Tag: top ent

  • Passive-Aggressive Danish sweeps one of the fastest episodes in Pak history

    Passive-Aggressive Danish sweeps one of the fastest episodes in Pak history

    You won’t be able to tell that 40 minutes went by in one of the fastest episodes of Meray Pass Tum Ho. Just 12 episodes in, the show is bound to be one of the biggest blockbusters in Pakistani drama history.

    Mehwish (Ayeza Khan) has decided to leave her son and husband for loaded Shehwar (Adnan Siddiqui). Husband Danish (Humayun Saeed) relents and tells her that she can go and as predicted serves her with divorce papers in this episode.

    READ MORE: Are those divorce papers in MPTH’s promo?

    Danish gives Mehwish a divorce

    She doesn’t flinch when he gives them to her but there is a flicker – of shock or happiness, one can’t be certain – but she is definitely taken by surprise when he hands them to her.

    One can’t be sure in the beginning of the episode of Danish’s motives. He brings a cake to celebrate his wedding anniversary with Mehwish, which seems like a really weird and creepy thing to do since she’s leaving him for another man.

    Making Mehwish cut a wedding anniversary cake with him

    The weirdness of it freaks Mehwish out too and she tell Shehwar to come over and get her – eight hours before she actually has to leave. We start to see cracks in Danish’s cool demeanour as he starts passing comments on his marriage with Mehwish – and we finally see that he really is incredibly angry and just very good at hiding it.

    Mehwish on the other hand, couldn’t care less and one loses a little respect for her in this episode. When Danish hands her her phone, she finds that the phone is covered in Danish’s blood – blood from an accident he had had the same night. She ignores it – and checks for Shehwar’s message. Ouch.

    Mehwish realizing Danish’s blood is on her hands

    Her soon-to-be ex-husband and father of your child is bleeding and she couldn’t care less. Seems like a whole new Mehwish. Ayeza Khan had warned her fans not to watch this episode since they would hate her at the end of it. Don’t hate her but definitely don’t like her anymore.

    Danish’s biting responses and out of the blue reactions make this episode a truly riveting watch. Humayun Saeed has done it again, proving he is the best actor in the industry. He succeeds in making everyone watching feel for him and also feel incredibly uncomfortable watching him behave and react so strangely. He offers his cheating wife and her lover tea and asks them to sit in his house- until he tells Mehwish to leave with Shehwar.

    Danish made Shehwar and Mehwish chai after he gave Mehwish permission to call Shehwar over to take her

    When walking them to the door, he says to Shehwar that, “waisey tou bohat intelligent businessman lagte hain aap, lekin yahan bhao karte huye hairaan kardia aapne mujhe. Is do takay ki larki kay liye aap mujhe 50 million dey rahe thay…“
    and that’s it.

    Danish telling Shehwar that Mehwish is a do take ki aurat

    Mehwish hears it and realizes that that’s the moment she truly lost her husband – not when she told him she wanted to leave, not when he found out that she had an affair, not when he gave her divorce papers.

    Mehwish realizes she’s lost her husband forever

    She realizes that she’s lost the man who truly loved her when she’s walking out of her house and he reveals how he truly feels, you can tell – she has a flicker of admiration and fear for him. Admiration that he finally, finally stood up for himself and fear because now she knows that she can never come back.

    READ MORE: The episode that broke the internet: MPTH EP 11

  • Award-winning Pakistani director gets life sentence in murder case

    Award-winning Pakistani director gets life sentence in murder case

    Award-winning director Mansoor Mujahid and his friend Anab Zehra Hameed were handed life imprisonment for murdering their friend Faisal Nabi. The court also ordered them to pay Rs200,000 each as compensation to the legal heirs of the victim.

    According to reports, a sessions court in Karachi found Mujahid and his friend Anab guilty of killing banker Faisal Nabi Malik, in an apartment in Defence Housing Authority in June 2013.

    The prosecution, in their arguments, said that Mansoor and his friends were consuming drugs at Anab’s apartment when he allegedly shot dead the victim after they got into a heated argument on June 20, 2013.

    They further added that the male accused along with his female partners shared a common intent to kill the victim. They shot the deceased with an unlicensed weapon and dumped the body in the parking lot of an apartment complex after stabbing and burning it with acid in order to hide his identity.

    Sharing further details, the prosecution said that when an inquiry officer along with some relatives of the deceased questioned the accused, Mansoor confessed to having shot his friend twice while Anab disclosed to have stabbed the victim and poured acid over his body to confuse his identity. They led the police to a place where the body, pistol, daggers, bloodstained pillow and bedspread were found.

    It added that Anab further disclosed during interrogation that the deceased had assaulted her a few days before the incident and she wrote it in her diary which was read by Mansoor.

    Meanwhile, the victim’s driver had also seen the accused coming out of the place where he had dropped the victim.

