Khuda Kay Liye Review

Khuda Ke Liye better known as ` In the name of God `internationally has been highly acclaimed at several film festivals and has bagged several prestigious awards. The film has been directed by Pakistan's most renowned TV producer Shoaib Mansoor who has been the mastermind behind the success of the comedy play `Fifty Fifty'.

This time around Shoaib gets into a more serious note exploring certain fundamentalists false beliefs circling Islam and the state of Muslims in today's contemporary modern society. The film also dwells into the state of Muslims living abroad post the 9/11 attacks.

The film that had a fatwa issued against it by some radical maulvi's  and  had the director of the movie  fleeing Pakistan as soon as the movie was released fearing his life finally releases in India courtesy Percept Picture Company.

The movie revolves around two musician brothers - Mansoor(Shaan) and Sarmad (Fahwad Khan) who have their own popular music group in Pakistan. Music is considered `Haram' by certain fundamentalist groups and thus  one day Sarmad is lured by fanatical Maulvi Tahiri (Rasheed Naz) into joining his ranks as a fundamentalist and giving up music and all other things perceived as haram.

Meanwhile UK-based uncle of the boys, worried by the prospect of his daughter Mary(Iman Ali) having an affair with a white British, traps her into a visit to Pakistan and sends her into a FATA(Federally Administered Tribal Areas )village where she is forcefully married off to Sarmad under the influence of Maulvi Tahiri.

Then the disastrous 9/11 occurs and Mansoor is detained on the grounds of being Muslim by U.S. authorities who beat and torture him to elicit a confession of his role in terrorism. While Mansoor is held captive by U.S. authorities his younger brother Samrad gets involved in the battle between Taliban, US forces and Northern Alliance. Now Mary too is held captive in the frontier village and can't break free from the chains of a forced marriage.

`Khuda Ke Liye `is truly a splendid offering to the world of cinema. People may call it a Pakistani film but the film is truly international carrying a star cast which is a mix of Pakistanis, Indians and Americans. The film also addresses an international subject; the state of Muslims all over the globe. The plot surely stems from within the dynamics of Pakistan and its rigid functional laws and ethos but the film truly makes a global mark.

The director Shoaib Mansoor deserves a standing ovation to firstly dare to make such a film being a resident of Pakistan and secondly for changing our perception about Pakistani cinema being low budget, mediocre quality flicks. `Khuda Ke Liye' has been very well conceived and executed by Mansoor and his team. The film brings about the resurgence of cinema in Pakistan.

Mansoor has combined with Geo TV network to produce a massive and hard hitting film such as this. Mansoor has fused in various controversial issues such as religious extremism , racia