The celebration after Khuda Kay Liye made Pakistan proud in Cairo
Shoaib Mansoor's blockbuster Khuda Kay Liye received a standing ovation at the Cairo Film Festival and also won him Best Director. And true to the Pakistani spirit, an excited troupe from Pakistan was there to applaud him. Cairo is a high profile platform because the city is a tourist destination for so many in the West. Omar Shariff, Harvey Keitel and Matt Dillon all made an appearance. And looking at it through foreign eyes, a film from Pakistan definitely inspires curiosity. Add topical content that explodes like dynamite and you have a film capable of making waves on foreign shores.
In addition to the promotion of the film, a cultural show (sponsored by Mobilink) was followed by a dinner in Cairo, which was at the Baron's Palace. Nilofer Shahid and Deepak Perwani presented their collections after which the crowd let their hair down and enjoyed the evening, Egyptian style!
And with promotion like this, we predict that the Cairo Film Festival is the beginning of a long international journey for Khuda Kay Liye.
Tapu Javeri
"Cairo is no different from Karachi; it is more crowded but has better roads. The place is very much like Pakistan. The Egyptians' dress sense is more western in a bold and beautiful way. For the Egyptians, the movie and the fashion show was like an introduction to gloss and glamour of Pakistan and it was a treat for them."
Saqib Malik
"Cairo at a glance is like a crazy, chaotic city, but after a couple of days one realizes that it is wonderfully laid out city with character. The people of the city have learnt to deal with its madness. But on the whole it is good blend of east and the west. KKl was very well received. They were so impressed by the movie that they want to watch more of Pakistani cinema. The movie did well for Pakistan. Cairo and Beirut being a cultural hub have a huge industry of music. The fashion scene isn't as good as Pakistan's; music is more or less the same, better if I must say so. Their Cinema is definitely better than ours."
Frieha Altaf
"The place is much like Karachi; there is a lot of traffic. But the people are tolerant. The higher income groups are liberal and the middle class is mostly in burqas. But they are all tolerant of one another. Entertainment wise they are huge; the dinner and dance there was ten times better than any ball in Pakistan. Makeup, though I found was too loud. So there is self-expression and it reflects in makeup as well. "
Vaneeza
"I'm not really fond of Cairo but the show was great. The tutti-frutti backdrop was mind blowing. The fashion and the movie from our country were very well received. KKL talks about the issues that are there in almost the whole Islamic world therefore it was taken well.
Cairo reminds one of home, none of us felt like fish out of water. The place is over crowded, even more than Karachi. What I found strange was their fashion sense, though. They are awful when it comes to fashion."
Shoaib Mansoor
"Khuda Kay Liye has done extremely well in Pakistan and I am delighted about that but the pleasure is double fold in another country. It's just awakening that whatever I've said in the film applies to the rest of the Muslim world as well. I got the same reaction from people at the festival from Egypt as well as Algerians etc. They were all saying the same thing: they could all associate themselves with the film."
Nilofer Shahid
"Cairo is a lot like Karachi; only there is more traffic there. The bazaars are like the ones in Karachi. I found the city to be more modern than the rest of the Muslim cities I've visited. The people in Cairo are very warm. The historical city is vibrant and pulsating."
Deepak Perwani
"The Egyptian audience was surprised to see Pakistani fashion; they weren't expecting it to be good. The place is gorgeous, very Karachi. There is French architecture and of course the pyramids. The people were very warm. They had no hang-ups about themselves, they would come and hangout with us after the show. There was a language barrier though. People thought I was Egyptian and started off in Arabic."
