Pakistani horrorfilms asht rua Afilm festivalof Pakistani pulp horror is hopingtotracethe origins of

the gen re and leave you i n hysterics, says Jaideep Sen.

Schlock, stock Omar Ab Kkan's is ouerrun by zombies; stilk fromZibahkhana

It's a topsy-turvy world that Omar A1i Khan kameez outfits and Pathan suits, reaching opposite of the intention, is something thal and hisfavouritefiims inhabit. It's ahugger- foryour throat in slow-mo. provides me with a kick," said Khan, or-a mugger state, really, where nothing is what The Pakistan that Khan lives in has long the phone from Islamabad. "So, when 1'ot it's stated to be, and the simplest things been overrun by zombies. In 2007, this have a fight scene that's supposed to rivd imply the direct opposite. Good - that obsessive, and owner of a chain the latest Hoilywood standards, and i-q suitably positive quality of what is of ice cream parlours in Islamabad and ends up doing something out of your wor{ impressive and reassuring - doesn't called The Hot Spot, shot his first nightmare - that to me is appealing." actually mean sound, respectable, or even film, Zbahkkana, which translates as Khan isn't as much derisive as he is selecti safe. The idea of good is, in fact, in its "slaughterhouse", but was dubbed flel/'s about some representatives of the entirely contrary and equally intense Kitchen in English, and showed it at a horror . "The strange desire to conr lineament. Good is bad. And bad is pretty private golf club in the country's capital. "I the most amazing situations, and the abi damngood. want this to be the first mindless midnight In this world of B-grade schlocky, kitschy cultmoviePakistan has ever had," Khan had pulp horror flicks, populated with brainsick declared then, presenting what he called a 'ltwas about havinga serial killers inrubbermasks andassauiting tribute to all the flicks that he'd grown up a a laugh, oversized underclothed women in shower watching - by the Italian master Lucio Fulci, bit of scream, rooms and backyards, all those upsurges of and American George Romero (Night of the a chuckle.' cheeriness, impressions of gaining (or Liuing Dead, Creepshoto),to name a couple - lending) comfort, and amusement, signify and in keeping with the spirit of the EC anything but what you would normally horror comics of old that he'd come to to do so without the slightest flinching expect. Fun equals gore. Entertainment treasure. With his film set to be screened in embarrassment or even self-consciousr rivals disgust. Humour matches nausea. Bangalore this fortnight, as part of requires a certain amount of thick skin And delight leads to obscene repulsion. Paktastic, a festival of "fantastic films" from talent, which I am greatly appreciative With Khan, a decent time suggests the country, Khan figured that a few he said. watching a tortured old woman baying, clarifications about his interests, passions, Co-produced by the horror genre pio "Mei tumhari boti, boti kar doongi" ("I will and conflicted vocabulary, would be Pete Tombs (founder of Pagan Films a chop you to pieces"), or a deranged fakir appropriate. Boum Productions) and Andy pronouncing, "Kutte ki mauth maroge tum "Anything that is done with the intention (founder of Target Records and of sab" ("You will all die a dog's death"), or, of being serious or of being realistic, rather Mondo Macabro DVD label), Zibahki: better yet (worse still) a plague of the living than something ridicuious and stupid, was shotby -based filmmaker \ dead, in blood-drenched saris, salwar which ends up being completely the Bilgrami in about six weeks, lvi::

