Daily Times

‘Zaraab’ is one of the finest films to have ever been created by a Baloch filmmaker.

The film has won many awards and has even been screen in the United States. It is the only film that brushes upon the problems of Balochistan which are ongoing. It’s directed by Jaan Al Balushi and is written by Areem Shah Al Balushi, Jammel Karim, Shahnawaz and others. The film basically describes the problems Baloch face such as child labour, drug addiction and other unhealthy activities that take place there.

The film talks about child labour at length which is one of the biggest problems of Balochistan. Barkat, who is of school-going age, works at a garage and has been doing so since he was very little. He goes to work every day after school. Overall, Balochistan has more than 78 percent of children who are out of schools and they are working since childhood and this is all because of poverty which is not letting students study and they are compelled to work.

The film doesn’t just expose child labour. It also stresses the fact that there are also a lot of elderly people who must work to make ends meet. Shockingly, the film shows parents being kicked out by their families when they reach old age

The film doesn’t necessarily talks about child labour. It also stresses on the fact that there are a lot of elderly people as well who have to work and make ends meet. Mostly, in Balochistan, people kick their parents out when they reach old age. Or sometimes, it also happens that men are lazy or addicted to drugs and their old parents have to go out and work. Mama was compelled to work because he was suffering from poverty and he had two sons Bakshi and Peero, Peero was paralyzed and couldn’t work and Bakshi, who was a drug seller and could not listen anyone. Every morning Mama used to work in shop, one day he felt down with materials and those materials got wasted so the shopkeeper became angry and took out him from working and Mama became sad and said to own self ” Now what to do and where to go”. Simply this movie suggests that we must not kick out our parents from the home and we must respect our parents.

Additionally in this movie there involved a drug seller who is known as Bakshi who is known as the son of Mama, Bakshi used to sell drugs. Because of drugs many people have lost their precious lives and involved in using drugs and these drug sellers never get happiness as in this movie Bakshi didn’t get. Once he sold drugs to Kamal and Kamal was a member of a gang and he forced Bakshi to come and join the gang firstly Bakshi rejected and later he has fought with his father and went and joined the gang.

The members of gang have given some lacs to Bakshi for delivering money to other and Bakshi took the money and went to home. As a writer said ” Robb materials can not stay with the robbers for a long ” as Bakshi put the money in bag and kept the bag in a secret place and slept. At early morning while he got up and saw that the bag was lost and he got tension and because of tensions, he ran from the home. The gang became aware then they killed him. At the end of this movie Peero got the bag of money but he was unaware that bag contained money and he gave it to his son Barkat who took the bag and went to school.

The actors have done a phenomenal job by enacting the everyday troubles and problems faced by Baloch. The film is highly informative and preaches a great lesson.

The writer is a student at Government Boys High School and DELTA. He can be reached at muneebmaqsood112@gmail.com