Talking to Jamil Dehlavi about Infinite Justice and More

No offence meant to Ras but the person being presented here is a rotten mind. I thought it's Prof. Ahmed alone from "American" University who did the project 'Jinnah'.

Ppl can make out from the video links given here. If nobody knows or talks abt the film Jinnah, it's bcoz it's badly conceived and made.

The maker of the film was jerky and shows Nehru and Edwina in the bed room all the time. If they are not shown in bedroom, they are shown as making some suggestive dialogues apart from lewd gestures.

Lady Jinnah was shown as a drunkard - as if Jinnah was not!

We can make atleast a dozen points that made this film stink like a rotten egg.

Whatever my disagreements abt Jinnah, he's a hero to Pakistanis and there's a better of protraying him. If that's the only way then it also reflects on the intellegentisia of Pakistan. They are tasteless, unaesthetic & gaudy morons.

It's doesnt need an elaborate analysis here when the whole world had forgotten abt the film. Even discussing the other films of Jamil would be a waste of time given the nature of Jamil's rotten mind.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-7281352336057332457&q=Jinnah& amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp;total=463&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

h ttp://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-5804746583783141087&q=Jinnah&t otal=463&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2

I forgot to ask him if Madubala was his relative?

http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php?content_id=18791


RE:V RV #1,No offence taken, but I am surprised at your
(over) reaction. I am glad that I am not a part of Pakistani intelligentia in your books.

I did not wish to gloss over "Jinnah" during the interview.
All I have seen of the movie was an obviously pirated and grainy copy and do not remember enough of the details. I was sorry to see that the movie was not promoted and would have liked to have seen a quality print.

Maybe Prof Ahmed and Dehlavi can clarify their positions
right here on CHOWK?

Ras

Ras,

I really dont know if u form part of the Pakistani intelligentsia or not.

I may have over-reacetd but the fact cant be taken away that Jamil had scr**ed-up the movie big time. Poor conception (i.e Jinnah is in heaven), editing & poor screen-play. Jamil Dehlavi is therefore responsible!

I saw it a few months ago & it's a low-grade movie (& I am glad that noboy takes it seriously). Btw, u can see this Google video. The print quality is good.

To paraphrase what they say about Wall Street, "The only way to make a small fortune in the movie business is to start with a large fortune and make a movie or two".

Ras,

Some people have a habit of over-reacting. Forgive them.

VRV,

Drinking and being a drunkard are two different things. If Saadat Hassan Manto's "Mera Sahab" is any indication, Jinnah had little red wine with dinner. Considering the movie was made in a budget less than 1/10th of Gandhi the movie 15 years later, it wasn't a bad movie at all.
The weaklink in the movie was Shashi Kapoor and his character who were better left out.

The movie was critically acclaimed and was released on DVD and did pretty alright. Ofcourse the Government of Pakistan did not bankroll it like Government of India bankrolled Gandhi the movie as a major propaganda effort ...


On another note vis a vis the article... I think Sir Christopher Lee and Richard Lintern played the part of Jinnah well. Lee was close to 73 whe he appeared in the movie and did not at all look like a Dracula.

Lee looked honest, upright, straightforward and scrupulous just like Jinnah was hailed by even his worst opponents including that snivelling little freak Gandhi.

One can also say that Sir Ben Kingsley played the part of Gandhi very well... Ben Kingsley now fits the profile of Gandhi- the snivelling, two timing deceptive dishonest crook ... much better. Infact that is the role Kingsley has been portraying in almost all of his newer films.

Time is a great leveller.

Yasser,

Jinnah is critically accliamed? U mean 8 Oscars?

Jinnah was a known drinker. He use to drink whiskey everyday.

Like it or nor not, Gandhi's a saint politician and Jinnah's a butcher of a million ppl. Of course his successors outdid him in Bengal.

I agree that time is a great leveller. W see that in Pakistan everyday/week.

Manto mian,

(Government of India bankrolled Gandhi the movie as a major propaganda effort ... )

Unfortunately all that money has gone waste. Thanks to you everyone knows MKG for what he is - a Hindu racist, fascist, casteist, misogynist bigoted freak.

Regards

Majumdar,

No no... I accept that the propaganda was extremely successful. However propaganda does not last. And you and I know the reality of what Gandhi really is... in time more perceptive and honest people in the future will concur with us.


VRV,

On the contrary you know the facts as well. In law it is simple: I took the gun I shot xyz. Abusing Jinnah for the deaths caused by the callousness of Gandhi's Congress Party (though half a million was the top figure claimed by any historian- Indian government claimed that 1947 was "mere disturbances") most of which took place in East Punjab under Congress' watch is one way of dealing with the ugly reality but it is certainly not very healthy.

As for Gandhi being a saint. Yes and 3 billion people also believe that some dude Jesus Christ was the son of God. Perception and "belief" doesn't mean anything. Facts are everything. Gandhi was a racist casteist Hindu fascist bigot.

