Khuda ke liye....... pakistani movie!!

Khuda ke liye.... movie review..!!

Its a must watch movies to understand that Islam doesnt mean Terrorism, every muslim is not a terrorist and every maulana is not a good human....since this movie is something one can easilly relate to....

Khuda ke liye is the first ever Pakistaani Film to be released in Indian Theatres...There is already a Fatwa released against the Film by few maulanas in Pakistaan...but the film satisfies everybody's question about few controvercial topics about Islam......The Director...Shoaib Mansoor, has already left Pakistan with his family fearing his life.

It deals with a very sensitive subject which is handled very well. The film is joint venture of the Pakistani, Indian and US film industries.

The movie revolves around two muslim musician brothers – Mansoor and Sarmad. Sarmad who is confused between religiously right and wrong things...gives up music as told by some maulana and transitions into religious extremism and Mansoor, the elder brother who goes to US to learn music becomes a victim to racial profiling after the 9/11 Mishap. It depicts an upper middle class liberal family in Lahore. The movie plot starts somewhere in pre 9/11 and ends in late 2002.

The Film starts with a subplot where in a pseudo-liberal Pakistani, now a resident of Britain finds that her daughter, Mery is in love with a white guy, traps her into a visit to Pakistan and sends her into an Afghan village where she is forcefully married....to Sarmad, who is actually the cousin of this girl and now an extremist. Here the initial subplot merges into the main plot. The other subplot of the movie revolves around Mansoor, the elder brother who gets into a romantic relationship with a white American girl in Chicago. Both the subplots are so beautifully entwined into the mainstream that one can not reallize them being two different issues.

The movie moves into post 9/11 scenario when Mansoor is picked up by law enforcement agencies in the middle of the night from his apartment and detained ostensibly in an extra constitutional prison and humiliated in all ways. Sarmad on the other hand gets involved in the battle between Taliban, US forces and Northern Alliance.

The movie....interestingly handles two major issues – religious extremism and racial profiling - and twines them well. There are other issues like the condition of women during Taliban days in Afghanistan....... theological issues of acceptance of music in Islam and the way various groups are putting forward their own version of the religion. There are though things in the details where one may (I did not) feel are over-simplified. But overall Shoaib Mansoor (the writer and the director) has been able to put the things in perspective pretty well.

Charecters :
The characterization of all the charecters in the movie is extremely good. Almost all the actors are superbly in control. Shaan, who played the role of the elder brother Mansoor, plays his role with full gravity, particularly when he is in detention. Rasheed Naz, who played the radical Maulana Tahiri, gives a great performance. The way he handles some dialogues like ‘yeh NGO Pengio crowd hai‘ when he sings "Billo ke ghar jaana hai"....these scenes are really great.

The last hour of the movie is quite balancing.....on religious scholarships.....when Maulana Wali comes into the picture. Up to this point the discussion between what is allowed in religion and what is not was happening between a radical Maulana and novices. Naseeruddin Shah, playing Maulana Wali, as expected gives a superb performance – arguably the best one in the movie. It is a cameo but is one of the most important. He is a well known Maulana in Lahore who is invited by the court to give his opinion on religious matters. The director does a good job in bringing in serenity in the environment of Maulana’s house. When Mariam sits in his drawing hall a gramophone is playing a record of Sehgal.

The best dialogues in the movie have been written for Maulana Wali and Naseeruddin Shah delivers them as good they could be. In the court he says ‘deen me dadhi hai, dadhi me deen nahi‘ (In religion there is beard, not religion is in beard) or ‘haraam ki kamai jeb me rakhkar, halal ghosht ki dukaan dhoondhte hain‘ (People look for Halal meat shops with inappropriate earnings in their pocket.). On matters of dress he says ‘Kaheen aisa to nahi ki ham Abu Jahal (A bad man on historic religious grounds) bana rahe hain. Kyonki dadhi to Abu Jahal ke bhi dadhi thi or huliya bhi wohi tha jo huzoor ka tha.(Is it that we are making Abu Jahals, because even he had a beard and even his appearance was similar as our prophet.)

If you ask me....I would say it’s a wonderful movie. It ends positively in various ways and has been handled by the director quite well. The last scene has Sarmad (who is back into tradition) and Shershah (representing the radical Maulana) competing for the Azaan. The competition for the mike for who speaks for Islam has been shown to begun and that is actually happening in Pakistan now a days.

Hi Senorita,

I have to agree with you, it is a very good movie. I actually saw it a long time ago, it was released sometime last year. The concept and the actors are really good and talented. The music is also very catchy, but the main point is that it shows that Islam does not teach or promote terrorism. Its the people that depict it in the wrong light. I recommend that everybody watch it. Here's .

thanks