Films are the next big thing in Pakistan and with it Hum TV has launched its Tele Film Festival 2008. So far two of them have been telecast.

Raqeeb Se is about a self-proclaimed brilliant student Ahmed who is ditched by his best friend Abdullah for a girl they both love. He then goes on to romance a prostitute with a heart of gold who is killed by galli kay ghunday. He kills one of them and lands himself in jail and on death row. Had the writer Amir Reza stuck to one or two main themes, the venture would have been fairly watchable. Raqeeb Se was also a letdown in terms of weak acting, and one especially commends the actress who essayed the role of Nadia who is forced into prostitution. If only she hadn't put lilac eye shadow! The background music that sounded more like a shrill drill machine was ill-placed and drowned the dialogues.

Tower Se Surjani Tak had a stellar cast comprising Mohammad Qavi Khan, Sajida Syed, Mona Lisa, Anwar Iqbal, Ayub Khosa and Munawwar Saeed. The film came across as a crude mixture of Bollywood films Chandni Bar and Laaga Chunri Mein Dagh, where women are shown as passive objects who have no grip on their fate or circumstances. There is also the regressive implication that singing is unacceptable for women (I guess Hadiqa Kiyani, Rabi Peerzada and Huma Khwaja should look elsewhere).

One wondered why the rest of the able family members did not pitch in and become independent of the daughter's earnings as a singer. Then there is the issue of placing original songs in the tele-films, which in this case was a group of squeaky-voiced baccha villains shown jamming in a muddy courtyard. However, the sole positive element about Tower Se Surjani Tak was its meaningful dialogue. A favourite line was “Jamhooriat kay thaykedar dewarain kali karte hain.”

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