Night of Henna in San Francisco

NIGHT OF HENNA OPENING NATIONWIDE

Opening April 1st
Naz8
6440 E. South Street
Lakewood, CA 90713
www.naz8.com

Nationwide Releases

April 22
CINEPLAZA 13(Formarly knows as Regal Nort Bergan)
Pathmark Plaza, North Bergen, NJ
201 854 2700

April 22
New York-Queens
UA Cross bay 1
92-11Roackaway Blvd,Ozane Park,NY

April 22
New york-Long Island
MidIsland Theatre
4045 Hempstead tpk,Bethpage NY

April 22
New York-Manhattan
ImaginAsian
IMAGINASIAN THEATRE
239 E. 59th St. (Third Avenue)
212-759-4630
www.imaginasiantheatres.com

April 22
Wellmont Theatres
5 Seymour Street
Montclair, NJ 07042
Tel: 973.783.9500
www.Robertstheatres.com

April 22
Chicago
AMC S.Barrington 30
175 Studio Drive,South barrington ,IL
847-765-2262

April 22
Detroit -Michighan
Emagine Novi
44425 West 12 Mile Road
Novi, MI 48377
www.emagin-entertainment.com

April 22
Dallas
FunAsia
1210 E.Beltline Rd
Richardson ,TX
972-889-8000
www.funasia.net

April 22
Houston
Bollywood Cinema 6
2703 Hwy 6 South
(281)493-0390
www.bollywoodcinema6.com

April 22
Atlanta
Galaxy Cinema
4975 Jimmy Carter Blvd Suit 450. Norcross
Atlanta, GA - 30093.
770-931-FILM
www.galaxycinema.com

April 22
Toronto
Golden Theatres
(905) 940-3994
2800 John Street
Markham, ON

April 22
Albion Cinemas
1530 Albion Road, Toronto - (416) 742-3456
www.albiontheatre.com

*Check this website screen regularly for theatrical openings of Night of Henna in your area, or visit your local newspaper movie listings.

Re: # 8

I fully agree with your views.
I don`t know why holding hands ( men and women) has inspired him so much. It is completely against our religious and cultural values. And is not that bigf an issue in a developing country. Haven;t seen the movie so I cannot comment on it. But reading the reviews of the movie maker, I really doubt it if the person knows what reality is. He seems to be talking about such petty issues like holding hands. SO far as arranged marriages are concerned. We should be against forced marriages, not arranged ones. Some people prefer having arranged marriages.
Yes sexual harrassment si very common in both the countries. IN Pakistan it is seen more in the lower class than upper or middle class.

http://www.naseeb.com/naseebvibes/prose-detail.php?aid=3543

For an interview with Hassan Zee.

Aisha Sarwari

PAK-AMERICAN ENGLISH FILM S.F. GALA OPENING MARCH 4, A BLACK TIE AFFAIR

Illuminare Entertainment and writer/producer/director, Hassan Zee of the feature film, NIGHT OF HENNA bring a bit of Hollywood-style, red-carpet premier to San Francisco and YOU are invited to attend. This evening promises to offer a medley of culture, color, talent, passion, and a remarkable film ... come be a part of this exciting celebration!
Presidio Theater in the Marina district of San Francisco will house NIGHT OF HENNA`S San Francisco Black-Tie Gala. Invitees will have the option of attending premiere reception & screening or premiere reception, screening and Illuminare`s VIP dinner:

PLEASE Call (415) 820-3200 ext. 222 for tickets and details

DATE: FRIDAY MARCH 4, 2005.

Premiere Reception & Screening Admission: $15.00 per person
or
Premiere Reception, Screening & Illuminare`s VIP Dinner
Admission: $50.00 per person
TIMES
6:30pm - Premiere Reception (Presidio Theater)
7:00pm - Screening of NIGHT OF HENNA (Presidio Theater)
9:00pm - Illuminare`s VIP dinner at Rulli`s Grand Caffe (Chestnut Street)
*Make personal check payable to: HENNA PRODUCTIONS
Guarantee your RSVP to Night of Henna`s San Francisco Black-Tie Gala by submitting/mailing a personal check to:
Phenomenon Films
995 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Visit www.nightofhenna.com for details about this feature film, and postings about other NIGHT OF HENNA premieres/receptions and theatrical openings in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and Las Vegas areas.

Saminasha: The question is not about the amount of sexual harrassment in Pakistan in comparison to the USA. I have never be sexually harrassed in either country, so I am not sure (though a couple of girls did try to get me drunk while I was in college).

