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After umpteen hiccups the Quaid project producing a film on Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammed
Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan had got the green signal. But, barely had the
spools of celluloid rolled to capture Jinnah on the silver screen and perhaps
immortality that the Pakistan Government withdrew funding to the film. The
Government's move is due to the controversy which has dogged the project and the
bitter criticism of the film by a vociferous anti-film lobby, which wants the
project dropped. An equally strong lobby in favour of the film wants it canned
for release on August 14th 1997, when Pakistan celebrates its 50th year of
independence.
Since its very inception the, Quaid project has been haunted by the choice of the
actor Christopher Lee to portray Pakistan's founding father Jinnah. So far Lee is
best known for portraying Bram Stoker's blood curdling character 'Count Dracula'.
With a penchant for horror movies and over 250 movies with ghoulish, vampire type
roles to Lee's credit, he is set to play the role of Jinnah, revered by millions
of Pakistanis. Lee's casting sent Pakistan's media into a hysteria. However, the
74 year old, aging Count's striking resemblance to Jinnah did silence some
critics.
The film s critics maintain it will become "another Satanic Verses". The Nation
in an article on March 5 said the, "film contains objectionable scenes showing the
Quaid being ferried across to Limbo ... They have touched religion
unnecessarily,.. Limbo is purgatory." Their particular objection is to the
character of the narrator, who travels into the past and the future with Jinnah.
The rotund Shashi Kapoor has been cast in the role of the narrator. According to
the anti film lobby the narrator was earlier portrayed as Gabriel. The Producer
Dr Akbar S Ahmed denied there was anything that would hurt Muslim religious
sentiments, and said there was no angel Gabriel.
Another grouse of the critics is the suspicion that the script for the film has
been written by Farrukh Dhondy, an Indian expatriate in Britain. Critics in
Pakistan say Dhondy who is a writer and Commissioning editor with Channel 4 will
turn the movie on Jinnah into a black comedy. Ahmed denies that Dhondy is
involved, and has asserted that he and the film director Jamil Dehlavi have
written the script. Jamil Dehlavi has had his own share of controversy. Dehlavi,
known for his pathbreaking films like "Towers of Silence", "Blood of Hussein" and
"Immaculate Conception", was bounded out of Pakistan. While Dehalvi's film Blood
of Hussein was banned in Pakistan, Immaculate Conception a sensitive film on an
American women who gets sucked into the world of Sufi shrines and eunuchs raised
howls of protest for portraying Pakistan negatively.
The Pakistan Government has added its bit to the controversy by first promising
and then withdrawing funding worth $ 1. 5 million to the film. In January,
President Farooq Leghari wrote letters to Governors of Punjab and Sindh directing
them to give full support to the project. Pakistan's Army Chief also backed the
project, and in a letter, declared the film to be of national importance. The
Government also allowed use of Government property and armymen as extras in the
film.
The portrayal of 'Jinnah' in the film has also given rise to controversy. The
publication "Newsline" said "The question of how Jinnah will be presented in the
film has caused as much concern as who will be presenting him. Will he be given
an image of a liberal, forward looking and secular Muslim fond of Western ways,
many of which are considered vices by purists, or will he be trimmed in keeping
with state policy?" Newsline further says, "If the movie does presume to show
Jinnah the man, warts and all, it may raise some questions about the Quaid's
personal life that we, as a nation, are not prepared to ask."
The anti and pro lobbies of the film on Jinnah however, represent a larger debate
and soul searching in Pakistan, struggling to come to terms with Jinnah's legacy.
The pro-film lobby represents those who wish to dispell the mystery and fantasy
around Jinnah. Lal Shah in an article in Friday Times in January, echoed this
sentiment. Shah, commenting on a report published by Time Magazine on Jinnah's.
last words that, "Pakistan has been the biggest mistake of my life", wrote, "it is
with pride that I call your attention to the behaviour of our fellow countrymen in
response to the news that Quaid Azam's dying words were that Pakistan had been the
biggest mistake of his life. This is, after all, big news: the Father of the
Country putatively disowned us on his deathbed. Since the country never had a
mother (Fatima Jinnah being disqualified due to her brother's recantation) that
now makes us orphans. One would expect hunger strikes and protests, copies of
Time being set alight. But so far nothing. The only response so far had been
dignified in the extreme no chest beating, no Maatum..."
Analysing this Shah says, "There are of course different interpretations of this
development. The first possibility is that we have matured as a people. The,
second is that nobody really gives a damn. Personally I believe that it's the
second and I think its a good thing. Fifty years of relying upon what the Quaid
wanted or didn't want has gotten us nowhere except into jesuitical hairsplitting
of the Quaid's speeches. We have a whole academy coming up in Islamabad which
does nothing but manufacture quotes from the Quaid's life to fit the vogue of the
day, be it privatisation or yellow cab schemes, of Islamisation.
"The fact of the matter is it doesn't matter what the Quaid said or thought
because this country was never his jagir to be developed in accordance with his
wishes. We the people of Pakistan, own this country. It belongs to us. And it
matters a lot less whether or not this country is being run in accordance with the
Quaid's wishes than whether it is being run In accordance with our wishes."
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