18 www.timeoutbengaluru.net May 1,4-27 2OtO E L - Pakistani horrorfilms particularly paltry budget. The filmrests on Khan recalled some of the reactions to ihe dubious acting prowess of a bunch of Zibahkhana, to reinforce Prabhala's upcoming actors and students picked out of analysis. "People were incredulous, university, and a few old-hands such as although, after the shock wore off, they were Salim Meraj (from the '96 film Shahrukh quite happy to have a bit of a change - in Khan ki Maut), Najma Malik, and Rehan, something that was not taking itself who is fabled for his role of a vampiric seriously, and was not loaded with political Dr Tabani in the '67 fllm Znda Laash. messages and social innuendo," he said. "It Regardless of the fact that they'd made rvas abouthavingabitof a scream, alaugh, a Zibahkhana "so cheaply - that itself was a chuckle, and may be getting scared once or triumph, to get it done", Khan said he was twice." deliberate about mimicking a lot of the One of his underlining attempts in atrociously done films that he'd been making the movie was "to try and break a watching over the years. formula", said Khan. "I tried to put the cat among the pigeons, as far as Lollywood [the Lahore-based Pakistani film industryl was 'lt'sthe most concerned. To try and convince people that we need to start making different kinds of preposterous film in the movies, and escape this thing of six songs, and five chase scenes, a mother scene, and a historyof movies.n scene - the typical formula that has held usbackfor so long." Achal Prabhala, one among the people In watching Zbahkhana, the first thing who put Paktastic together, explained why that strikes you is that it's based on the very he believed that watching poorly made formulaic.prescriptions that have marked Pakistani horror films was a great idea. "In every major exercise in the genre, from India, too often, filmic Pakistan is a mess of Friday the 13th to The Texas Chain Saw two extremes," said Prabhala. "On one hand, Massacre. A van-load of teens find [there is]jingoistic nationalism that is plain themselves stranded in the woods and are nuts, and on the other, mushy cross-border gradually torn asunder by marauding Zibahkhana, in his creation of the Burqa love that explore the most boring batches of the flesh-glutting undead. As Man, a psychopathic killer guised in the shades of good." The films in Paktastic simple as that. "It follows a blueprint of robe that's decreed for Muslim women - an would offer a way "to honestly engage horror cinema," accepted Khan. "It's the unparalleled and thoroughly Pakistani take Pakistani cinema", he said. Such horror, classic tale of bad kids getting into worse on a sort of Norman Bates wrapped up with porn - "genre" -films didn'tpretend to have trouble than the good kids fthe good andbad Leatherface. "People have never seen this "big politics or high morals", reasoned elements intact]." There was "nothing new, kind of thing before," exclaimed Khan, even Prabhala. "They're made with all eyes on the nothing fresh" about the plot, he if the resultant success of Zibahkhana may market. And the majority of them are acknowledged. "It's on a beaten path in some way hark back to such attempts as terrible." certainly, as far as horror films are Dracula (1999), featuring Kiran Kumar, a Apart from Zibahkhana ard Znda Laash, concerned." But there's mor eto Zbahkhana, film that may have been redeemed only by the festival rvill include a Mondo Macabro if only "because it's not just an imitation of a its outrageous, exuberant, disco-themed documentarl- titled Horror and 'in horror movie", said Khan. "The title track (by Mohammad Aziz), which South Asia and the '79 film Aurat Raj. whole formula has been transported andput sounds more like "Khooni dry-cooler" than "What these films achieve - politically, into this local culture, and merged with the anything Bram Stoker's creation would sociaily and emotionally - is significantly local colour, sound and people - the whole respond to. "It's the most preposterous film different from rvhat self-consciously experience is distinctly desi." in the history of movies," said Khan, whose 'serious' cinema does." added Prabhala. You can't miss Khan's triumph in own reviews of films llke Dracula fill the pages of the website The Hot Spot Online. "Some of these new movies are abysmal and appalling. Cinematically, the Ramsays looked like they were geniuses in comparison," he said. "I challenge you to watchallof Dracula." Over the years, the reasons that made watching such films a task have changed, added Khan. "In the old days, the crudeness was there, but it wasn't so overtly sexual," he said. "If you think of the '80s, these films were desi-fied with snakes and trishuls, but there were no fat women in bikinis having showers and bulging men fingering them up and down, which pretty much is what's going on these days. Now, things are more blatant. The cinematic feel has gone, and things look too home-video- ish for comfort. I don't know who watches these films. I think it's only an excuse for people to be in a darkened room." Hard $ore Zibahkhanais a tribute to all tlte horror films that Khan grew up watching See Other screenings in Film.

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