Talk of the K-town for last couple of days, Pakistan International Film Festival (PiFF) 2018, came to an end with an award ceremony on its fourth day, yesterday. Here is your summary of events from day three and four of the landmark event.
‘Films for change: Socially motivated content in South Asian Film,’ was the topic of the first panel discussion on day three, and in that panel were big names like, Vishal Bhardwaj, Momina Duraid, Jami, Subhash Kapoor, Hareem Farooq, and Nishtha Jain of Indian film, Gulabi Gang.
While Vishal Bhardwaj and Momina Duraid echoed each other, stressing on the need for commercial, all-out entertaining films, Jami and Hareem seemed to have more heart for social issues in cinema.
Expressing his views, Vishal said, “cinema is to entertain you, not to highlight issues. It’s a mirror of reality we show you, your problems are yours to fix.” Momina similarly said, “We need commercial films right now, with a strong Pakistani stamp! Social issues and all come later. Khuda Kay Liye did well here, but my stance was always to show the other side. Sure, try and incorporate subject and issues too, but right now Pakistani cinemas need commercial films.
On absolute contrary position stood Jami; who said, “we need films with good stories, strong issues, not commercial. Moor was never supposed to make money. Films that were supposed to make money flopped.” He also felt that 2018 might again be a disaster year story wise.
Hareem Farooq took bit of a middle ground and said, “we need commercial films but also need to tell stories with issues. We tried raising issues with Janaan and Parchi, keeping the same thought in mind.”
The second panel discussion discussed ‘The Future of Music & Lyrics: How important is music in the subcontinental cinema, as its topic, and had names like, Ali Zafar, Rekha Bhardwaj, Asif Noorani, Sultan Arshad, Arshad Mehmood and Dr. Omer Adil, in the panel.
The final day of the event started with a brunch, hosted by Babar Ikram, and attended by the Indian delegate at PiFF 2018, along with the local celebrities too.
The main highlight of the day, however, was the award night of the event, attended by the who’s who of the industry, including Mahira Khan, Ali Zafar, Sultana Siddiqui, HSY, and cast of Pakistani film, Cake, among others. State Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Maryam Aurangzeb, was the Chief Guest of the evening.
The good thing about the award show was that not only the festival films were awarded, the mainstream Pakistani films of last two years were also celebrated.
Apart from that, three films, Wishing Tree, Momal Rano, and Zaraab, were screened but Abida Pareveen’s remained the star performance of the evening.
And with that concluded the film festivity of Pakistan International Film Festival 2018, departing with stirring a lot of discussion that needed to happen in the country in terms of films.
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