Dukhtar

So the Busan International Film Festival 2014 started with a rock. There are so many flicks being played and people are queuing up to buy the left over tickets. When I first started to scroll through the list of the movies that were going to come on at the BIFF I was pretty uninterested in all of them until I saw Dukhtar in the list. I have been hearing a lot of good things about this movie from my friends in Pakistan. I was surprised and mostly excited to find that the movie will be showing at the BIFF.

The movie started of great. The cinematography was breath taking. The locations are memorizing and brought back memories of all those places I had visited few years back during my trip to Pakistan.

The story was well penned and the characters were well groomed. I felt connected to them and understood their emotions. The story is very true to life and makes you want to sympathize with all the victims. I liked the fact the movie didn't drag for too long and it ended at good point, anything more than that would have been a more obvious cliché.

Music of the movie was great. Songs composer Sahir Ali Bagga, has done a brilliant job at composing the songs. I am still humming the tunes after leaving the theater. Background score by Peter Nashel makes the hair at back of your neck stand up, of course in a good way.

I am not going to talk about the overall plot of the movie, as most of you know by now what it is about. Overall the movie is a must watch! And why is it a good movie because at the BIFF after the movie ended the whole audience in the theater stood up and applauded. That was brilliant moment and if we were allowed to use cameras in the room I would have recorded that moment. Some Koreans thought it was an Indian movie, and before I could turn around and correct them, one westerner corrected them by saying, "I am sorry, but you are wrong. This movie is from Pakistan."

Decide it for yourself. I loved it.

Dukhtar (2014), directed by Afia Nathaniel, is a quiet but powerful feminist thriller that reveals the lengths a mother will go to protect her daughter from patriarchal violence. This film is set in the rugged mountains of Pakistan and follows Allah Rakhi and her daughter in their journey to escape from being forced into a child marriage. This film deals with generational trauma and shows Allah Rakhi's relentless attempt to prevent her daughter from enduring the same pain she suffered from as a child involved in child marriage.

One of the most compelling elements of Dukhtar is the way that the story unfolds with minimal dialogue and relies mainly on powerful visuals for storytelling. The Director Afia Nathaniel chooses to implement visuals like barren landscapes, vast skies, and barren landscapes to reflect Allah Rakhi's fierce will to break free from the patriarchal norms that oppress them. This film emphasizes female agency and sacrifice while keeping Allah Rakhi's resistance quite maternal, quiet, and deeply human.

While this film is steeped in tension as Allah Rakhi and her daughter's lives are in danger throughout the entire film, it never veers into melodrama. This properly highlights the very real danger that these women face in their journey to avoid the oppressive system they were involuntarily born into. Nathaniel lets the suspense build through long silences and urgent glances, giving viewers the chance to experience similar sensations as the women in the story and also women who go through this situation in real life.

Dukhtar's breathtaking cinematography and heart-wrenching performances make it a testament to love, courage, and the power of a woman determined to end the cycle of patriarchal oppression to rewrite her daughter's fate and disobey tradition.

too often I end up going to cinema watching a Hollywood movie you pay £10 for and its rubbish. Dukhtar barely made any noise in Marketing when it came out, I had to go find out the details myself, but its a gem.

Part of "the new wave of Pakistani Cinema", this movie along with others like Waar, Bol and Khuda ke liyeh are making a name and quality niche for Pakistan's film industry. It seems to have been released in very small circulation in the UK as Pakistani films are not always in demand, but I highly recommend everyone to watch it. If like me you like movies with different stories, not the usual bollywood dance and dishoom trash, this should be your next movie. It appeals as it's a very Pakistani story and one that opens a door to world about women's lives in Pakistan.

If you are thinking about watching a movie, don't miss this one.

Let me start the review by saying that if this movie was to be judged on the basis of visuals , it comes in par with some of the best internationally ,but some poor casting choices and lame screen play along with novice dialogues it made it a just an OK film , it had the potential to be a bench mark film , the subject of the film was very powerful which deserved a powerful presentation , the film started great but as soon as Mohib Mirza appeared the whole mood of the film was destroyed , Ajab Gul and Saleha Aref were the only two castings that did justice to their roles , Samiya Mumtaz is a good actress but she was not into the character properly, her accent kept changing in the whole film .Overall its good that Pakistan cinema is at least trying to make its own impression and it will improve with time .

Last year's Waar made headlines everywhere because of the jingoistic message it brought. Dukhtar (Daughter) has so far been quite a mellow affair, partly because of its dealing with the poignant issue of child marriage in Pakistan's rural areas.

Shot absolutely beautifully in the North of the country, it is a story about the fierce love of a mother who is not about to give off her young daughter's hand in marriage to settle a tribal dispute.

One of the best things about this movie is that it doesn't get monotonous. The director, Afia, does an excellent job in keeping the story fast-paced with a load of twists and turns despite the relatively banal topic of the flick.

Acting-wise, I was impressed with all the performances except probably that of Mohib Mirza, the truck driver from Punjab. I think he wasn't the right-fit for the role because he visibly struggles to generate that Punjabi pang expected from him. However, this shouldn't be a hindrance in watching the film because the dialog is carried more than aptly by the rest of the cast.

The songs are refreshing, which brings me to another good point about the film; they don't last for an eternity and just are fleeting occurrences during scenes to accentuate the emotions.

All in all, Dukhtar is easily the best film to come out of Pakistan in 2014. It might not see the commercial success of Waar but it's story is infinitely better. A must see.