Veena Malik

It may be startling for Indian TV-watchers, not to us Pakistanis. Catty and always worked-up, Veena Malik knows how to throw things, including tantrums. So in a Big Boss 4 episode (what the heck is that show about, can someone figure?) when Veena M threw one of her shoes at a character (another super-phony actor) it got the Indian media tongues wagging.

Well, friends, take it from across the border — when Veena hits the roof, she throws the kitchen sink and not just a shoe at the person she’s angry at. If you don’t believe me, watch all the TV shows on which she appeared to spew venom against a cricketer. The poor lad doesn’t even take her name anymore. So watch out, Indian boys!  – PYT

Veena Malik

Veena Malik, born Zahida Malik on 26 February 1978, is an actress, model and comedian. She established herself as one of the leading women in the Pakistani television and film industry with her abilities to mimic others and improvise. Veena grew up expressing an interest in joining the film industry and her grandmother encouraged her. Her father, however, disliked the idea of his daughter being in an industry that was deemed unsuitable for girls in Pakistan and initially resisted her attempts to pursue a career in entertainment. However, she continued to receive support from her grandmother despite the disapproval of many family members. Before starting her career as an actress, Veena worked as a comedian for several television shows and series. She made her acting debut alongside Shaan and Zara Sheikh in Tere Pyar Mein in 2000, which did well at the box office but since she played a supporting role in the film she was barely acknowledged. However, she received widespread acclaim when she appeared in a supporting role in Javed Sheikh’s Yeh Dil Aap Ka Huwa in 2002; the film was a commercial success. In 2003, she appeared in Indo-Pak cross venture Punjabi film Pind Di Kuri which failed to do well. However, the film turned out be the first Indo-Pak venture film with a budget of approximately 70 million rupees. She also appeared in Askari’s Sassi Punno alongside Sana and Moammar Rana and in Jageer. In 2008, Veena appeared in the Punjabi film, Mohabbatan Sachiyan, alongside ex-fiancee Babrik Shah and newcomers Maria Khan and Adnan Khan. The film went on to become a commercial success. In 2010, she worked in Main Jeena Tere Naal, and debut comedy programme Miss Duniya.
Veena has usually been cast as a supporting actor. It is unclear if she herself stayed clear of the leading roles or was denied them. Industry enthusiasts say that the only genre she was good at was ‘comedy’ and that the directors failed to create a leading role around her acting skills. The criticism was taken well by her and she began to hone her skills even more in comedy. In 2002, she hosted a show called Prime Gupshup ushering a new direction for her comedic skills and she improvised on the hour-long show by occasionally mimicking actors. The show’s format was such a great success that she got offers from various other channels as well. She hosted the Geo TV show Hum Sub Umeed Say Hain, in which she was hailed for her parodies. In September 2010, Veena was approached to become part of the Indian television reality show, Bigg Boss Season 4, being hosted by Salman Khan. She accepted the offer and is now a part of the show that started on October 3, 2010 and will run for 14 weeks.

Kaun Bane Ga Crorepati is based on Dabir ul Hasan’s (Shamim Ara’s husband) shamelessly plagiarized script that has two young men trying to woo a rich girl who exchanges personal status with a girlfriend to test the sincerity of people professing love and find out if they were attracted to her person or her wealth.

Once that issue is settled, distrust is introduced by out of context photographs of Moammar and Noor to accuse them of treachery. The medicine is repeated by catching Reema and Babar in a similar hug to clear the misunderstanding and bring culprits Deeba and Shafqat Cheema to book. They are a couple of sly gold diggers out to deprive Reema of her inheritance.

Deeba is rich Reema’s deceptive governess and Cheema is lover boy Babar’s scheming father.

Performances

Reema seems to have worked hard to attain a pleasant degree of consummation with the demands of the art in every respect; others have put their heart in performances and make for limitations either in talent or in some other respect. This is not to distract from their contribution, particularly from Noor’s numbers. One of them is excitingly rapid fire and the other charmingly slow paced.

