio, the director, but mostly the author behind the series. She had a lot of creative control, all day, every day, and she just demanded that certain things happen. There were parts of the books that just wouldn’t work in a movie, like the inner monologue which was, at times, incredibly cheesy. It wouldn’t work to say out loud. It was always a battle. Always.” Hmmm… Fifty shades of cheese?

Pakistani Oscar member

Good news for the Pakistani showbiz fraternity and fans. Our documentary filmmaker Mohammed Ali ‘Mo’ Naqvi has been included in the latest invitees to join the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences (AMPAS) recently, one of the 397 members of the class of 2022. This gives him the ability to vote in the Oscars. His joining cohort included the likes of pop singer Billie Eilish, actress Ariana DeBose and Bollywood A-lister Kajol. In case anyone’s not familiar with Mo N’s work, he made the documentary Insha’Allah Democracy. So, congrats to him and to Pakistan! He may be just one more vote but, as they say, a river is composed of single drops.

Published in Dawn, ICON, July 17th, 2022