My guess would be there is equal sexual harrassment in both countries. However, the laws in the USA are enforced much more strictly due to which it is less easy for anyone to get away with it in the USA.

A good criteria would be to ask women who have lived in both places, and in different social settings. Or to just see where a woman feels safer going from one end of the city to the other, alone. My guess is USA would be safer.

The question is the integrity of the movie-maker. When one is making a movie, writing an article etc., highglighting social issues, the only thing one has going for him/herself is one`s integrity, i.e. you are portraying an issue exactly like it is. Not for personal gain, but to bring something to the forefront. You are putting your reputation on the line.

If one relies on falsities and promote stereotypes to get a bigger audience, then one is a sell-out. It doesn`t matter how good the movie or book maybe. Its contents become unreliable, because one can never be sure whether you are telling the truth or promoting furthur stereotypes........

Women may, and probably are, more sexually harrassed in Pakistan, but that has nothing to do with the false comments the movie-maker has made about what he saw and did not see in Pakistan.........................

Omar,

Any legimate and scholarly studies on the definition and percentage of sexual harrassment in any given area of Pakistan? Hopefully there are some that look at rural, urban, suburban, impoverished to upper class areas?

You and I are talking of what we observe-and given we are not God, our observations mean little. So, please let us know if you of the ``reported`` stats of these incidents, before we all become defensive.

Secondly, no, I dont think its unreasonable to expect a larger amount of harassment against women takes place in Pakistan than in the US...the stories I`ve heard from fam in Pakistan have no corresponding equal here. Sorry to say it, but its true.

Re: # 5
Actually I think America does give you greater freedom - greater freedom to be harrassed, that is. I lived twelve years in Pakistan and then went off to the US for my higher studies. In all that time nobody had ever said or done anything to me that I could consider sexual harrassment. My very first semester at college, I was walking in a mall in Cambridge when someone shouted from the upper balcony, ``Hey baby, wanna get

---

?``

I put this discrepancy down to the fact that I come from an upper class society in Pakistan where I was more protected; harrassment and restrictions tend to come only to the poor and the vulnerable. However, in America, while nobody is restricted, everyone is harrassed.

I can`t decide whether I mean this post in jest or not.

NIGHT OF HENNA has been picked up by a Hollywood based Film Distribution company Illuminare Entertainment .Illuminare is planning to release the film all over in USA and world wide.They are putting hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote Night of Henna.Film is opening in 12 theatres initially and will roll down to whole USA,Canada,UK ,India and Pakistan.Grand worrld premiere is happening in san francisco in which illuminare is fllying industry executives to come in the opening and party afterwards.press is writing``Hollywood comes to san francisco``.

#5 by Saminasha on February 16, 2005 7:00am PT
Thanks Chowk for this review! I look forward to seeing the movie.

Bina, Ali, and Umer,

Are all women allowed the freedom of movement and agency in all of Pakistan? I ask this quite sincerely-since all of you have been either to England or the US around the eighties and later; would we find that women have the same widespread mobility to walk in as many areas of Pakistan as they do in the US unharrassed or worse? Clifton is one thing-and I`d liken it to Park Avenue in terms of eco class and the presence of police, etc. Zee may have generalized a bit, but it seems safe to say that this individual freedom may be less widespread and tolerated?

Secondly, shouldnt we be applauding a movie that critiques our prevailing cultural belief system for both genders? Women AND men? One one hand, text that interrogates gender imbalance does a service to our societies regardless, but also text that looks at how these inequities cripple both people and all of us is only a step forward in our looking at our issues together.


samina plz -- this isnt a literary criticism class here -- actually bina and myself have been living in pakistan for quite some time and prob in a better position than mr zee or yourself to comment on the freedom, or lack thereof, that women have in pakistan, especially in urban areas -- you first question sounds as nonsensical as the question: do all americans have the same attitude towards minorities/women/abortion/islam/gay marriage/etc whether they live in utah or NYC? and we r not talking about clifton but gulshan (which is certainly not like park avenue, even by pakistani standards) or gulistane johar , or even cities like Peshawar, Faisalabad or Multan --

Give this guy Hassan Zee a break!

I have been reporting on Night of Henna since 2003 (Dawn, Pakistan Link etc.)

and am familiar with the project. Latest report is at the link beloow with a follow up this

Friday:

http://www.pakistanlink.com/Community/2005/Feb05/11/06.htm

Will be there at the opening in March and will review it then.

May even send it to CHOWK.

