Three odd years in the past, in the midst of the night time on a rooftop in androon Lahore, Amar Khan struck matches time and again. A movie crew gathered round her and co-star Imran Ashraf whereas they did retake after retake.
The actors’ dialogues needed to be stated in coordination with the match being struck and lighting up. Their faces needed to be illuminated good within the flickering flame. It was an advanced scene to grasp for the movie’s solid and crew. Earlier that week, it had been an advanced scene for Amar to write down, who isn’t just the lead of the Eid launch Dum Mastam however has additionally written the script.
The nation may have found its latest sweetheart and the following
massive factor in Amar Khan. She’s not solely the fiery, exuberant main
woman of Dum Mastam. She’s additionally its intuitive, diligent scriptwriter.
Why then does she consider herself as a tandoori roti?
Amar remembers that no less than 120 retakes had been accomplished, for a substantial a part of the night time, earlier than the shoot wrapped up. It’s one of many many stunning scenes that make up the film.
At one other level, in the course of the film’s shoot, Amar wore a figure-hugging leotard with a closely layered chiffon skirt designed for her by Maheen Khan, and was strapped up with belts and wires earlier than she was suspended, mid-air, for an aerial shot. Her legs and arms acquired scratched incessantly whereas the track took 4 days to shoot. It now takes up two-and-a-half minutes of the film’s screen-time.
Dum Mastam would have been launched about two years in the past if the
coronavirus pandemic hadn’t come about and quickly shut down
cinemas,” Amar says. “I realised at that time that it was necessary
to do commercially viable characters, so that individuals acquired to know me
and my work.”
“All of the sweat and tears, our director Mohammad Ehteshamuddin’s consideration to element, the size at which Dum Mastam was shot … all that exhibits on display screen,” Amar says to me after we discuss, a couple of days following the film’s launch.
The film is the fruition of the efforts of many alternative individuals however, for Amar, it’s additionally the fulfilment of a dream that she had nurtured for six-odd years. Dum Mastam was the primary script that she wrote, again when she was nonetheless in movie college and recovering from heartbreak, and the well-knit storytelling is testomony to her prowess as a author.
After which, as the feminine lead, she proves her appearing mettle. She laughs, wisecracks, emotes convincingly, crumples into tears when defeated, and pirouettes, twirls and breaks out right into a euphoric mehndi dance.
Lo and behold, Pakistani cinema has found one firecracker of a movie heroine in Amar Khan!
And she or he isn’t the same old TV drama heroine making an attempt arduous to transition to celluloid. The digicam swerves in direction of her and it’s like she belongs on the cinema display screen, innately programmed to ship dramatic monologues and dance up a storm, shining, glowing, drawing the attention and even bringing on a couple of wolf whistles.
Are you aware that individuals are calling you the following massive factor, I ask Amar.
She admits, “I’ve heard that. It makes me blissful and, actually, it had all the time been my dream to be seen on the large display screen. Cinema permits you to romance unabashedly, present your susceptible aspect and dance with abandon. And regardless that I’ve labored lots on TV, there have been nonetheless some individuals who didn’t know my title once I was selling Dum Mastam earlier than its launch.
“Now all of them know me and credit score for that goes to Amar the author as a lot because it does to Amar the actor, as a result of it’s the story which attracts them in.
“At the same time, I’m scared. What’s going to come next? An actor can only do good work if provided with good opportunities. I don’t know if my journey from here will go forward or come to a halt.”
She pauses. “Then again, six years ago, I never knew that one day I would write a movie script and play the female lead on the cinema screen. I’m hopeful.”
Now that she’s made her cinematic debut, does she even need to return to appearing in TV dramas? “Of course!” she laughs. “Our TV trade is extraordinarily well-established and it’s the supply of actors’ bread and butter. Apart from, TV may be thrilling too. I’m as excited to be taking part in the lead in director Kashif Nisar’s subsequent drama as I’m to have been a part of Dum Mastam.”
Each Amar and I do know, although, that TV is usually not very thrilling. Within the preliminary few months of her profession, Amar had tried to stroll the trail much less trodden by taking up unconventional TV drama roles, even opting to play a supernatural dayan [witch] waging revenge in 2018’s Belapur ki Daayan.
Her recognition skyrocketed when, lastly, she succumbed to the function of a bechari bahu [poor daughter-in-law] in Qayamat, seventh Sky Leisure’s hit drama from final yr. Head lined, her eyes awash with tears, Amar’s character within the drama turned a favorite: tortured by her husband and evil mother-in-law, caged inside her dwelling, pressured to do guide home labour and ultimately — in a top-rated episode — unable to face up to additional abuse and dying. The TV viewers cheered.
“Dum Mastam would have been launched about two years in the past if the coronavirus pandemic hadn’t come about and quickly shut down cinemas,” Amar says. “I realised at that time that it was necessary to do commercially viable characters, so that individuals acquired to know me and my work. As soon as cinemas reopened, I hoped that it might be one of many causes that might carry them to see my film.
“Besides, I’m not from a very privileged family. I can’t take a break from work for several months, just because I feel like it. TV is my source of earning. Sometimes, I will be lucky enough to get roles that are distinctive. At other times, I may have to opt for more conventional but popular characters.”
