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'I am alarmed at the ferocity of people who think they are good Muslims'
Rana Shaikh and her team were shooting two hours outside Karachi for the ARY Digital production 'Kaisa yeh Junoon' that she wrote and directed. They had 200 fair-skinned extras against a rugged tribal background in which Baitullah Mehsud's recent advances are being discussed by a group of fighters. They finished shooting and turned to leave when the extras surrounded them in the car. They banged at her window. 'Give us the tape!' they shouted. "You have been abusing Mehsud!" Rana tried explaining to them that they were repeating what had already been reported. It is precisely this frightening encounter that 'Kaisa yeh Junoon' seeks to tackle. "[I am] hoping people realise that taking up guns will not solve the problem but will lead to more suffering and heartbreak," said Rana. Rana asks the question on everyone's lips. "Will this country be fit to live in?" She feels that Pakistani society has completely failed to bring up its children with the sensibilities that should have come post-Partition. A US ambassador once told her a long time ago that he never saw any joy on the faces in the streets in Pakistan. "We never thought we needed a strategy for identity, something that India understood so well by banning foreign items after 1947," said Rana. "It makes a difference to be surrounded by all things Indian. And they built their academies, their movie halls. You could hear Bismillah Khan in a Delhi park for free. But here and now, [our youngsters] can't decide what Pakistani is; we have been swamped by other cultures, particular Indian movie culture." It was not just in Karachi that the crew encountered manifestations of the very topic of the film. Despite acquiring all the proper paperwork and authorisation, they ran into trouble at the Regent's Park mosque as well. They were shooting a nikkah sequence with one of the mosque's own clerics one day. All the girls were covered properly and Kirron Kher was present. A crowd of angry men burst in and hurled abuse at the crew, saying it was haram to film and a Hindu like Kirron Kher should not be inside such a holy place. Thus, the making of the teleseries was a challenge. "It was at times depressing," Rana admitted. "I kept saying to my young associates what a dark story it was. And ever since [we started work on it], I have been noticing more and more of [extremism] around us. I am alarmed at the ferocity of people who think they are good Muslims." Rana's alarm prompted her to begin the project in the first place. Its outline emerged after her 'Umrao Jaan Ada'. Shooting began in March 2007 after 2.5 years of preparation for the four locations, including Cambridge. The project picks up from the Afghan Jihad 25 years ago and links up to present day. "The West has to understand that it needs to respect and support Muslims as well and this should not be too hard for seasoned democracies and open societies such as the UK and US," she said. "They firmly believe in 'live and let live'. The problem of fundamentalism, which can be traced along one trajectory back to the Afghan Jihad, 25 years ago, means that we are arguing from a position of weakness at this point." Posted by: Fred 2008-07-17 |
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