All’s going well for them until 9/11 happens and Mansoor is wrongly accused of having terrorist links only because he’s a Muslim.ĭespite its obvious flaws - which includes some amateurish acting, modest production values for a film of this scale, and more than a few creative liberties in the plot - Khuda Kay Liye is still an immensely engaging film because it’s made from the heart. On the other hand, Sarmad’s older brother Mansoor, a liberal, signs up for music school in Chicago where he finds his soul mate in Janie, an American.
Misled into believing that he’d be upholding the honour of Islam by doing so, Sarmad agrees to be married to his London-bred cousin Mary against her wishes, and on the insistence of her hypocrite father who wants to end her relationship with an English boyfriend. Distancing himself from his art, he abandons his family and joins a fundamentalist group in a village in the outskirts. The younger, Sarmad is brainwashed by a radical Muslim cleric into believing that music is againstIslam. The film follows the lives of two brothers in Lahore, both musically inclined. It’s not only the most important film to come out of Pakistan for as long as one can remember, it is, more importantly the most relevant mainstream film on Islam that you’ve possibly seen.ĭirected by Shoaib Mansoor, Khuda Kay Liye is a brave and inherently honest film that addresses pertinent issues like Islamic fundamentalism, the status of women in contemporary Islam, the consequential effects of 9/11 on Muslims in America, and the divide in Pakistani society between the liberals and the extremists.Īt its very core, however, Khuda Kay Liye has a single and very clear message - that Islam is a progressive religion, but its teachings are often manipulated by fundamentalists. When I first saw it at the International Film Festival of India in Goa last November, I came away truly amazed. It’s difficult to talk about Khuda Kay Liye as merely another new film at the multiplexes. Cast: Shaan, Fawad Khan, Iman Ali, Naseeruddin Shah, Alex Edwards
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