In Flames ☆☆☆☆

Starring: Ramesha Nawal, Omar Javaid, Bakhtawar Mazhar, Adnan Shah Tipu

Directed by: Zarrar Kahn

Everything about In Flames is stressful and horrific. My jaw ached for the next two days from clenching it so tight during the 98-minute run of the film, and a lot of it wasn’t from the jumpscares. It was from the everyday life of a Pakistani woman shown on screen, through Mariam’ character, played by Ramesha Nawal.

In Flames, which had its premiere at Director’s Fortnight in Cannes earlier this year, came to Karachi for a short 10-day run at the Atrium Cinema in Karachi. Shot entirely in Karachi, with so much of Karachi in every shot, every character, and with Karachi literally running through the film’s every vein, In Flames could easily be a love letter to the city; an homage any creative from Karachi in any discipline tends to pay at some point in their career.

In the case of In Flames, the love letter is eloquent and poignant: you cannot help but admire Karachi’s very specific brand of unabashed beauty as you watch, and you cannot help but acknowledge the distortion of this beauty as lives live themselves out in the city.

Director and writer Zarrar Kahn stated at one of the film’s international screenings that he put down this very what-ails-society story in a horror frame, so the ‘victim’ or as we understand as we watch the film, the woman/ women in the story can come out on top. It should speak more to our society than the creator of the film that it takes a trope to make a woman win in a story about Pakistan, but actually, it does speak to Kahn’s processing of ideas that it does.

While horror as a genre is often a response to the world around us, with real-life situations expressed as monsters and endemics and violent streaks, Kahn’s story has the ghosts of Mariam’s life chasing her everywhere. Whether it is a deep-voiced, zomboid apparition in the mirror, or the men that ogle at her as though it were second nature, Mariam can’t seem to escape them.

The cast of the film delivers on every count. Bakhtawar Mazhar is a theater vet by now, and she translates her character as well to screen as she does to stage as you’d expect. She’s played everything to vindictive survivor to a woman always overshadowed by men through the course of her career, and she’s done it brilliantly every time.

Adnan Shah – or Tipu, as most of us know him – is aptly skeezy and one would expect nothing less of him.

Omar Javaid, who plays Mariam’s love interest Asad, is sneakily chameleon-like. So natural you’d think he’s just being himself, it turns out, he’s just that good at impersonating your garden variety Pakistani boyfriend. IYKYK.

The star, in my opinion, who shone brightest is Ramesha Nawal. She photographs gorgeously, she speaks so well, and she brings both steel and vulnerability to her character. I hope we see much more of her on TV and in film, and on stage too.

Looked at divorced from the social message it aims to convey, In Flames is less horror than it is a psychological thriller. The impact, nonetheless, remains the same: stressful to watch, because it is so well-constructed, beautifully filmed: every frame can be a work of art; and ultimately satisfying, because if you’re a woman, regardless of where you’re from, being a final girl, sometimes, seems like the only time we can win.

Looked at divorced from the social message it aims to convey, In Flames is less horror than it is a psychological thriller. The impact, nonetheless, remains the same: stressful to watch, because it is so well-constructed, beautifully filmed: every frame can be a work of art; and ultimately satisfying, because if you’re a woman, regardless of where you’re from, being a final girl, sometimes, seems like the only time we can win.

Rating system: *Not on your life * ½ If you really must waste your time ** Hardly worth the bother ** ½ Okay for a slow afternoon only *** Good enough for a look see *** ½ Recommended viewing **** Don’t miss it **** ½ Almost perfect ***** Perfection