‘Maalik banned across Pakistan’ has pissed off many. People are all over social media, blasting the government’s decision with their tweets and Facebook posts. #DoNotPoliticizeMaalik was trending Wednesday. Even the Pakistani media ‘condemned’ the ban and, as always, reported that how our neighbouring country is ‘tolerant’ when it comes to movies that expose corruption of politicians.
Now let’s talk about the plot, the actual plot! The film revolves around an army officer who, after a tragedy, retires and opens his private security agency. He then joins the chief minister of Sindh (a cruel landlord who rapes a young village girl) as his chief of security and, towards the end of the film, kills the very same person he was supposed to protect.
For those of you who are still wondering why the film was banned in the first place, it had generated complaints regarding its depiction of the Taliban and parallels with the assassination of a prominent government official by his personal security guard. Section 9 of the Motion Pictures Ordinance of 1979 had declared the film ‘uncertified’.
Now I know that corruption is a crime, a sin, which needs to be completely eliminated from the face of this planet, and Maalik ‘brilliantly exposes this corruption and justifies the action of the protagonist Asad’ (played by Ashir Azeem). #FreedomofExpression people! By the way, what I just wrote is, for the most part, humour.
Maalik is just like any random absurd movie, unable to justify itself, that feeds the audience into believing that only a ‘few’ are corrupt. It shows the struggle of the protagonist, who, ironically, happens to be a retired army officer, against the antagonist: a cruel Sindhi wadera. The heroes of the movie – Asad, his father and the UN security guard – are all Punjabi men. Talk about ethnic diversity!
Why the good guy always has to be in some kind of uniform? Why films such as ‘Maalik’ lack character development? Why they are used to glorify a certain segment, ethnicity, or institution? Is this freedom of expression or brainwashing through media? Why we are all so dumb that we don’t even care to differentiate between reality and fantasy?
India is our enemy because ‘they’ consider it our enemy. One ethnicity is superior to the others because ‘they’ believe it is superior. One province is allocated a large chunk of the government’s resources because ‘they’ think that others are not worth it. ‘They’ are the ones who are filled with ‘national zeal’ and ‘spirit’. Us, well, we simply are hyped when it comes to ‘Waar’ and ‘Maalik’.
This struggle for power is eating Pakistan from the inside, and our national institutions are only making it worse. Corruption must end, but showing only one side of the picture is something that is against moral and social values. Our country needs quality education and health facilities, not propagandas and visual attacks against democratic institutions.
The writer is a member of staff.