Stop Making A Mockery Of Malala Yousafzai, The Young Legend Who Won A Noble Prize At 17!

Ali Peter John

At 70, I can still say that I am an unabashed admirer of the Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai who faced the bullets of frenzied fanatics who shot at her when she was just 17 just because she espoused the cause of education for all girls irrespective of caste, creed and community or even country. She was badly injured and many saw no hope for her, but it was her will to win that kept her alive and made her will to fight for her cause stronger and it was her one-girl war against the enemies of education for girls that it brought her into the international Limelight and which ended up in her winning the Nobel prize. She was a global star who was given standing ovations where ever she went, she was received and welcomed by heads of States and I can never forget the 15-minutes non-stop standing ovation and applause she won in the Canadian Parliament headed by the young Prime Minister Mr Pierre Trudeau, his wife, his cabinet and the opposition parties all standing like 1 family or call it one entity. Malala was not my daughter, Malala was not associated or related to me in anyway, Malala even belonged to a country which I was taught was the enemy of my own country, but I still remember how my heart swelled and thudded with human pride for or a girl who could have the power to make powerful men and women stand and clap for her in sheer disbelief, all because she was talking the kind of sense the leaders and elders statesmen of the world had forgotten in the midst of all the mire and the mess they themselves had created for the world. I must have watched that video of Malala countless times and every time I have had the same feeling and how I wished the world had just 3 or 4 Malala more!

Malala has been creating the same kind of sensation wherever she has travelled to spread her cause for education for girls and everywhere she has been seen as a live symbol of the big change for women everyone is still only dreaming of and talking about and doing nothing or very little.

I knew Malala story had all the real-life ingredients to make a great story, even a great book and certainly a great film. There has been attempts made to write books about her, but they have not been able to make the right kind of impact. And now we have a very sad and sorry and pathetic attempt made to make a feature film based on her life, her cause and her brave adventures and exploits to see that her cause is taken its next level. The film called “Gul Makai" which is supposed to be her pen name before she became famous. To put it in one sentence, the film is not only a mockery of Malala, but an insult to her fighting spirit which needs all the encouragement at this stage and not the kind of rotten films that “Gul Makai" is. The film is a horrendous and even if I may say so, a stinging slap in the face of any attempt to make at least a reasonably good film. This great effort is nothing short of trying to wilfully or purposely badly made film to damage the reputation of a great subject like Malala Yousafzai.

The film is directed by a certain Amjad Khan, who seems to be desperately lost in some dark forest from where he is using his directorial skills (?) to find his way out and who the more he tries the more he find himself trapped in the layers of the difficult and sensitive subject he should never have even dared to dream of making. If I was in his place, I would rather have taken up a job at breaking stones to build roads then make this film and hurt the image Malala has staked her life to create for herself.

And if a film is unfortunate to have a lost in the woods kind of director, it is only natural that everything else will also so look lost. The greatest weakness of the film is the performance of the actress, Reem Sheikh, who plays the title role. She looks as if she is scared of Malala herself standing behind her. Atul Kulkarni,a polished performer who plays Malala's father looks as if she has been told that he is the father of Malala and then told, “you are a great actor, kuch karo yaar". The biggest flaw which is something the director will never be forgotten for insulting the talent of actors like the late Om Puri and Divya Dutta who in god's name I cannot understand why they had to accept such bit roles and insult themselves and their abundant talent.

I have spent the whole evening getting drunk on one kind of tea after the other to try and find some kind of saving grace in the film, but all the tea has only led to my falling a victim to acute acidity, but I am sorry, I have no good news from either my soul, my body or my mind to give to the makers who can work and work and still squander such a golden opportunity.

And the only positive thing I can say is thank God, the trade pundits say that the film will not live for more than two days at the box-office. And that means that there is still hope for some better filmmakers from here where we have some very good filmmakers, especially women filmmakers or filmmakers from Hollywood who can make better films on an international subject like the Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai.

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Malala Yousufzai