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Mail Box
Local liberal dribble
I would like to thank Nadeem Farooq Paracha for validating my suspicion on the film Khuda Kay Liye (KKL), and the minor political phenomenon it has spawned.
As he covered it last year in an empassioned broadside on Shoaib Mansoor, KKL has come a little too late, in the characteristic fashion of Pakistani political cowardice.
There is a trait amongst my fellow citizens to only stand up for a political principle just when it becomes fashionable or popular; not when that principle is being popularly violated, and anybody standing up for it can be shot or blown up for his trouble. KKL would have been more timely in the 1990s.
However KKL, in typical Musharraf-esque fashion, presents the Muslim world as if it has only two sides — the extremists and the moderates.
It doesn’t take into account that there are better ideas to take up than Muslim moderation — like preventing the massive destruction of the urban poor’s living conditions; the unjust nature of rural society in predominantly Muslim countries (rural areas being where most of the population lives) or how the fact that if the West simply perceives the world using the moderate/extremist dichotomy, it will only be reinforcing the stereotypes the extremists possess of their own Muslim countries.
KKL is only commendable for at least having some ideas compared to other Pakistani cinematic fare; even if those are bourgeois-restricted ideas. It is the marginally better nature of the film that makes it popular amongst the drawing room classes.
This is the class which is the go-between for Islamabad and Washington power circles; and the rest of the country. Sadly NFP and I cannot deny our connection to this class.
Yousuf Sajjad
E-mail
What to do, na?
I found Paracha’s recent creative piece interesting. In fact, I laughed at some points. Apart from the fact that he ridicules many things, he’s one of those people who at least are concerned with whatever is going on in our society and on our TV channels.
He’s quite articulate however; presenting pictures like ‘everything is bad and we can prove it is bad’ isn’t the solution.
He should come one step forward than being just a critique and should offer his own personal positive role. It would make the ‘religious fakers’ back off, who Paracha constantly criticises.
Raqim Haque
The idiot’s guide to becoming a Bollywood band
This is to appreciate and applaud Sidrah Haque’s article which is absolutely brilliant. Every single word of it is true and though it makes you laugh, it is also worrying to note that what she’s written is happening right under our noses and our newspapers mostly support and promote such blatant sell-outs of our bands to third-rate Bollywood walas.
Fizzah Hussain Rizvi
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