Jinnah off to flyer despite protests

By Our Correspondent

Hundreds of Pakistani moviegoers lined the country’s cinemas to see the newly-released Jinnah. The movie about Pakistan’s beloved Quaid-e-Azam (Father of the Nation), has been a national project ever since Gandhi was made, which Pakistan maintains, distorted Pakistan’s version of events.

Jinnah opened on Friday to full houses in major cities of Pakistan. At one cinema house, tickets were sold out and police had to be called in to let the ticket-holders through. In Gujranwala, near Lahore, the film’s screening was delayed as everyone wanted to be in the first show.

But although there is "no room for fiction in the movie," some viewers complain that certain scenes are "pure conjecture." One scene they want removed relates to an incident in which Liaquat Ali Khan brings love letters of Edwina Mountbatten and Nehru to Jinnah saying these can be used to their advantage. Jinnah tells him that this is not possible and that he is saddened that Liaquat has stooped to such a level. Liaquat’s sons say none of this ever happened and appealed that the screening of the film be stopped.

But Justice Sarwana of the Sindh High Court set aside their objections and allowed the release on Friday of the Urdu version of the movie, although he held up the release of the English version, saying he will examine the movie further before allowing its release. He, however, asked the filmmakers to insert a slide before the show that some scenes of the movie "were not actual facts and were created to convey an impression of events."

The promoters of the film, Mandviwala Entertainment, and the producer Akbar Ahmad, who is Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK, argued that once the film had cleared censors, there should be no objection on its release.

Those who have watched the film say the scenes relate to Jinnah being shown in a "too westernised manner", and is even seen drinking in one scene. However, the promoters the scenes that were taken out had more to do with some scenes where women were seen "inappropriately dressed." In Pakistan’s stringent censor laws, women cannot be shown in stages of undress.

The censors also objected to some of the love-making scenes between Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten and had them toned down.