Shah ***
Dir: Adnan Sarwar
Starring: Adnan Sarwar, Kiran Chaudhry, Gulab Chandio, Faiz Chohan, Adeel Raees

Cast your mind back two decades or so and our sporting landscape was in much better shape than it is now. Not only were we World Champions in cricket but we also ruled in hockey, being the proud owners of both the World Cup and the Champions Trophy simultaneously. Mohammad Yousaf was the World Amateur Snooker Champion. Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan had a stranglehold over all the major squash tournaments and Pakistan was synonymous with the word "squash".  Cricket had become the nation’s premier sport by then but hockey and squash still had huge followings and special places in the hearts of the Pakistani public.

It’s practically been all downhill since then. Pakistanis have shifted almost all their attention to cricket (even though we have barely qualified for the next Champions trophy) and all other sports appear as an afterthought. The years of neglect and lack of planning by various sporting ministries, administrations, and boards have resulted in almost terminal decline in all other sports. Hockey is our national sport but we haven’t even qualified for the next Olympics and we have no players in the Top 20 in squash (even India has one). And it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better any time soon.

However, it is never too late to start. One of our building blocks for any possible resurgence has to be remembering and honouring our forgotten sporting heroes. So writer/director/star Adnan Sarwar’s bio-pic of Pakistan’s sole individual Olympic medallist, Lyari boxer Husain Shah, couldn’t be timelier. It is simultaneously uplifting (chronicling the pugilist’s rise from the streets and paying tribute to Lyari’s proud boxing traditions and history) and depressing (his treatment by politicians, public officials and his countrymen is shameful). It is not the standard Hollywood/Mollywood boxing (or other sports) movie where the background music rises to a crescendo as our hero(ine) overcomes all odds, both personal and sporting, in the triumphant climax of a sporting encounter and all becomes right with the world. Life isn’t like that and Sarwar pulls no punches (no pun intended) in depicting the events after Husain Shah’s Olympics achievement.

It is a (not so) simple tale simply told - though the whole framing sequence of the journalist researching Shah’s history is unnecessary – without overly dramatizing the events (including the various boxing bouts) and this keeps the whole movie a refreshingly grounded affair. I do recommend that you check it out.

Finally, a word to all future filmmakers and corporate sponsors of movies. Avoid constantly shoving your product or logo in the audiences’ faces. It distracts and detracts from the movie and actually turns you against the product. That is not what you want. Product placement maybe an unavoidable reality of modern films but it should be done as unobtrusively as possible.

Cut to chase: Packs a small-sized punch.

Kmumtaz1@hotmail.com; Twitter: @KhusroMumtaz