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It is not an exaggeration to call Pakistani Cinema dead! Yet, like the underground music scene that has inspired dozens of brilliant singers to the mainstream, there is something else buzzing in the country's media world...parallel cinema.
Many creative minds are taking to second cinema or parallel cinema as an outlet for their budding (sometimes just boring) genius. All of them deserve a chance, but not everyone catches our attention like Shahzad Nawaz did.
From his first independent production, Daira (adapted from Mohsin Hamid's book Moth Smoke), Shahzad caught our eye both as a film maker and an actor. So when he told us about Botal Gali, his joint venture with another great artist Humayun Saeed, we jumped at the opportunity to promote it through The Saturday Post.
Today, we are bringing you our first shots from the sets of Botal Gali...enjoy the pics and keep an eye out to get your copy of the maestro's next venture...www.botalgali.com |
"Come take a closer look at Karachi. You will see a long narrow alley, one that leads those who tread its misleading labyrinth into a world of make-believe. Bustling with a sea of people, ‘Botal Gali’ is a story of lies, betrayals and deceit that contours private lives of its people in black and white, except when the sun sets…the night moves and the hues set the mood."
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Shahzad Nawaz
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"I don't want to be the guy who's always talking about intoxicants but I feel that Karachi city is basically not a city but a Botal Gali, and we are all Botal Kay Jin. One bottle can get many things done. Again, on the intellectual platform, like Daira was actually about India, Pakistan, and Kashmir, it wasn't really about the characters. Botal Gali is about the public, false promises, and the government. It's a story of a bootlegger, who sells and pushes Desi daru, and suddenly, like it's been happening for the last 7-8 months in Karachi, you can't find foreign liquor because the bonded warehouses are sealed. All of a sudden this guy finds mother luck wink at him and instead of selling a bottle for Rs.250, he can sell it for Rs.800. The main character and narrator of the story is the bottle itself. We're going to see the city from the bottle's point of view. I named the brand myself as I didn't want to use any known brand name. So I used "Dante's Vodka" basing it on the Divine Comedy. Like the nine circles of hell according to Dante, I'm going to have about nine different stories that come together and chain themselves to the main plot."
Shahzad Nawaz
- Exclusive
Rendezvous
with The Saturday Post |
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