Infact... all turmoil in the subcontinent since 1919 has some connection to that Hindu fascist Bigot Gandhi.

PS: Apparently you don't know what critically acclaimed means.

Besides no one denies that from purely a film-making perspective, Gandhi the movie was remarkable piece of work.

And it had to be to fool so many people and make them think exactly the opposite of what Gandhi really was.

Mantolives,

I am happy u r back to ur elements.

'Infact... all turmoil in the subcontinent since 1919 has some connection to that Hindu fascist Bigot Gandhi.'

I think since 1919 till date, I think.

Like it not, Gandhi stood for humanity whereas Jinnah stood for power, perks and of course free supply of whiskey in GG palace.

Repeating a lie several times will not make it true so I don't know why you try.

Truth be told Gandhi was the most machiavellian amoral character let loose on the subcontinent. There was no humanity - unless you follow some warped view of humanity in which caste system is humane and black people are subhuman.

And you are deliberately misquoting a historical saying. Gandhi's physician who also treated Jinnah on occasion declared:

"Gandhi is a tool of power. Jinnah is the source of power"

This is I think sums up the two men... Gandhy a scheming little character without integrity and Jinnah the epitome of integrity and honesty.

Now if having a drink was anything immoral, then about 3 billion + people are immoral. So I don't understand what it is about "whiskey" that bothers you so much. Drinking is an acceptable social custom even in the most conservative Muslim societies which ban drinking. Some of the finest Muslim poets and intellectuals drank on a regular basis. Drinking however doesnt make one a drunkard.

Manto mian,

(Abusing Jinnah for the deaths caused by the callousness of Gandhi's Congress Party)

The violence was caused by the Brits prematurely ejaculating themselves from India (mainly at Lord M's bad advice) and becuase of the sheer unpreparedness of both the successor administrations. Blaming either party is uncalled for.

(half a million, most of which took place in East Punjab under Congress' watch)

And although there was little violence in W Punjab under ML and MAJ's careful watch, almost the entire Hindu/Sikh miraculously disappeared from that region. While Muslims continued to live in large numbers in several provinces under INC's hostile dispensation.

(in time more perceptive and honest people in the future will concur with us.)

Sadly we will remain a minority. And ironically while MKG's stock may be on its way down our side of the Radcliff Line it may go the other way on your side.

Regards

Manto mian,

(unless you follow some warped view of humanity in which black people are subhuman.)

It maybe of some interest to you that a fellow chowkie Jinnahite has been expressing somewhat similar sentiments on UP!!!

VRV sahib,

Why are you making a huge fuss of MAJ (pbuh) drinking? Lots of gr8 people did. And the old goat had his own shares of peccadilloes.

And as far as power and perks are concerned let me remind you of waht Sarojini Naidu said of MKG "It costs the nation a fortune to keep the Mahatma poor" and even MAJ (pbuh)'s worst detractors cud ever accuse him of personal dishonesty.

Regards

Dear Majumdar,

You know the history much better to dismiss the whole issue so simplistically.

The districts given to Pakistan were Muslim majority. Meanwhile Gurdaspur was erroenously in bad faith given to India by Nehru's master and lord Mountbatten which had large numbers of Muslims. It was Gurdaspur really where most of the violence took place. It is a historical fact. Ofcourse tit for tat took place on both sides.

But if Pakistani Punjab has as many Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs as there are Punjabi Muslims in Indian Punjab. This would be the accurate comparison.

Sindh still has a sizeable Hindu population and so does Bangladesh which was East Pakistan. Hence the claim that there are large numbers of Muslims in India as a counter to the fact that every step possible was taken to exterminate them in 1947 in Punjab falls flat when we consider the facts.

In the erstwhile 1947's Pakistan i.e. Pakistan and Bangladesh even today there are 25-30 million Hindus by very conservative estimates. If you add the number of christians and smaller minorities, you will see that while the numbers have dwindled they haven't dwindled as much as you make it out to be.

So you see this is a fallacious argument to begin with.

a topic worth having on FP! thank you RS.

"now we come to" (that phrase which is very popular with you), Ras, you had an opportunity to probe Mr Dehlavi and quiz him on a number of issues. Given that he is a noted fiml maker, you could have tried to extract from him some knowledge which would have been useful to many a budding pakistani film maker...but rather you stuck with the PR smooching with the tell-tale phrase (I quoted above) and a standard menu of question going through his films in a chronological manner.

In the answers Dehlavi gave to questions on Kappor and Infinite Justice (and in the question on the other movie released around Zia time), there was some scope for you to probe his mind and provide us with a deeper undestanding of his processes.

I would put this down to a wasted opprtunity on your part to educate us te unwashed masses of chowk! sad, Ras.

PS to 14: A comparison of W-Punjab to the rest of India is unfair. The accurate comparison would be W-Punjab with E-Punjab.