by Momin Ali Munshi
Just a few days back a reputed newspaper printed out an article titled “Na Maloom Afraad becomes longest running film in Pakistan”.The article read:-
“Pakistani comedy thriller film Na Maloom Afraad has clinched the title of being the longest running film in the history of Pakistani cinema…
The record, which was previously set by Bilal Lashari’s action thriller Waar with a 163 day run, has now been broken by Na Maloom Afraad…
NMA director Nabeel Qureshi enthusiastically shared the achievement on Twitter: “#namaloomafraad becomes the longest running film in pakistan! Breaking the record of #waar 163 days, congrats to the team ! Still going on.”
While Team NMA was basking in their glory, all us cinema lovers in Pakistan were a bit confused. Why? Well almost anyone with some basic Lollywood knowledge knows the fact that Chooriyan and Majajan, two more recent Pakistani blockbusters, ran in cinemas for periods longer than 163 days! While we were just going to do a bit research on the topic to paint a clearer picture, our Lollywood superstar Shaan Shahid came to our rescue. The super patriotic actor made this little post on his facebook page which gave us the much needed answers.
It read:
Correction of news!
The longest running film in the history of Pakistan is Heer Ranjha & Mola Jutt. Ran for 3 years. Choorian ran for 5 years. And majajan ran for 5 years. We cannot erase the past by rewriting your present.
Pakistan film industry was not born with Waar or Namaloom but it was here before we all came lets at least honour it with the truth . Great men have worked to bring us entertainment for 65 years . Na maloom only ran in Khi in one cinema the news should claim it as longest running film in Khi only . Pls don’t divide Pakistan’s entertainment like we have divided everything else between us. Let’s be honest as we are artists not politicians.
Shaan Shahid’s post created quite a stir and forced all the media outlets to re examine their stories on NMA. Soon everyone realized the mistake they had made made and modifications were made. The new updated version represented the fact that the film is the longest running film since the revival of cinema took place in 2007. However its the the 1977 Lollywood film Aina starring Shabnam and Nadeem which still holds the record of being the longest running film in Pakistan as it ran in cinemas for over 401 weeks!
Moreover, while the entire NMA team made peace with this piece of information, one of the leads (Mohsin Abbas Haider) still seems to be under some other impression. Check out his insta post which he made just yesterday!
While we can surely say that Na Maloom Afraad is one of the biggest successes in recent times, to say that it is the longest running film in the history of Pakistani Cinema is wrong. But we would also like to say that with its super-successful run at Karachi’s Atrium Cinemas, the film still has shows prime time shows there, who knows it might just actually become the longest running film in Pakistani Cinema. Fingers crossed!
