KARACHI: ‘Aisa Hi Hota Hai,’ Pakistan’s first film on animal abuse from a “psychotherapeutic” perspective, will release on June 16, the Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation (ACF), which is producing the film, said on Monday.
The decade-old ACF is Pakistan's largest animal rescue organization founded by Ayesha Chundrigar, a trained psychotherapist who switched to working with animals and raising awareness around abuse.
This is Chundrigar’s first film and is directed by Pakistani television and film actress, director and producer Marina Khan and features top actress Sania Saeed in a key role.
“The film is not categorically about animals, we want to talk about how we tend to separate what animals go through from what humans go through,” Saeed told Arab News. “There is a clear bifurcation. A lot of people don’t even think animals have emotions.”
Chundrigar wants to change this by introducing the topic of animal abuse through a psychotherapeutic lens, she explained, an approach that focuses on changing problematic behaviors, feelings, and thoughts by discovering their unconscious meanings and motivations. Psychoanalytically oriented therapies are characterized by a close working partnership between therapist and patient.
“This film is essentially about looking at animal abuse through a psychotherapeutic lens,” Chundrigar told Arab News. “There have been multiple international films on animals, but I have never seen anything made around this particular way that I've done.”
“The idea has been building up in my mind for long, and I constantly read up on it,” she added. “I have always tried to spread awareness and educate people through a psychotherapeutic lens. I use empathy [and] I try to put myself in the skin of the animals. With the film, I want to make people think, start a dialogue, and help them heal.”
Chundrigar was helped by Saeed in writing the screenplay, especially with dialogue and Urdu translation. Saeed has worked pro bono on the film.
“I have seen the best of people have this disregard for animals,” Saeed said. “I have had pets all my life. I have rescued animals all my life. For me, it comes very naturally. I didn’t even think about it.”
