KARACHI: Pakistani film “Wakhri,” inspired by the life of murdered social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch, delves into the challenges faced by women in the South Asian country, its director said this week, adding the production aimed to convincingly reflect the ground realities.
Mirroring the real-life tragedy of Baloch, who was killed by her brother in 2016 due to her bold social media presence which he said had brought disrepute to the family, the film portrays a widowed schoolteacher named Noor.
Set in rural Pakistan, “Wakhri,” meaning “one of a kind” in Punjabi, uses Noor’s story of social media fame to explore the broader struggles of Pakistani women.
The film had its world premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival last month prior to its release in Pakistan on January 5. Currently running in cinemas across the country, it serves as a social commentary and has received mixed response from viewers.
Iram Parveen Bilal, the writer, director and producer of Wakhri, told Arab News in an exclusive interview about her sentiments much before Baloch’s murder when former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed during the election campaign in December 2007.
“Every time a brave woman is taken down, it feels personal,” she said. “It’s like ‘how dare you?’ ‘How dare you cross that line?’”
“What we are telling in the film is so realistic, we don’t understand at times if it’s happening in the film or in real life,” she added. “With Qandeel, it just highlighted it more. She became the portal for unraveling decades of micro-aggression and rage and just a reaction to a basic human right which is the right to freedom of speech.”
Baloch became famous for her flirty and defiant posts on social media in stark contrast with the conservative norms in Pakistan. Her brother, Muhammad Waseem, who described her suggestive behavior as “intolerable,” and was sentenced to life imprisonment before being released in 2022 after being pardoned by their parents.
Faryal Mehmood, who plays the dual role of Noor and Wakhri, says the nature of the project moved her to sign the film.
“I have always picked something that not everyone would pick, which is, the truth, the honesty [and] the reality of how we are as a society,” she told Arab News.
“Those who are watching the character, they are falling in love with Wakhri,” she continued. “They are fascinated by her. They want to be Wakhri.”
Bilal said it was “exhausting” to deal with social media trolls after the film, though she said it was also revealing in its own way.
“I find it very interesting how [people] keep calling the film and [its central] character very ‘bold,’” she added. “I have started realizing that a woman just expressing herself is bold.”
Bilal, who grew up in Pakistan but lives in the US, recalled her experience at the Red Sea Film Festival, saying she appreciated its programming team, particularly Kaleem Aftab, who spearheads it.
“We actually showed [the film] to him first,” she said. “He just watched it and started messaging me on all social media [platforms] and phone numbers. He was like ‘I love it. When can we talk?’”
“[The response at the Red Sea Film Festival] was really good,” she added. “Wakhri got the most press attention. The entire jury was present in-person at the world premiere, watching it on the big screen. It was such a lovely time. The weather in Jeddah was pleasant. We did Umrah. I did it twice. The team did it together.”
While the filmmakers intend to release Wakhri internationally, nothing has yet been finalized on that front.
“I was kind of a little critical before the film was released and I hadn’t seen it. How would people receive it, whether they’d be able to digest it, and so on,” Mehmood said.
“Now as I see, when women [and] young girls walk out of the theater and the things they have to say about Wakhri, I see a change happening [in Pakistan]. I see they are evolving.”
