‘Yousaf Khan Sherbano’ screened at Lok Virsa

Islamabad
Producer: United Artists
Director: Aziz Tabassum-Nazir Hussain
Script: Ali Haider Joshi
Music: Lal Mohammad Iqbal
Cast: Badar Munir, Yasmeen Khan, Nemat Sarhadi
Lok Virsa is celebrating Qissa Khanwai Festival. Part of the celebration include screening of Pakistan's first Pashto film Yousaf Khan Sherbano from 1970 with English language subtitles.
Launching a film in Karachi and in Pashto was not an easy task back in 1970. The production team went all the way to Peshawar to seek permission (and blessings) from Pashto Jirga. The film went into production only after the Jirga had given the permission. This I suppose was keeping with the norms and traditions of Pakhtoon culture and traditions. After all, the film had to be publicised and promoted widely and heavily in KPK (then NWFP).
Badar Munir working for Nisar Murad and his son Waheed Murad in Karachi was selected to play the male lead. Yasmin Khan was chosen as heroine and Nemat Sarhadi in the supporting role.
The script based on folk story is dangerously close to Romeo Juliet (aren’t all eternal romances!). The handsome hero, after the death of his father, must not only support his family but also go for hunting and meet charming Sherbano. And like all such romances, inevitably go through a tragic finale in the final reel.
Filmed in good old black & while, the film moves at its own leisurely pace, notwithstanding the limited and restricted technical faculties available at that time for a low-budget Pashto venture in Karachi.
aijazzgul@gmail.com