Films play a pivotal role in catering various agendas to the audience. A movie is one of the most influencing means to comprehend whatever is being depicted. The success of movies is determined by two factors; their box office business and reviews by the audiences and critiques.
Eid has been a true representative of movie releases in Bollywood. We remember Salman Khan movies being released every Eid, garnering an abundance of fame and monetary gain. Similarly, the Eid of 2018 has marked the release of a few A-list Pakistani movies, exhibiting a tough competition between them. As many as four first-rate movies have released this Eid throughout Pakistan, but, only one to two managed to leave a mark on the hearts of the people who spent Rs. 700-1000 on the movie tickets.
The most captivating movie to come out this Eid happened to be Azaadi. The movie starred the veteran Moammar Rana along with the presence of the gorgeous Sonya Hussyn and the legendary Nadeem Baig, enthralling the spectators with their immaculate acting skills, accumulating infinite love and praise.
Usually, the Pakistani cinema focuses more on love and comedy since it is still in an age of adolescent, lacking few essential topics to make films on. Pakistani movie makers hesitate to incorporate social injustices in their movies for various risks which include banning of the movie, less business because of the dearth of glamour, etc, confining themselves only to humor and love.
In an era where Bollywood and Hollywood are on a bandwagon of consistent experimentation with their movies, ARY Movies has set a benchmark in the history of Pakistani cinema by bringing one of the most crucial issues in the mainstream with its movie, Azaadi. Usually, the long forgotten atrocities in the Indian occupied fragment of Kashmir are ignored by the B’Town. Azaadi represents the real-time happenings of Kashmir, including the shocking picture of uber monstrosity experienced by our Kashmiri brothers and sisters.
The potpourri of emotions, love, and drama is shot in London and parts of Kashmir to display the actuality and beauty Kashmir has always been famous for. The film starts with Zara (Sonya Hussyn), a British-Pakistani journalist, meeting her beau, Raj (Omer Shahzad) to discuss their wedding which is scheduled to take place in a couple of months. She calls her mother to ask her about a photograph and starts looking for it in her closet upon her mother’s advice. Albeit finding photos, she also finds an essential document, we call a ‘Nikkah nama’. The document renders her to be married to her cousin Azaad (Moammar Rana) who lived in Kashmir but she fails to fathom because she was a kid when it happened. She decides to go to a cleric to discuss the issue but he asks her to get a divorce first to be able to marry Raj.
Read Also: Five Things You Will Absolutely Love About ‘Azaadi’!
Upon her arrival in Kashmir, she goes to her uncle’s home to meet Azaad. After knowing about all the miseries they faced, she decides to stay there for a while since she has come as the ray of light in their dark lives. She instantly retains her ties with Azaad’s sisters (Mariam Ansari and Erum Azam) and helps his sick father (Nadeem Baig) to stand on his feet and walk.
She then decides to leave but gets a call from her boss in the United Kingdom that she has to interview Kashmir’s freedom fighter, Azaad, to which she agrees. She goes into the camp to take his interview but he insists to take interviews of other freedom fighters, Khalid, whose family was killed in an Indian helicopter strike, Sikandar, whose mother was killed just because he refused to obey Indian major’s orders, Riaz, whose wife was killed when he tried to save her from a rape attempt by Indian forces, Shahmeer, who was caught by Indian army. The Indians asked his father to pay ransom for his release, because of which he sold one of his kidneys, resulting in his death and Umair, who was a software engineer.
Zara decides to leave but on the other hand, Azaad and his men plan to detonate an Indian training camp. They plant detonators on each door of the facility but at the eleventh hour, their system fails to automatically explode the detonators. Azaad takes the responsibility to manually press the button within the time frame of a couple of seconds. In spite of vanquishing the entire Indian military training camp, Azaad injures himself so severely that he asks his fellowmen to leave without him because the Indians were already on a spree to look for him.
On the other hand, Zara comes to know about Azaad’s injuries via the television and she couldn’t resist being with him. She grabs him from his arms in order to make him walk to find a shelter but the army arrests them. Being a journalist, Zara is set free and she goes to Azaad’s home to motivate his father to get on the streets to protest against Azaad’s imprisonment. She also asks her boss to try to publish the story she made out of the interviews since the actual story depicted the unaltered ongoing scenario, Kashmir was going through.
The maestro, Nadeem Baig’s powerful acting, and moving dialog delivery have made eyes of all the spectators go teary. The movie is accumulating standing ovations and enthusiastic chants in all its shows because the issue of Kashmir is not only confined to Kashmiri people, it is an issue that is very close to our hearts and we wish and we pray that the basic right of liberation is granted to Kashmir and we pray that no other Burhan Wani will be murdered ferociously and that a sun will rise in the pure land of Kashmir when no pellet guns are fired and no children are enfeebled for the rest of their lives.
Us Dais Men Lagta Hai Adalat Nahi Hoti,
Jis Dais Mein Insan Ki Hifazat Nahi Hoti
Makhloq-E-Khuda Jab Kisi Mushkil Mein Phansi Ho,
Sajde Mein Pare Rehna Ibadat Nahi Hoti
Har Shakhs apne Sar Pe Kafan Bandh K Nikle,
Haq K Liye Larna To Baghawat Nahi Hoti.
Go, watch this plethora of emotions in a cinema near you. What are your views on this story? Tell us in the comments below.