Nonetheless, I insist, when you’re engaged on a generic script, taking part in a cookie-cutter stereotypical bahu, don’t you ever really feel like your expertise is getting wasted?
“When you’re a strong-headed woman who lives life on her own terms and has never experienced abuse, sometimes you have to invest a lot of hard work into playing a holier-than-thou tortured character,” Amar factors out.
“Even a story about domestic abuse can be effective if told right. It mirrors what is happening in our society, all around us. However, it’s an unfortunate truth that most dramas in Pakistan are centred around bad, mundane stories. It’s what the audience wants to see and what the producers end up making, and as actors we don’t have much of a choice if we want to keep working. I do always want to pick and choose between scripts, but then good offers have to come my way for me to be able to do that.”
One such provide just lately got here to Amar by way of Kashif Nisar, one in all Pakistan’s most distinctive administrators. “Dum Mastam might have been placed on maintain in the course of the coronavirus pandemic nevertheless it nonetheless helped push my profession ahead,” reveals Amar.
“My director within the film, Ehteshamuddin, was appearing in a drama for Kashif and he confirmed him a few of my stills from Dum Mastam. Kashif requested if I acted properly and, after a while, he supplied me a task of a information anchor in his upcoming drama.”
Equally, a cellphone service zoomed in on her for an advert after seeing a clip of her dancing with choreographer Nigah whereas practising for ‘Larrki Achaari’, one of many songs within the film.
“It may have been an ad but it was the first time that I was seen dancing on screen,” says Amar. “The company had been considering a number of actors, but when they saw my video, they just selected me.”
Even unreleased, Dum Mastam was serving to her alongside. Nonetheless, when the world got here to a standstill and cinemas had been gathering cobwebs, did she really feel apprehensive?
“I did, as did everyone else invested in Pakistani cinema,” she says. “I had moved from Lahore to Karachi with the dream of seeing this film materialise. For months, I took the script to each filmmaker that I may discover, studying it out to them for two-and-a-half hours, not permitting myself to get discouraged. Then, lastly, when it acquired made, it ended up getting delayed.
“Once we had been locked inside our properties for 4 months, I as soon as broke down in entrance of my mom, and she or he advised me, in Punjabi, that till roti doesn’t burn on the tandoor and will get well-cooked, it doesn’t style good. All these delays would work out for me at some point, if not by way of the field workplace, then in a roundabout way or the opposite, by God’s will.”
And but, in a much-debated transfer, film schedules in cinemas had been just lately adjusted to accommodate extra exhibits for Marvel’s Dr Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity, changing a big chunk of the slots that had been allotted to Pakistani movies that had launched on Eid-ul-Fitr, together with Dum Mastam. Does this make her indignant?
“It’s downright shameful,” she declares. “We had been led to consider that Dr Unusual’s launch can be delayed by per week and, but, it got here merely a couple of days after 5 Pakistani movies had taken the danger of releasing in post-Covid-19 occasions.
“Our best concern when bringing out Dum Mastam had been whether or not individuals would put aside fears of Covid-19 and are available out to the cinemas. However they did come, with their households and associates, and with tickets promoting out. As a substitute of celebrating this, overseas content material was introduced in virtually instantly. We are able to’t even profit from footfall usually. When all prime time slots are put aside for Dr Unusual, nobody’s going to attend until 1am within the night time to look at our motion pictures.”
It’s a tragic state of affairs however, nonetheless, Dum Mastam has labored out significantly properly for Amar. Even within the few exhibits in cinemas proper now, the film is testomony to her potential as a fiery, dazzling main woman in addition to an intuitive, diligent scriptwriter.
Her TV roles earlier might have gotten a righteous nod of approval from the TV viewers, however this cinematic debut has made individuals sit up and take discover and murmur incredulously, ‘Who’s that woman?’
“Perhaps it’s also because I’m the daughter of a struggling artist,” Amar muses, referring to her mom, actress Fariha Jabeen. “I get emotional when I say this. All my life, I saw my mother making sacrifices for me and facing difficulties. Sometimes I think that maybe I’m getting her share of success as well.”
She continues: “I’ve all the time been very keen about what I do. Writing is therapeutic for me and there are occasions once I’ll simply shut myself in a room and work on a script. Again once I was in movie college, my wealthy associates would have refined gear and all I might have is a narrative. I might borrow their gear and make my brief movie. I used to be equally very centered once I pursued the making of Dum Mastam.”
In her wrestle to make her goals come true and to earn properly, has she ever encountered the infamous casting sofa?
“It does exist,” she accepts, “there are times when people will try to make a pass. But no one can force you into anything and I learnt this from my mother. You need to know how to step back, put your guard up and refuse in a firm, intelligent way.”
Intelligence is one thing that Amar has in abundance. Her subsequent script is prepared — written whereas isolating in the course of the coronavirus pandemic — and she or he tells me that she has a producer on board for it. She’s additionally on the verge of signing her subsequent film and, post-Eid, has shortly returned to her drama shoots. Work goes properly. She smiles.
“I don’t have many friends in the industry but I have worked hard. I’m just naturally reserved and quiet in real life, even though my on-screen personas may sometimes be dominating and vibrant. It’s just when the camera turns on that I feel this magic happening.”
There’s some magic actually in Amar.
Initially printed in Daybreak, ICON, Might 15th, 2022
