Express Tribune:

Over the din of loud, celebratory music, my liaison at Atrium Cinemas tells me I will have to wait longer for my one-on-one interview with Nadeem Mandviwalla, the owner and managing director of Mandviwalla Entertainment. He is busy talking to television channels, he says, leaving me feeling frustrated and discriminated against the glamour of TV journalism.

It seems like it is really hard in Pakistan to be ‘Mr. Clean’–or in a case like this–‘Miss Clean’ all the time. Controversies from all possible sides keep following the one who makes it even a tiny-big in the country or internationally; like a shadow.

The News

The best thing about Islamabad is that it keeps bringing out new talent and creativity. Be it Zibahkhana, Slackistan or the numerous well written and excellently portrayed plays that have started travelling to Karachi, Islamabad has never stopped surprising the masses! Add in the fact that the city has quite a happening underground music scene and you will wonder why the city fails to get enough space in the tabloids. But the positive thing about this city is that it ignores this fact and keeps working hard to bring out fresh ideas, inspiration and output!

The latest venture that has been cooking up in the city is Siyaah, a suspense cum horror movie. Siyaah is a classic tale of a modern family haunted by their own disbeliefs. A surreal plot that will get under your skin and will leave you thoroughly frightened. The film strikes a nerve and doesn’t stop until the end credit. This will create a sense of dread that oozes from the unreal, nightmarish atmosphere. Siyaah is a skin-crawling punch of horror, which will leave you squealing with fear and anxiety, as claimed by the producer.

The producer, Imran Kazmi told Instep Today that it has been his passion to make a film since early childhood. “And finally I started working on this one back in 2009. I had no idea where to begin and how to pursue and after a lot of research and hard experiences, I sat with Zara Zaman and we conceived the plot of the story! Finally, I found something interesting, something that would appeal to the masses. That’s when I started looking for a scriptwriter and some time in early 2011, I decided to give this task to Osman Khalid Butt,” says Imran.

“Soon Azfar Jafri joined us and that’s when I became hopeful about the project. Together we started selecting the cast members and the final cast includes Hareem Farooq, Qazi Jabbar, Mahnoor Usman, Ahmed Ali Akbar, Aslam Rana, Sofia Wanchoo Mir, Rizwana, Sarwar Salimi and Amy Saleh. Finally, things started falling in the right places”, said Imran.

Azfar Jafri, a first time director told Instep Today that he really liked the story initially but eventually fell in love with it when he and Imran re-wrote the screenplay. “And I think one of the reasons why the entire team jelled so well is that everyone owned the project and added their own bits to make it even better,” mentioned Azfar.

Though the entire cast and crew of Siyaah is relatively new the film has great hope and that’s because the script has been done by Osman Khalid Butt, who is a writer,journalist, theatre actor, director, producer and a choreographer! Considering his vast theatre and journalism experience, we really can’t expect anything less than a masterpiece from Osman!

Another reason why you should look forward to Siyaah is Hareem Farooq, the lead actress. Though she has been working for only three years in theatre but she’s quite a versatile actress. One of Hareem’s strengths is that she knows exactly what it takes to entertain and engage the audience and if she can do that in a live performance, she must be able to do it even better in a film! Hareem has worked with Anwar Maqsood in Pawnay Chauda August, a play par excellence and only recently she appeared in the Mobilink commercial.

The male lead, Qazi Jabbar, however, doesn’t have much experience apart from school and a local theatre play so it will be interesting to see how he portrays his role! The rest of the cast has some kind of theatre experience specifically in Islamabad, which is one of the reasons the project has already become so popular in the city.

Siyaah has released its first trailer only recently and though the trailer doesn’t speak too much about the film or even gives a small idea, it is a nice effort from the team. Let’s hope the film does well and goes beyond the boundaries of Islamabad!

Starring in upcoming Sehzad Rafique directed film Ishq Khuda, the emirates based Morrocan actress Wiam Ammar Dahmani is not really having a great time back in UAE, she is not only missing the shooting days of the film but the company of her co-star and Pakistani heartthrob actor Ahsan Khan is also being felt missing in her heart.