The year 2019 continues to be a promising one for Pakistani cinema, with long in hibernation Balochi cinema witnessing a rebirth of sorts. A few months back, PakistaniCinema.net exclusively reported on upcoming Baluchi venture “Doda”, and now another production titled “Balochabad” is in its final stages of post-production with a release scheduled around Eid.
We got in touch with the film’s director Shakir Shad, who has also penned its story and screenplay, to learn more about the film. “The film deals with early-age marriage, women empowerment and the importance of education. The story revolves around conflict among two villages, the people of one village are progressive, while those from the other are traditional minded and want to stick to their age old norms and customs”, he revealed.
“Balochabad” has been extensively shot along the Makran coastline and the Thar region of interior Sindh, including Tharparkar and Mithi. It has also been shot in Karachi. It stars seasoned stars from Baluchistan such as Sarfaraz Muhammad, Allah Buksh Haleef and Ahsan Danish, working with whom Shakir Shad termed as being rewarding. “All the artistes worked very hard. Our team of 22 held daily workshops discussing the daily shoots.”
The film is now ready for release, and Shakir plans to release the trailer shortly within a few weeks. While eventually the film’s production team will like to go for a formal commercial release, for now they are focusing on getting it to the masses by screening it in auditoriums and mobile cinemas throughout Baluchistan, Sindh and Punjab. “There are unfortunately no cinemas in rural Baluchistan or Sindh, therefore we have decided on screening it to the masses by running it in town auditoriums and wherever we can get the opportunity. Hopefully, through this a good word of mouth will develop for the film and we will eventually like to go for a commercial release.”
We all look forward to catching a glimpse of “Baluchabad” very soon and we are quite hopeful that it will be a good addition to Pakistani cinema.
