DesertTalkies Film Reviews!

  JOYLAND [2022] - UPDATED! Starring: Alina Khan, Ali Junejo, Rasti Farooq, Sarwat Gilani Direction & Screenplay by Saim Sadiq Language: Urdu / Punjabi I finally managed to get my hands on the uncensored version of Joyland, and safe to say it completely surpassed my expectations! After watching it, I'm just so surprised that so much was censored. There were some incredibly sexual scenes, where censorship was perhaps warranted in the religious, Pakistani society, but completely platonic hugs and dances were so brutally cut out. Seeing some of the censored scenes in full was jarring for me, and it confronts a reality about Pakistan that is uncomfortable to watch. However, the point of film is to challenge stereotypes, and find a new angle that evokes pathos within an audience. After watching the film in its entirety, everything just completely fit together. Seeing Haider's complete instability made me sympathise with his wife, when I had originally thought that he was complet...

  JOYLAND [2022] Starring: Alina Khan, Ali Junejo, Rasti Farooq, Sarwat Gilani Direction & Screenplay by Saim Sadiq Language: Urdu / Punjabi It has been a long while since a Pakistani film has even reached a foreign audience, but here we are with a film that has been nominated for an Oscar! Although it is in a lot of ways an exceptional film, there was one key factor that dictated my viewing experience: censorship. I watched the film in Pakistan, in one of the only provinces that allowed the movie to be screened in theatres. There were very obvious cuts (I later found out that over twenty minutes of the film had been cut in the censored version). This censorship is a huge problem! It is incredibly disheartening to see that a movie that has been produced in Pakistan cannot even be viewed properly in its home! The censorship completely interrupted the narrative of the film, to the point where I just could not understand some of the film’s progression. The movie was full of sexual...

THE LEGEND OF MAULA JATT Starring: Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan, Hamza Abbasi & Humaima Malick Screenplay & Direction by Bilal Lashari Language: Punjabi   Pakistan has waited a long time for a movie like this! The golden age of Lollywood has been dead for decades, but this movie feels like it may be getting a revival. A remake of the original from the 1960s, the film brings this folk tale to life, sans any random modern additions. Pakistani cinema is often overshadowed by larger Indian films, especially in foreign markets such as Dubai, but the acting displayed in Maula Jatt just indicates that there is tremendous talent just waiting to be exploited in Pakistan. I have never in my life seen an entire cinema watching a Pakistani picture, even in Pakistan, but this film proved me wrong.   Fawad Khan & Hamza Abbasi are seasoned veterans in the Pakistani acting industry, and so they, as expected, performed exceptionally well. Mahira Khan was disappointing : she was only p...