Till we all see this movie we should abstain from making judgement calls.

And by the way, almost all the people I saw holding hands in Pakistan on my trip recently

still happened to be males......


Ras

Why in the world do desis (both Pakistanis and Indians) in the arts field, try to milk their background for all that they can, in an untrue manner? I suppose because it is a good way to sell a movie or a book.

We had Miss Chatterjee (?) saying she fell in love with green eyes because she had never seen them before in India. And now this gentleman, who was, ``shocked to see men and women holding hands and talking freely`` in the USA.

What a blatant lie!! Where the hell was this guy living? Under a rock? Perhaps he was sharing a room with Ms. Chatterjee, all his life.........

Considering his father was in the Army in the gora days of the Army, he must have, ``held hands`` with women and danced with quite a few. And since his siblings are doctors and computer scientists in Pakistan, they must have lived in Lahore, Islamabad or Karachi. Where they must have themselves, ``talked freely`` with the opposite sex.

And he must have seen enough movies and TV shows and had access to the Internet to know what goes on in the West, before he got there............

Not that this holding hands and talking freely is a criteria for anything. But one should be truthful.........

Comments like these lower the credibility of the artist and/or author. It makes them look like someone who is not trying to portray reality but to sell a falsity.....

Will have to file his name in the Irshad Manji section of the drawer............

Looks and sounds extremely cliched. But I hope that it turns out better than expected.

Mr. Zee wants to enjoy all the bounty of San Francisco. I say all power to him. Top or Bottom, doesn`t matter. Making false statements about his country to keep the gravy train going is declasse. And knowing friends amongst the brilliant ``Chowk Staff`` is always good for a grand or two.

later
-sac

Thanks Chowk for this review! I look forward to seeing the movie.

Bina, Ali, and Umer,

Are all women allowed the freedom of movement and agency in all of Pakistan? I ask this quite sincerely-since all of you have been either to England or the US around the eighties and later; would we find that women have the same widespread mobility to walk in as many areas of Pakistan as they do in the US unharrassed or worse? Clifton is one thing-and I`d liken it to Park Avenue in terms of eco class and the presence of police, etc. Zee may have generalized a bit, but it seems safe to say that this individual freedom may be less widespread and tolerated?

Secondly, shouldnt we be applauding a movie that critiques our prevailing cultural belief system for both genders? Women AND men? One one hand, text that interrogates gender imbalance does a service to our societies regardless, but also text that looks at how these inequities cripple both people and all of us is only a step forward in our looking at our issues together.

The line quoted:

``In Pakistan women can`t go out without men and there is no communication or physical contact.``

prompts me to post something out of my i-log.


[It was a dark and stormy night...

`Hmm, Four weddings and a Funeral, did you say?` He clutched the manuscript, pulling unnamed facial expressions, scratching his chin, narrowing his eyes, leaning back on his leather seat. `So this is an endearing tale about a horrible bearded fundamentalist man called Salim who marries four beautiful, shy and oppressed Pakistani Punjabi women -`

`Who are at least half his age.`

`Yes, thank you.` He leafed through. `But one of his wives falls in love with an Indian Sikh across the border. Umm and the Sikh lover, err it says here, is everything her oppressive, male chauvinist pig of a husband isn`t-`

`And let`s not forget, she was forcefully married in the first place.`

`Of course, as they all are,` he spoke without lifting his furrowed eyes off the page. Running his finger down the text he spoke in a less-than-enthusiastic tone. `So the oppressive, and I quote here, the `oppressive mad fundo bastard` finds out that her wife is being inserted more often than a Barclays Cash machine. In rage the jealous man raises his arms into the sky, shouts `God is Great` and draws out his sword. The lovers are eloping to Jallunder - the place her Sikh lover owns farmland. But during transit a mob of raging men ambushes the pair and restores the honour of the family by killing them. The couple dies in each other`s arms.`

`And that bit`s the funeral.`

`Hence 4 Weddings and a Funeral?`

But he was having none of it. Idea after idea, `Onion Bhaji on the Beach` after `The Turbanator` one Palestinian suicide bomber after another dark-skinned fat-nosed Indian prostitute, he was having none of it.

