Pakistan's First Digital feature film screens in USA

Entertainment Showbiz Pakistan , Bollywood & World Entertainment
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Has anyone seen this?

Raat Chali Hai Jhoom Ke
PAKISTAN’S FIRST DIGITAL FEATURE FILM

a.k.a The Long Night

Urdu with English Subtitles / 94 mins
Available for Screening on DVCAM / BETA SP
Copyright Tamarind Pictures and Ajrak Entertainment

● Winner of the Special Jurors’ Selection Award at the KaraFilm International Film Festival 2001, Karachi Pakistan
● Winner of the Award for Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Nadia Jamil at the KaraFilm International Film Festival 2001, Karachi Pakistan
● Selected for Screening at the Commonwealth Film Festival 2002, Manchester UK
● Selected for Screening at the Digital Talkies Film Festival 2002, New Delhi, India
● Selected for Screening at the Lahore Moving Images Film Festival 2002, Lahore Pakistan.

Directed and Produced by Hasan Zaidi
Written by Mohammed Hanif
Cinematography: Shakeel Adnan
Editing: Maheen Zia
Music: Aamir Zaki
Starring: Faisal Rehman, Nadia Jamil, Anwar Solangi, Arif Hasan, Muneeza Kidwai and Khalid Saleem Mota

“Waleed Has Lived In Karachi All His Life. Tonight He Discovers It.”

Synopsis:
Waleed is an MIT-educated yuppie who lives in Karachi’s upmarket Clifton area and runs his own computer software firm. He is on the verge of signing a multi-million dollar deal with Microsoft. At the same time he has been carrying on a phone affair for the past six months with a woman he has never seen but whose coyness and old world charm fascinates and intrigues him. One night, the night before a make-or-break net-conference meeting with Microsoft, the woman invites him to come meet her in suburban Malir where she lives. Against his better judgement but overcome by lust and emotion, he sets out late at night to the area he has little idea about. What follows is a night Waleed will never forget as he comes face to face with the realities of Karachi he has never imagined, let alone experienced.

Raat Chali Hai Jhoom Ke
PAKISTAN’S FIRST DIGITAL FEATURE FILM

a.k.a The Long Night

Director’s Note

“Raat Chali Hai Jhoom Ke” is as much a story about the city of Karachi as it is set in it. Someone once described Karachi as a city divided by a bridge – the Clifton Bridge – which separates the haves from the have-nots. Although not strictly true, what is true is that as the city has expanded to accommodate its some 12 million inhabitants, the worlds inhabited by its dwellers have shrunk. The affluent live increasingly hermetic lives, untouched by the chaos, the colour, the language, and even the violent reality of the working and lower middle classes of Karachi. As the height of the walls around their houses have gone up and night chowkidars replaced with gun-toting security guards, so too has disappeared that common ground – the central space – wherein the affluent and the not-so-affluent could come together. In effect, then, the city’s different areas exist in different realities. In Raat, these differing realities collide in one night.

Aside from celebrating the diversity of the cosmopolitan city of Karachi, my writer Mohammed Hanif (a journalism colleague) and I both shared a desire to make a truly urban film, an aspect of the Pakistani reality that we felt was ignored in the country’s film and television.

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Re: Pakistan's First Digital feature film screens in USA

Northern California Premiere of 'The Long Night'
Ras Siddiqui

("Raat Chali Hai Jhoom Ke" (the movie))

A group of people called the “3rd I” are making a sincere effort to promote what they call “South Asian Underground Cinema”. 3rd I held the Northern California premiere screening of Pakistan’s critically acclaimed movie “Raat Chali Hai Jhoom Ke” (The Long Night) at the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco on Saturday, September 28, 2002. And judging from both attendance and viewer response, it appears that this seminal digital effort by Producer-Director Hasan Zaidi and the script by writer Mohammed Hanif (a Newsline magazine reporter currently with the BBC Urdu service) has certainly hit a certain chord with both the young and the culturally interested segment of our community here.

Before we get to the movie itself it may not hurt to mention that one should be glad that more people did not show up at this venue to view this movie. It was as one would say, “sitting on the floor room only” because it was basically a sold out event via prepaid Internet sales. The many like this reporter who showed up at the door had a difficult time getting in especially since my wife and three others accompanied me. For others that were informed early but could not come, it would have been a let down to go back home, especially since finding a parking spot for your car in this part of San Francisco almost requires divine intervention. So right off the bat our thanks to Saqib and Maheen of the 3rd. I group for accommodating more people in the already cramped hall.

