'Khuda ke Liye' Wins Laurels At Pakistan's Lux Style Awards

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Karachi : “Khuda ke Liye", the first Pakistani film released in India in more than four decades, featuring veteran Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah, has won laurels at the Lux Style Awards" nominations announced yesterday in Karachi.

Leaving deep imprints on the silver screen worldwide, the film bagged the nomination for the best original soundtrack.

In the film, Naseer plays the character of Maulana Wali, the enlightened seer who beats the fundamentalists at their own game. Quoting extensively from religious texts, he proves that Islam is neither anti-woman nor does it frown upon music, art and culture.

The film espouses the concept of jihad as a war to overcome the failings within the fallible human self rather than as a synonym for terror. In a cameo that sends the viewers clapping and wowing, Naseer declares: Din mein daadi hai, daadi mein din nahin (the beard lies in religion; religion doesn"t lie in the beard)!

The film arrives with an awesome reputation of having created a storm at the international film circuit and having rattled the Pakistani film industry out of its somnambulism with a royal picking of Rs seven crore at the box office.

The film also addresses concerns that affect the global mindset and clears myths that have already wreaked havoc in today"s world.

The film posits a clash of ideology between two strains of Islam. On the one hand, you have the fundamentalist version represented through the views of Mullah Tahiri played by Rasheed Naaz who brainwashes the young Pakistanis with his sermons on jihad and an interpretation of Islam as an orthodox religion that denies women their rights and treats music and art as haraam. And on the other hand, is the liberal face of Islam, showcased through two main characters: Sarmad (Shaan), the young musician who refuses to fall prey to dogma and inadvertently becomes a victim of racial profiling and human rights abuse in the US; and Maulana Wali i.e Naseeruddin Shah