`At least consider the name,` I pleaded. `This is the story of a 13-year-old American Arab, Abdul, who`s brainwashed into hating the freedom and liberty of the West. One day he dreams of 72 glorious virgins in the sky all holding grenades in their hands. From that day onwards, he grows a beard, puts a towel on his head, prays all the time and changes his name to Brother Boom bin Shaka Lak.`

`No.`

`Then how about the poor ugly Indian girl from a dirty village who is raped, gets AIDS, becomes a prostitute in Bombay, meets an Indian Doctor…or a lawyer…or an IT engineer, falls in love with him and immigrates to America?`

`Been there, done that.`

`A mysterious Arab princess forever banished inside a hot sweaty harem to live as Lord Dark Ninja who yearns to experience the taste of freedom - and cock - in the infidel West?`

`Nope.`

`Two exotic Indian sisters, Anju and Sanju, who love each other like the last pair of lesbians, are pushed into arranged marriages…only to discover a deep dark secret, something that will change their lives forever?`

`Niet.`

`The sorry tale of a poor Muslim girl from Iran who loves fashion, good times and is liberal but who one day is transformed into a shuttle cock, her books burnt and she turned into a domestic, egg-laying mammal by the Islamic clerics?`

`Nein.`

`A pair of Black boys who come from the shtreets and where the whole world is against them? One wants to be a rapper and the other one wants to find his roots in Africa…but they both end up working for the white-man in MacDonalds anyway?`

`...Nah`

`Okay,` I drew breath. `Then you will definitely love this one. An Indian women gives birth to two boys. One of the boys is kidnapped by a group of bandits and grows up to become a villain. The other boy grows up to become a police inspector. Both guys fall for the same women, and come to clash over her. The Inspector and his police force come to fight the bandits. But amongst the fighting, the mother comes to notice something strange on the arch-villain.`

`Err, hang on` my agent interrupted. `What`s the mother doing in the fight scene?`

`I don’t know,` my eyes rolled upwards. `She forgot to give her son his lentils for lunch or something. These are small details - we can work on them later on.`

He sighed and motioned for me to carry on.

`So the mother spots a mole on the ass of the bad son. `Goodness gracious,` she gasps. `My Inspector son, Arjun Patel, has a mole at the same spot.` Could it be that the villain is her long lost son? Somehow, during the fight, she manages to inform the villainous son of this. The violins bows come into motion, the bad son weeps, `Maan, where were you?` He becomes a goodie. Together, the two brothers fight the bandits. During the fight, a bandit takes a shot at the Inspector, but the previously bad brother jumps in front of his law-abiding sibling and explodes in a blaze of ketchup -`
`I suppose that does solve the dilemma of who gets to keep the woman.`

`Absolutely,` I said in excitement, `but before the last pint of blood trickles out of the corner of his mouth, he tells his brother who he is and then places the woman`s hand into his brother`s.`

`And I suppose they all live happily ever after…with one son dead and one brother sharing his other sibling`s wife.`

`…Well, when you make it sound like that,` I fidgeted, `of course it won’t sound like a fulfilling ending.`]

Umer M.

Zee himself informs that all of his sibling are persuing professional carrers...This is a blatant contradiction of his statement which ali has rightly pointed...and he does have a sister (who according to him was forced into a arrange marriage...Don`t lie Zee

Chowk Staff..do you bother to go through the articles you post on your website..i think NO...your credtibility is at stake...!

Re: # 1

So true. I read that line and did a double take myself. It doesn`t describe the Pakistan that I know and live in. In the same day this week I saw a mullah-type man walking down the street holding the hands of two burqa clad women (one on either side of him) - I assume they were his wives; and an ultra-modern couple sitting in a restaurant and holding hands. Go to Clifton Beach and you will see hundreds of middle class couples - not necessarily married - holding hands on the beach there. Okay, so they won`t be kissing or lying together on blankets at the park, but things are more relaxed than Mr. Zee says they are.

As for women not going out without a man - at first I wondered if Mr. Zee came to America in the 1980s. Then I realized he`d emigrated in 1998 and shook my head in wonder.

Then again, maybe he comes from NWFP. It didn`t say in the interview.

Good Luck to Mr. Zee in his endeavors.

However, I wish that Pakistanis with the ``progressive`` bent would try to make a career for themselves without telling blatant lies about their country. Consider:

``In Pakistan women can`t go out without men and there is no communication or physical contact.``

This is an outright lie, a completely false statement. Millions of Pakistani women in large cities and small towns in Punjab go out for education, work, shopping etc. without an accompanying male. Many millions more in rural Punjab and Sindh toil away in the farming sector.

Actually I stopped reading after this. And I have no desire to give my hard earned money to Mr. Zee or anyone else who wants to make a living out of spitting on Pakistan. Why is chowk promoting him?