One, it does not try to be a Bollywood-style extravaganza. It lays the first stone in the foundation of what may become intrinsically unique Pakistani cinema, one with its own distinct identity.Ĭake deals with the problem of financial viability in two ways. The film is poised to be the harbinger of originality, innovation and creativity in Pakistani movies. Cake determinedly, and very successfully, steers clear of the garish excess of Bollywood, the neorealism of Iranian cinema, the largely untranslatable stories of Hollywood, and the didactic emotionalism of Pakistani television. The heavy – and corrosive – influence of Bollywood, new wave Iranian cinema, Hollywood, and Pakistani television dramas has historically stifled originality in Pakistani cinema and never allowed it to develop an identity of its own. Cake is a beacon of hope for an industry that has struggled for more than seven decades. It has not allowed the industry’s traditional areas of vulnerability – originality, financial viability, checkered motives, and technical competence – hold it back.
The film has been made within the limitations of the Pakistani film industry but not been limited by the constraints. The Pakistani film industry and the resurgence of Pakistani cinema has a huge stake in ‘Cake’. It would also mean that the celebration of resurgent Pakistani cinema has been miserably inconsequential. It would mean that years and years of bad cinema has dumbed the country’s viewers down to a level that they are unable to appreciate a genuinely original, technically sound and emotionally astute film. And not because it is a brilliant film made with great skill, but because its failure would be a sad indictment of the taste of Pakistani filmgoers. If ever there was a film that needed to do well, ‘Cake’ is it.
0 kommentar(er)