The boys, Moammar Rana and Babar Ali could not have been previously suspected of being capable of distinguishing hop-step and jump from rock or even the current swinging body-beat and physical abandon. In Kaun Bane Ga Crorepati, they show a welcome capacity for responding to professional guidance and handling. As for Reema, she is near superb. A reportable aspect of dances in Kaun Bane Ga Crorepati is that they are free of the prevailing vulgarity currently presented by local films as entertainment.

The cast also includes Rambo and Veena Malik. Mystery man Rambo reveals his identity at the end; Veena is his infrequent female companion who is given entries, exits and a dance to perform but is forgotten by the time it is curtainfall. Teaming her with Rambo makes her irrelevant fiddle. No slight intended for Rambo except that it is time filmmakers decided as to how to use him.

Review

Actress Shamim Ara emerged as a director of outstanding talent with her very first lifting fo the megaphone. Playboy (1978) heralded the arrival of a creative director whose idea of a film script was contemporary, issue based and imaginative yet commercially viable.

She quickly adjusted directorial sails with the slide down in Pakistani cinema with a series of movies woven around Singapore, Hong Kong and Colombo ‘girls’. The films were entertaining, successful on the circuit and represented competent direction but contained nothing more for a dispatch.

Then Shamim Ara went out of circulation, returning to production some years later with a movie in 1999 titled Pal do Pal. Her own work was woefully slipshod but a script of extraordinary atrociousness by husband Dabir ul Hasan was the main cause of her fall from professional grace.

That, besides bad health was the reason why no producer commissioned her for a fairly long period. Producer Jamshed Zafar revived Shamim Ara with Kaun Bane Ga Crorepati, but he failed to realize that whatever were the qualities endearing Dabir ul Hasan to Shamim Ara as husband, writing good scripts for films was not one of them. He is present in Crorepati with the kind of script that can sink the greatest director.

Here Shamim Ara has managed to survive a story that is doubly stolen: two Indian films are joined together to produce Kaun Bane Ga Crorepati. Dabir ul Hasan has reduced the originals to distorted versions and added to them some pathetically tasteless, indeed stinking humour of his own plus mirthless, stale jokes. How does the director cross this tottering bridge?

Pappu Samrat and Ashraf Shirazi, both top names of Pakistani cinema in their field, have choreographed the dances. Cinematography is the responsibility of Akif Chaudhry and Sajjad Rizvi. I am familiar with Chaudhry’s work. Rizvi, I am told, is good. This quartet gets together to produce a series of dazzling dances, their picturization giving a new and brilliant dimension to the filming of dances in Pakistani films. A demonstration of craft of comparable quality by editor Z.A.Zulfi turns them in to a memorable feast.

This is Shamim Ara at her most commanding as a director. Popular numbers by singers Abrar ul Haq (one regrets his controversial lyric of uncultured taste) and Jawad are used for two of the dances. Scores of dancers add grandeur to the footage; in one case, it is an all male cast. Based on compositions by Wajid Ali Nashad and lyrics by Aqeel Rubi, the remaining dances are equally slick, charming and artistic.

It however takes more than choreographer, cameramen, editor, composer, singers and even a director to produce brilliant musical sequences. Unless dancers perform with comparable class and possess rhythmic facility of movement with figures to match and they are professionally qualified for a high level rendering of the art, impactful totality would escape production. They are infact the starting point for a song-dance sequence. All these requirements are admittedly not fully met but distance between ideal inputs and available talent is fortunately not too wide.

Filmgoer’s unfamiliar with the writer’s source of inspiration may have enjoyed the movie but irritating stupid clowning and offensive and silly humour are enlisted to put them off. Shamim Ara apparently could not curb the plagiaristic and low taste ambitions and inclinations of her hubby. One wishes her happy conjugal life but Jamshed Zafar should have exercised the producer’s prerogative and judged the script strictly. One hopes he does that when he is presented another such yarn, regardless of the relationship between the writer and the director.

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 2002, Genre – Drama, Country – Pakistan, Language – Urdu, Producer – Jamshed Zafar, Director – Shamim Ara, Music Director – N/A, Cast – Reema, Moammar Rana, Babar Ali, Noor, John Rambo, Veena Malik, Deeba, Shafqat Cheema