Pakistan’s platinum jubilee film Arman revisits city

Karachi

Urdu feature films from Pakistan’s golden age of the cinema, such as Pakistan’s platinum jubilee flick Arman, have come to revisit the city where they were shot and inspired the nation with their record-breaking business and soul-touching music.

Black-and-white film Arman was screened at the Arts Council’s open air theatre as part of a film festival attached to the Hamara Karachi Festival.

Though a small number of viewers were in attendance prior to the screening of Arman, some of them were seen recalling the film’s evergreen songs and Karachi. “I watched it in Liaquatabad’s Firdous Cinema for 42 paisa,” a nostalgic poet Javed Saba recalled.

Sitting next to Saba was the Arts Council’s secretary, Ahmed Shah, who started crooning Ahmed Rushdie’s Ko Ko Ko Rina and Mala’s Akele Na Jana, which being original soundtracks of the film turned out to be on everybody’s lips. Besides Waheed Murad and Zeba, he spoke about Muzaffar Hussain aka Nirala.

“Those were the days when you could see Urdu film and come out singing its songs from a cinema,” Shah observed. “Celebrated filmmaker Pervez Malik shot Arman entirely in Karachi’s Eastern and Modern studios and even got all of its post-production done in Karachi.”

Cinepax, one of the leading multiplex cinemas in the country, has joined hands with the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) in connection with its Hamara Karachi Festival to showcase several popular Urdu feature films at the Arts Council’s open-air theatre.

A mini-film festival of sort, dubbed Movie Gala, kicked off on Tuesday, as a special treat for people participating in the festival. Cinepax CEO Arif Baig Mohamed said that this was the second consecutive collaboration of Cinepax and the Hamara Karachi Foundation. “This year, our specialised entertainment package will only include Pakistani movies, because we want to bring back the glorious days of quality Pakistani cinema,” Mohamed said. He further said that his company was all set to announce a US$10 million investment plan to bring cinema entertainment back to Karachi and will create hundreds of jobs for the people of the city.

In her message for the occasion, Naib City Nazim Nasreen Jalil said that the aim of celebrating the Hamara Karachi Festival was to highlight the identity of Karachi, the culture and traditions of its settlers and to create harmony and cohesion amongst them. Besides Tuesday’s screening of Arman, the film festival will further feature famous movies such as Doraha on March 4, Andaleeb on March 5, and Insan Aur Gadha on March 6. The festival being staged at Arts Council will conclude with Saeed Rizvi’s sci-fi flick Shaani on March 7.