I noticed In the reviews section that there were only 22 ratings from Pakistan out of the 445 or so. After watching this movie, contemplating over it and checking the cast\crew section I realized why that is so. All the writers and almost all the producers are not Pakistani aside from the main producer who is Pakistani-Canadian and the director who is also Pakistan-Canadian, and I suspect is put there by the westerners as the face of this project. A story about Pakistan forged by and portrayed through the lens of people who are effectively all non Pakistani. No wonder it came out so wrong.
The Film seeks to depict the challenges in a fatherless and underprivileged young girls life in Pakistan and completely misses the mark. The story and the characters are largely divorced from the ground realities of Pakistan, with its poorly written characters and a hollow storyline aside from off course the obvious attempt throughout this movie by the writers to depict Pakistani man as evil personified and the poor woman being subjected to their will as helpless, frail and abandoned by the law and culture at large. This is nothing short of what I would expect what your typical ill informed CNN and FOX watching westerner would think. From its misrepresentation of a culture, Misandry, Inconsistent and unlikeable characters, lack of depth, bad dialogues and poor choice of filming locations, this movie misses the mark by allot.
Misandry in the Movie: The leading roles were played by women in this movie. All the males were cast in supporting roles. All of the main male characters were cast in a negatives role and a substantial amount of all the in and out male characters were also assigned a negative role. To prove this thesis I present to you examples of 7 male portrayals. 3 of the Leading male characters were depicted as; A sleazy, charmer and seducer boyfriend, An opportunist, scheming and unsympathetic uncle and A Shady Rapist rickshaw driver. 4 negative fleeting roles included; A domestic abuser father, A public masturbator, a vicious attacker (Brick thrower) and a uncooperative police official.
The first half of the story Involved depiction of pre marital relationships which is not common within the context of Pakistan and especially not within the context of a below middle class family as is shown here. In fact such relationships are extremely frowned upon and this could be another major reason why the film performed abysmally, because it failed to connect with the wider Pakistan audiences. When you hate on a people however subtly or otherwise and you misrepresent them in the way it is done in this movie, you should not be surprised if they don't show up and don't recommend your content to the next person.
The filming locations were also not attractive. Karachi has allot to offer. Could have chosen a better neighbourhood to shoot the film. Why choose a literal slum adjacent? What is this obsession of westerners with showing slums and dilapidated infrastructure in Pakistan and India?
There were a few critical mistranslations in the subtitles, that could have further caused the naïve viewers relying only on the translations to be appalled for no reason.. The lead character in one instance tried to say that wearing a hijab was at first a habit but as time went on became a form of worship, but it was mistranslate to the following "First it was a habit, then became my duty". Duty being the operative word here, suggesting that it might have been forced. Additionally when someone breaks your cars window with a damn brick, ones first instinct based on the given information would be to think that its a robbery attempt or perhaps an attempt to kill, not what is hinted at in the movie by this unlikeable white saviour indoctrinated British Pakistani character. Further there was mention of sharia by the lawyer which seemed wildly irrelevant given that the problem at hand was a flawed Pakistani judicial system not a flawed religious law as was erroneously suggested, despite the fact that the rights of the women in Islam are protected.
All in all this Western funded film showed Pakistan and especially Karachi in a very poor light. This film is a offense against its people.