Saqib introduced us to the 3rd I concept and Maheen gave us a background of the movie screening before “Raat Chali Hai Jhoom Ke” (The Long Night) started. The English subtitles came in handy for the many in the audience who did not understand the Pakistani national language of Urdu. And one can add here that the subtitles quite accurately represented what was being said as compared to often embarrassing translation attempts that one sees from Indian (Bollywood) and Pakistani (Lollywood) cinematic efforts. But let us move on to the movie.

“Raat” (The Long Night) is about life in Karachi, Pakistan, or one can say that it is about life in the other Karachi, the one that the elite yuppies of that mega-city rarely venture out into. The central character Waleed (Faisal Rehman) is an MIT-educated Silicon Valley related head of a Pakistani software company who is about to meet with a Microsoft bigwig the next day to sign a multi-million dollar deal. Waleed is single and has been carrying on a telephone romance with a certain Fareeha Naz (Nadia Jamil) for months. And on this fateful long night Fareeha who has added something to her significant other’s drink tells Waleed to come immediately to an area outside of Karachi called Malir for a rendezvous. The rest as we can safely say here, is the whole movie. Waleed is out of his realm. He is out of his cocoon of safety. He has to interact with the poor struggling and dangerous elements in a Karachi that he has never experienced before.

Waleed is naïve. He believes in the goodness of mankind and wants to save the man (Anwar) that is dying in the house where Fareeha Naz lives. Fareeha herself is attractive but bored, self-centered and two-timing. Her character is possibly the most powerful one in the movie. And since Fareeha herself does not appear to be too interested in saving the dying man, Waleed takes it upon himself to find a doctor to do just that. And it is during this quest that he runs into the ugly side of Karachi. This is the world of thieves, drugs, terrorists, crooked policemen and prostitution, along with the world of transvestites, the common folks, and many ironies.
The Long Night is about ironies. And it has a subdued message within such ironies.
In his quest to find a doctor Waleed runs into characters that e.g. care more about the reception on television then human life. Villain and urban terrorist Baqar Khan (Arif Hasan) is shown at one moment viewing a scene from the Indian movie classic “Mughal-e-Azam” and in another ordering his sidekick to kill his captive. The poor police duo who are on the verge of losing their jobs for arresting someone drunk but important (and English speaking) “by mistake”, make this their own very special long night by breaking the law. One must say that Anwar Solangi and Naeem Siddiqui did a great acting job here.

Since it is not the purpose of a movie review to tell the reader the whole story, one has to stop and think about what ideas were being presented. The only people that seem to care about others in “Raat” are Kausar, a member of the oldest profession (brilliantly acted by Muneeza Kidwai) and members of the Heejra (Transvestite) community. Otherwise predators rule the streets on this long night. The roles of the two women characters namely Fareeha and Kausar are not what we are used to in Pakistani cinema. They are both very aggressive and take charge type of women who do not appear to be waiting for a hero to come and save them.

There is no singing and dancing by the characters in this movie like most of South Asian cinema. But songs are present, being played on cassette. If I am not mistaken, Pakistan’s great Sufi singer Abida Parveen is heard as is India’s top Diva Lata Mangeshkar (at a very ironical moment).

One can immediately observe that this is not the usual Pakistani movie. The storyline carries much adult content but it would not get much more than a PG (Parental Guidance) rating here in the US (possibly an R for the violence). And it is well made for a low budget movie. The character buildup could have been a bit stronger but it is only 94 minutes long (short for standard South Asian cinema). But it gets an “A” for effort in my books. It is not too far off in quality from India’s many ‘formula films” which have a much wider audience but both India (with some exceptions) and Pakistan still have much work to do to match quality International Art films like those coming out from current independent Iranian cinema (just an opinion). But one can certainly call “The Long Night” or “Raat Chali Hai Jhoom Ke” a good beginning and a refreshing change of direction in Pakistani films.

precious khan k liye rishta.....
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Re: Pakistan's First Digital feature film screens in USA

Some Reviews:

Mesmerising, original score…Seamless editing… High quality camerawork…
‘Raat Chali Hai Jhoom Ke’ has raised the benchmark of filmmaking in Pakistan… With this film, serious social commentary has finally come to the Pakistani screen.
This sketch of multicultural Karachi is a microcosm of Pakistan.” — The Friday Times

“Hanif's witty one-liners draw a smile even in the midst of some very tense scenes. The pace is sharp and the editing smooth. A welcome addition to the very short list of watchable films made in Pakistan.” — Newsline
“The story provides glimpses into modern day Pakistan… Combining well known actors with new faces, Hanif and first time film director, Hasan Zaidi, created a tale that tells of what happens when two diametrically-opposed worlds collide.”— BBC OnLine

“Nadia Jamil gives a powerful performance as a manipulative seductress.”— 1st KaraFilm Festival 2001 Award Citation
“An extremely relevant film that, is well scripted, deftly shot and edited, and which marks a remarkable debut for its director." — 1st KaraFilm Festival 2001 Award Citation

“If this, Pakistan's first-ever digital film, is any indication, the future of the industry is in good hands. Streets ahead of staple Lollywood (Pakistan's commercial Urdu/Punjabi industry) fare, the film is extremely well made. Beautifully shot, entirely at night, competently edited, and professionally acted, the film is a triumph for first time filmmaker Zaidi… It provides a window into a world rarely seen in Pakistani films and not at all outside of the country. This is required viewing.” — Commonwealth Film Festival 2002

Well looks like sme good has come out of Pakistani Television industry. Go Pakistan

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Re: Pakistan's First Digital feature film screens in USA

It came out some times back I guess. Like a few yrs or something....it's supposed to be pretty cool and the acting and all has been lauded. I mean come on, it's Nadia Jameel and Faisal Rehman so there's GOT to be something awesome in this film!

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Re: Pakistan's First Digital feature film screens in USA

Is it out on video??

Mr and Mrs SHIKRA anniversary [merged]
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Re: Pakistan's First Digital feature film screens in USA

Yeah this movie was made a long while back.

If this movie is what these reviews say it is, then hopefully this might encourage others to enter the movie-making field.

Although honestly, I see the change mostly coming from the direction of directors who are making music videos. They can get a complex theme into a short amount of time - plus they can get people like Nadia Hussain and Neha (who CAN'T act) to actually act.

Jami is planning on making a movie at some point, and I think some others will follow suit.

fingers crossed

I hope the movie industry explodes just like the music video industry has exploded.

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Re: Pakistan’s First Digital feature film screens in USA

He’s been planning to make that film for ages now! The first I heard was in 1998, then a few yrs later Jami sez he wants to make his feature film debut before he turns 30…but we’re still waiting! WHat utter crap! :frowning:

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Re: Pakistan's First Digital feature film screens in USA

sounds interesting!! Too bad these movies don't come out on video/dvd here

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Re: Pakistan's First Digital feature film screens in USA

This is old now.. The movie came out about three years ago and many people said it was very good. But never found this movie anywhere... Still not sure where to get it!
I mean, one of ew good Pak movies ever made

beta
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Re: Pakistan's First Digital feature film screens in USA

i would like to purchase a DVD copy of the movie. Where can i buy it from for cheap. Can some one send it to me ? thanks. God Bless.

  • Gamma
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Re: Pakistan's First Digital feature film screens in USA

^^ It's really tragic -- prints, of any sort, are so hard to find for the good Pakistani movies. They oughtta have some video releasing strategy overthere, like they do it in the rest of the world after the movie is off the theatres. And while on theatrical release, I think movies like Raat Chalee Hai Jhoomke actually stand some chance now with all these multiplexes opening up.

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Re: Pakistan's First Digital feature film screens in USA

First Digital feature film my ass

Congrats Kamran......(merged)
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Re: Pakistan's First Digital feature film screens in USA

Khamosh Paani is already an internationally acclaimed movie.

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Re: Pakistan’s First Digital feature film screens in USA

shut up… dnt b jealous. jealousy is bad. if this was an Indian movie. I’ll b seeing 10000000 posts… praising the junk…

Azadi-e-Izhaar
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Re: Pakistan’s First Digital feature film screens in USA

You said it!