SPOTLIGHT: THE COLOURS OF MUSIC
A greater number of flops and few hits has made the graph of Pakistani films released this year look inconsistent. This month Rangreza and Arth will battle it out for year-end supremacy and curiously both seem to revolve around musicians. Will this month be a cinematic battle of the bands?
But Bilal Ashraf, who plays a pivotal character in the former, disagrees. “Both films are poles apart and you will know that for sure on Dec 21,” he says confidently. “Both films have a different take on music and it would be great if they manage to do well [at the box office] as both are Pakistani films, and in the end it will benefit our industry.”
The cast of Aamir Mohiuddin’s Rangreza has a strange combination of senior actors, upcoming actors and those already established in the film industry. The trailer and songs suggest that a love triangle exists between Ali (Bilal Ashraf), Wasim (Gohar Rasheed) and Reshmi (Urwa Hocane). Ups and downs are shown as part of their struggle with music playing an important part. What made a new director take up a different genre in an era when romantic comedies and crime capers are shortcuts to success?
Rangreza, which will be going up against Shaan’s Arth at the end of the year, is an eclectic love story set in Karachi and revolves around the trials and tribulations in the world of music
“Rangreza is my writer Akhtar Qayyum’s struggle in the world of music,” the first-time director Aamir says. “He spent 30 years as a musician, starting as a drummer and ending as a lyricist, and that’s how he managed to churn out a well-researched script that helped us all in understanding the way things work. For someone like me, who has assisted others in making music videos and commercials it was an ideal opportunity to show to the world the real beauty of Pakistan. The Burnes Road and Garden areas are quite beautiful and through Akhtar bhai’s story I managed to capture these places the way I wanted.”
In a country where you are either the leading man or the protagonist, we get to meet Gohar Rasheed who is neither while playing the interesting character of Wasim Walay. “If the trailer gives you the feeling that Wasim is the villain, then we have succeeded in duping the audience,” Gohar says when asked about his role. “Wasim Walay is not a negative character but somewhere in the middle of hero and villain. You can say he is the anti-hero since his character has different shades, and I hope that people will like the way it has turned out on screen.”
The bone of contention between the two leading men, Reshmi, is played by Urwa ‘Help me Durdana’ Hocane who featured in the only two successful films to be released this year — Punjab Nahi Jaungi and Na Maloom Afraad 2. Had I been in her place I might have taken a break.
“The name of the leading men in the two films is also Ali,” Urwa says while comparing both Arth and Rangreza. ”I don’t know much about Arth but ours is a love story based in Karachi and has me playing a girl who understands music. Since it’s a film about family values I have a good relationship with my parents and all those close to me. The highlight for me was the chance to shoot in the old areas of Karachi which added authenticity to the script.”
In a film where all three leading actors are relatively new to the industry, the environment could have either been tense or creative. Gohar Rasheed and Urwa believe it was the latter because the leads are only shown to be on a parallel path on the screen; in reality, they are much more aligned. “This is the third film Bilal and I are doing together,” says Gohar, “so if there were any rivalry, why would any of us have agreed to work with the other? We are good friends who encourage each other on sets rather than feel insecure. Believe me, Bilal would be as happy for me as I would be of him if people like our character when they exit the cinema.”
Urwa seconds Gohar’s comments calling theirs a good team. “Whether we three had a scene or not, we were constantly giving inputs to each other as it is our film and also because the makers allowed us to create the characters ourselves. We used to cherish inputs rather than take it as an insult and, believe me, I was sad on the last day of the shoot because I had learned quite a lot during the making of the film.”