JOYRIDE CONTINUES

Another feather in the well-decorated cap of the film Joyland, directed by Saim Sadiq: the project has been shortlisted for the 95th Academy awards in the Best International Feature Film category, becoming in the process the first Pakistani movie to achieve that feat. There are 15 movies in total in that shortlist selected from over 95 country submissions, including the critically acclaimed German offering All Quiet on the Western Front and France’s Saint Omer. The competition is tough. One hopes that Joyland triumphs at the Oscars, creating history for those associated with it.

MAULA JATT IN INDIA

By the time this news item sees the light of day, as per reports coming out of India, Bilal Lashari’s The Legend of Maula Jatt would have been released in India (on December 30). Zee Studios are the ones who have made arrangements for its screening. Good to know that because, after the hoopla created by extremist groups in that country, it seemed unlikely that Pakistan’s most commercially successful film, which is made in a language that’s also widely spoken across the Wagah border, was going to be seen by Indian cine-goers. Maula is about to roar in, and rock, India.

EPISODE BEST

Pakistani showbiz is going places, make no mistake. The Hollywood Reporter last week published a list, drawn up by their television critics, of episodes that in their opinion made a mark on TV this year. Among them, there’s Ms Marvel’s episode titled Time and Again, in which Fawad Khan and Mehwish Hayat play a pair with a sad love tale. Directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the story has been hailed by the critics as one of the most impactful of the last 12 months. Indeed, it’s brilliant, because things like these don’t happen time and again.

SRK ALONE

This is a bit startling. The prestigious Empire Magazine has come out with the names of the 50 greatest actors of all time, and only one Indian actor features in that group. Who is it? Shah Rukh Khan! Yes, not Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan or Rajesh Khanna, but SRK. He is counted among the likes of Marlon Brando, Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman, and some of the actor’s movies that have been cited in support of his inclusion are Swades, Devdas and Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai. Isn’t it interesting and strange at the same time? Greatest star, maybe, but greatest actor… who are we to judge?

IN DEFENCE OF BOLLOYWOOD

Now that’s how you defend your industry! A lot is being said about South Indian cinema doing better at the box office compared to what’s being made in Mumbai (read: Hindi films) and that the days of Hindi cinema are gone. Wait. Filmmaker Rohit Shetty has raised his hand to defend his community. At a media conclave recently, he said it was just one bad year during the pandemic that Bollywood movies didn’t do well, and “because of that one bad year, you [fans] are deserting us?” In that context, he mentioned the names of hugely successful projects, ranging from Mughal-e-Azam to DDLJ and from Sholay to Maine Pyar Kiya. This elicited a generous round of applause from the audience. Rohit S, making a glib gol maal remark might not just be sufficient to bring audiences back into cinemas. You have to understand the zeitgeist!

LEO AT IT AGAIN

If you thought that Leonardo Di Caprio is dating Gigi Hadid in a hush-hush way, folks, here’s another twist to his love life. On Dec 20, he was seen getting into a car with actress and model Victoria Lamas after having a good time at The Birds Streets Club in Los Angeles. When journalists tried to sniff a steamy story out of it, they found out that there’s no truth to a romantic tie because the two were seated at a big group dinner at the club, and afterwards there were also other people in the car with them. Hmmm… even if that’s true, the fact that Victoria L is 23 years of age and Leo DC is 48, we’d still suspect he’s up to no good.

Published in Dawn, ICON, january 1st, 2023