Dukhtar

A mother and a daughter on the run

While you would have thought of Dukhtar as just another drama bashing the religiously-conservative for their narrow-mindedness, interestingly it does not even bring religion into discussion. With its bold and fast-paced narrative along with captivating cinematography, Dukhtar has managed to highlight a very common issue without getting too monotonous. A mother after finding out that her 10-year-old daughter has been betrothed to an old warlord, runs with her daughter, away from the patriarchal community. On her way she finds a truck-driver who at first is hesitant to help them, but later becomes their protector after realising the gravity of the situation.

But with such a grave social issue being addressed, it was hoped that the plot would revolve around the daughter. By casting awkward exchanges of love-struck gazes between the mother and the truck driver, Afia, the movie’s director, diverted unnecessarily from the main plot. The story was about the girl, as its title ‘Dukhtar’ (daughter) itself suggests, and not about the love story between the mother and the truck-driver.

And while Dukhtar has the potential to keep the viewers’ eyes glued on to the screen till the end, it also has the tendency to leave them dumbfounded when the plot almost ends on a climax. The mother is shot and the truck-driver is taking her to the hospital. And while you are looking forward to what happens next, the movie ends right there and then. If this was an attempt to keep the audience guessing as to what might have happened next, then Afia certainly forgot that you only do this in horror movies. Nothing even was told about the warlord who was searching for his to-be-bride. With such an abrupt ending, it may lose its charm as quickly as it earned it through its crisp beginning.

Nevertheless, with Samiya Mumtaz’s passionate portrayal of a worried mother and Saleha Arif emerging as the next-generation star for Pakistan, Dukhtar has enabled a Pakistani film-drama finally worth showing on the international scene. With its rich cinematography covered with incredible views of the green fields and mountains of the North, it is certainly a movie worth watching.