aqifali

To actually see a movie from Pakistan in which actors are talking and not yelling was a pleasant surprise but as the movie progressed it completely blew my mind off for being so real. This movie take its viewer right in to the world of Pakistanis who are either living in Pakistan or residing abroad especially in western world. It realistically portrays life in Pakistan where people are caught between the hardliner religious scholars and carrying the normal activities and pleasures in life. It also shows the dilemma of overseas Pakistanis when they see their children being brought up in a western society. Finally, it painfully shows what has happened to many Pakistanis that have been targeted by western people and law after 9/11. The greatest service that this movie has done is to show the world that how difficult it is right now to be Pakistani and I can't say much more than that.

On the side of acting all the actors did justice to their characters. Shaan (Mansoor) was at his best and I must admit that I never thought that Shaan could deliver such a powerful performance after seeing his mindless Punjabi movies. His acting, while being tortured by law was realistic to a frightening extent. After watching the movie I felt that huge amount of research must have gone on the background as every situation looked near to reality. For example, the way Government Political Agent approached tribal council was very realistic.

Amidst all the painful realities the film does give a ray of hope in the end when Iman Ali (Maryam/Marry) opens a girl's school in tribal area. I guess it was necessary for the artist (Shoaib Mansoor-director) to give hope in the end. Although, sadly speaking that ray of hope is still no way near in sight to Pakistani society as during the last few years, many of the girls schools in northern area of Pakistan have either been bombed or closed down as a result of threats and I am afraid that Maryam school might have been one of them.

I started watching Shadow Hours one evening on Foxtel (Australia). Pretty soon I realized that I had to watch it all the way through as the suspense regarding the mysterious rich man (Stuart) kept on building. The movie is about a journey of a young man (Holloway) in to the very dark side of city's night life with that mysterious rich man. Holloway was a former drug addict and is supporting his wife pregnant with their first child by working through grave yard shift on a petrol station (yes we call it petrol in Australia :). He gets acquainted with a rich guy who takes him to very strange clubs and places. That sparks a battle of conscious within Holloway and he finally manages to get out of way by following a rather hard way.

The movie reminded me of 8mm in which Nicholas Cage goes deep in to the dark and ugly of porn, gambling and some very psycho stuff in pursuit of a missing girl. Shadow Hours also takes us to all these sick places where at first you will not understand that what kind of people would want to go through that sickening lifestyle. But, If you think a bit more that probably you will realize that most of the people who hang around these places and gets abused by people like Stuart are mentally ill and are probably not accepted by the society. By hanging around such places people like Holloway who often are at borderline of sanity can be influenced in a terrible way. Anyway the movie was entertaining and thought provoking and I will recommend it to all people who liked 8mm.