A Pakistani Movie That Looks Like An Indian Movie That Tried To Look Like An American Movie

Stylish Dil Chahta Hai changed the way we looked at Bollywood forever

I love it when cultures cross-pollinate.

When Dil Chahta Hai ( The Heart Desires) came out in 2001, everyone in Bollywood straightened out their sky-high teased hair, dusted off their bulky shoulder padded jackets, and sat up!

The movie was a spectacular success, only because it was so unlike anything Bollywood had seen before.

In the film, the young stars (A-lister Aamir Khan, C-lister Akshaye Khanna, and really cute, but relegated to the bottom of the barell D-lister Saif Ali Khan) portray affluent, yuppy, thoroughly Americanised Indians.

They partied hard, jetted off to beach resort Goa in a BMW, spiked their hair with enough Gel to make them glisten like Baby Seals and generally were seen as very aspirational.

The movie, with its catchy tunes and stylised production, was funny, slick and an instant classic. It changed the way we looked at Bollywood forever.

Now, here’s something that is bound to change the way you look at Pakistan forever.

Slackistan is Pakistan’s first ever “slacker movie.” If your head is stuffed full of “Pakistan” images – i.e. images of bombings, the Taliban, suicide attacks, then this movie aspires to show audiences Pakistan’s other side.

The gap between privilege and poverty is so stark in that country (much like India) that many people who live within the bubble of prosperity fail to see what’s right in front of their eyes.

Slackistan is a no-budget, indie flick by first-time British director Hammad Khan and features the Pakistani young and privileged as they drift around in a rarefied world of cars, dating, drinking and parties.

Worrying only about what to wear and where to go, this group of fashionably-dressed kids could be in Orange County or New York’s Upper East Side, writes Riazat Butt in The Guardian.

The film is set in Islamabad, with locals or “Islooites” with no acting experience playing themselves.

“They are the kids of businessmen, politicians or professionals,” explains Hammad Khan in his interview to The Guardian.

“They are the future of Pakistan. They will inherit Islamabad and it is more interesting to look at what they might do with it, rather than look at the poor or the radicalised who have very little real power. The film is about growing up, too. It asks, can we really do this for the rest of our lives?”