The year 2015 brings with it a brand new Pakistani feature film, Good Morning Karachi that is being shown in cinemas but here’s what you need to know before you exercise your patriotic responsibility and set out to watch the movie.
Welcome to Karachi of an alternate universe!
The city shown in Sabiha Sumar’s Good Morning Karachi isn’t the city most of us living in it have grown up to love. In the real Karachi people don’t burn billboards with women on them, they don’t gather outside a fashion model’s place to protest against her profession, Benazir Bhutto’s supporters are not harassed by the police and radio jockeys talk about good things in life rather than painting the city as hell. The novelist Shandana Minhas (on whose novel Rafina the film is based) must have written about Karachi of an alternate universe that was depicted as a place where skimpily clothed women could easily roam around in stores (not malls), celebrities in skirts could appear on morning shows (oh yes!), BB supporters were tortured by police, fanatics burnt billboards calling the model ‘fahash’ and RJ Khalid Malik’s voice spelled doom. Anyone tuned into radio waves will vouch for the outbursts of optimism and positivity.
Suggestion: Live in Karachi before you make a movie about it!
For God’s sake, leave English alone!
The British left United India more than six decades ago but our obsession with their language is at an all-time high even today. Hasn’t the humungous success of Na Maloom Afraad taught our filmmakers anything? Haven’t they realized that besides a handful of people, nobody wants to watch multi-language films in Pakistan? Very simply, don’t filmmakers realize that most of the people who will be watching films in cinemas don’t even understand English? It makes you realize how these films are targeted at multiplex and international audiences alone.
And it is not just the English-Urdu mash-up that disappoints here; the way English is treated is nothing more than a joke. The protagonist is seen carrying a dictionary wherever she goes, she listens to English tutorials on CD to make her angrezi better but when she speaks, she speaks like a pro.
Conclusion: Pakistani filmmakers need to put the spotlight back on the national language, Urdu!
Too many actors, too little depth!
I became a fan of Farhan Ally Agha when he played a negative role in Sultana Siddiqui’s Doosri Duniya more than a decade ago. His presence in the film was one of the reasons why I decided to go and watch the film but sadly, like all the big TV names in the movie, his role hardly had any substance. The film belongs to Amna Ilyas alone who comes out with flying colours while the rest are peppered here and there, as if doing favours to the director. There is hardly any margin for anyone else including the usually brilliant Savera Nadeem and Saba Hameed (wasted completely), the extremely talented Farhan Ally Agha, the multi-faceted Khalid Malik and RJ-turned-actor Dr. Yasir Aqueel. British import Atta Yaqub does get a role where all he does is party and play mentor, but unfortunately no one knows who he is in Pakistan. That said, his presence will do wonders in foreign markets, which seem to be the actual target of the film.
Conclusion: The ensemble cast adds to the film’s appeal but not to the story’s depth.
Nobody wants to watch a documentary in cinema!
When a person goes into a cinema to watch a film, he/she expects to watch nothing but that. Show that person a documentary about women in the country and he will be as stunned as I was. Good Morning Karachi does that to you and to make matters worse, it’s not very factually sound either.
As for the research, the film seems to have been made by someone who doesn’t know
Conclusion: ‘Sorry’ always works!
Bad timing makes things worse
Whoever advised the filmmakers that releasing a movie at the same time as PK would be a good option was not their friend for sure. Aamir Khan’s blockbuster is making producers rethink their release dates in Bollywood but Sabiha Sumar went ahead and released her film. Had she delayed the film and worked harder on the post-production, it would have helped because most of her film doesn’t have a background score. Natural sound is missing in half of the scenes and the editing jumps on quite a number of occasions don’t look good. A film is like a good meal; nobody likes a half-cooked one. And yes, when the film finally takes off, it ends abruptly and all you can do is wonder what really happened!
Conclusion: The next morning wasn’t a very Good Morning for me!
Omair Alavi works for Geo TV and can be contacted at omair78gmail.com