Khuda Kay Liye is unlike anything that typical Pakistani cinema has come out with. It is a brave effort to be commended especially as it is Shoaib Mansoor's debut feature film but admittedly the film works more when one thinks how difficult this film must have been to make in Pakistan considering the sensitive issues the film has looked at - brainwashing of young modern Pakistanis into becoming hard-line fundamentalists, the erroneous interpretations of Islam, the differences between moderates and hard-liners, the plight of the forward thinking Muslim who is attacked by fundamentalists at home and by the Western world post 9/11 just for being Muslim. In terms of actual filmmaking, the film is so-so but yes, head and shoulders above the typical crass and loud Lollywood potboilers, the best of which look like Z-grade Bollywood films.

Central to the narrative are three characters – two brothers into music, Mansoor (Shan) and Sarmad (Fawad Khan) who live in Lahore with their extremely broadminded and liberal parents and Mary (Iman Ali), a British Asian in London. She is their first cousin whose mother is no more. Her father is living with a white woman who understands Mary, essentially British in nature, much better than him. The film essentially examines its issues through what these characters go through. Mansoor goes to USA to study music and post 9/11 is picked up, tortured, reduced to a vegetable and then deported back to Pakistan for alleged terrorist links. Sarmad is brainwashed by a local maulvi and becomes a hard-liner. He denounces his jeans and music since the maulvi tells him that Islam says that all music and all art is anti-God, much to the distress of his family. Mary’s father, horrified that she wants to marry a gora, pretends to agree to the match and tricks her into visiting Pakistan where he marries her off to Sarmad in desolate Afghanistan; the fact that he lives with a white woman isn’t an issue of course. As he says in the film, it’s okay for a Muslim man to be involved outside the religion but not for a woman.

These three stories that director Shoaib Mansoor tells all have their inherent strength as he has picked up very real and pertinent issues. In that sense, the film does manage to involve you into the lives of all 3 protagonists and at the end it is a film that makes you think as well. Of the lot, Mary's story works particularly well even if the ending is quite unbelievable though Sarmad's descent into a hard-lining practising Muslim is abrupt, too pat and somewhat unconvincing and the weakest of the three strands. This aspect was beautifully handled in Subeha Samar's Khamosh Pani (2003) where the track of Kirron Kher's son getting brainwashed and becoming a fundamentalist was the biggest strength of the film.

Thankfully, in terms of storytelling Mansoor tells his story honestly and straight, going in accordance with his content matter and not following a typical commercial approach. In that sense, in terms of treatment and style Khuda Kay Liye can be said to be a 'multiplex film' to come out of Pakistan. But yes, the tales could have been told far more effectively on screen. The film takes its time to draw the viewer in and tends to get extremely verbose with everything spelt out thus getting excessively preachy. This is especially so in the climax as Maulana Wali (Naseeruddin Shah) gives a lengthy interpretation of Islam in court. But then one supposes Shoaib Mansoor was thinking of his audiences in Pakistan and how best to get his message across to them in clear and easy terms, brought up as they are on Sultan Rahi-Anjuman and Shan-Reema crass films for years and years now. Stereotypes like Mary's father, the dumb American girlfriend and the boorish American interrogators don't help things either diluting the impact of the scenes in which they appear.

The other aspect that lets down the film is some woeful acting. In particular, the actor portraying Mary's father is a disaster, often making you cringe a with his stilted turn. Iman Ali is inconsistent both with her accent and performance, shifting from being wooden to obviously 'acting.' Her scene with her father when he agrees to her marriage with Dave and she goes on about how much she loves him is embarrassing to say the least.  Austin Marie Sayre as Mansoor's girlfriend, Janie, comes across as little more than a dumb bimbette and the less said about the American interrogators the better. The English actors are too stagy with their dialogues and intonations most theatrical. Fawad Khan is too low key but adequate enough as the good lad turned hard-liner while Shan, the superstar of Pakistani cinema, is efficient enough as Mansoor though age has caught up with him now. On the positive side though, Rasheed Naz shines as Maulana Tahiri who brainwashes Sarmad with his soft spoken gentle charm thus making him all the more dangerous while Naseeruddin Shah in his brief cameo shows he is easily head and shoulders above the rest of the cast in terms of acting craft. Though saddled with a tackily pasted beard and long, preachy monologues 'explaining' Islam to the court (and the audience), he still makes a strong impact.

The film’s length of more then two and three quarters length gets to you as Khuda Kay Liye appears to meander. It needed to be at least a good 45 minutes shorter. It is reasonably photographed but one felt the use of locales, varied as they are, could have been exploited far better. But, one must admit again, it is yards ahead of the normal standard of photography in Pakistani films. Music has been well-integrated into the plot as both brothers are musicians and the manner in which the music is used is not as your typical song and dance numbers but according to story dictates, which is a relief.

The film has created quite a buzz at film festivals the world over as well in its theatrical release in Pakistan last year. It is heartening that Percept Picture Company has picked up the film for distribution in India and the film has got a theatrical release here. Khuda Kay Liye is regarded as an extremely important film and the big great hope in reviving the Pakistan film industry. One will just have to wait and see...