    Mansoor is the director of the award-winning film Seedlings, whose Urdu title was Lamha. The film stars Mohib Mirza and Aamina Sheikh in the lead while Gohar Rasheed was also part of the film. It won the ‘Best Feature Film’ (People’s choice) and ‘Best Lead Actress’ awards for Aamina Sheikh at its World Premiere in The New York City International Film Festival 2012.

    It also bagged the ‘Best Feature Film’ award at the DC South Asian Festival in Washington in May 2013.

    Mansoor was also involved in the making of numerous documentaries, music videos and narrative work for television.

    In an earlier interview, Mujahid had said that he did not intend to kill his friend but it was in fact an accident.

  • VIDEO: Nadia Jamil reveals a powerful politician’s daughter used to bully her

    VIDEO: Nadia Jamil reveals a powerful politician’s daughter used to bully her

    Nadia Jamil has made some staggering revelations in her recent interview.

    Speaking on Samina Peerzada’s show, Nadia revealed how an influential politician’s daughter used to bully her. She said she won’t reveal her name as she is passing through a hard time these days.

    “At the time, girl’s father was the Chief Minister and the family was very influential,” Nadia said.

    She continued, “She was my junior in school and once said to me: ‘Tumhaara baap meray baap ka naukar hai.’”

    Nadia further said that when she told her grandmother about this incident, her grandmother scolded her that she should be very cautious as the family could destroy her father’s business. To which Nadia had responded that how could she say this about my father.

    Meanwhile, sources tell us that the girl Nadia was referring to in her interview was former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz. The two studied in the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Lahore, where Nadia was Maryam’s senior.


     

    Apart from that, Nadia also had a candid discussion about her illness, childhood and career with the host. Watch Nadia’s full Interview here:

  • Kaaf Kangana writer says ‘women should rape men if they want equality’

    Kaaf Kangana writer says ‘women should rape men if they want equality’

    Renowned screenwriter and director Khalilur Rehman Qamar has come under fire for saying that “women should rape men if they want equality”, while netizens call him out over misogyny, which they say, has always been key to his characters and stories.

    “A few weeks ago, a feminist group had a conversation with me regarding equality. I asked them if they’ve ever heard about a gang of men kidnapping a woman? They assured me they have. I asked them then why don’t women do the same?” Qamar, whose recent offering “Mere Pass Tum Ho” revolves around a woman who’s willing to overlook her affectionate husband for a man who’s richer, said in a recent interview.

    “If you wish to strive for equality then kidnap men as well. Rob a bus, gang rape a man, so that I can understand what you [women] mean by equality.”

    Defending his ideas and “philosophy” around how he sees society, Qamar said that “Mere Pass Tum Ho” was “the story of several men, not just one”.

    “I have come across multiple married couples who go through the same ordeal. I’ve observed when a married woman cheats, she doesn’t feel ashamed at all. The reason behind her not feeling guilty is because she has been backed by another man. When an unmarried woman cheats, she feels guilty.”

    “But when a married man betrays his wife, he feels guilty. He feels embarrassed.” Qamar then also asserted that women should not criticise “Mere Pass Tum Ho” because women themselves have ridiculed men.

    “I’m only narrating this story in your [women’s] favour. Like it or not, I don’t call every woman a woman. To me, the only beautiful trait a woman can possess is her loyalty and her modesty. If a woman isn’t loyal then she is not a woman. Register an FIR against me for if you don’t subscribe to my point of view but I won’t budge.”

    “Get someone to try me under #MeToo, I won’t care about that either. But I won’t be able to call every woman a woman. That simply isn’t true for me,” he said.

    “A man leaves all his honour, his self-esteem with his wife when he goes out to earn a living. And I curse those women who violate that trust. That was the concept behind Mere Pass Tum Ho and so I’m fighting for the ‘good women’. It would be unfair to these [good] women to be classified along with those who aren’t loyal.”

    He then mockingly said that men have hijacked women’s rights so cleverly that women don’t really understand what their actual rights are. “Rather than figuring out your own rights, you’re only asking your part from men’s rights. That’s never going to happen!” he said. “The most one of these feminist groups can do is chant slogans against me, tweet a few thousand tweets but that’s it! Women can’t do anything else.”

    Qamar believed that if women were to challenge men, the whole society will collapse.

    “I was once in conversation with Sultana Siddiqui, and she asked me, ‘Khalil, why don’t you write anything against men?’ I asked her what should I write about men? Should I abuse him? I would, but then what? She said, ‘What do you mean? Even men remarry and indulge in extramarital affairs. Why do you choose to be so selective?’ I just had one question in response, ‘But with whom? A woman, right?’”

    According to Qamar, if a woman learns to say no to men, then men won’t be tempted to have an extramarital affair.

    When the host finally intervened and made a point about how loyalty should be exercise by both the man and the woman, Qamar replied, “You have to understand this philosophy. A wife is worried about what? Another woman. That other woman isn’t a man. So riddle me this: you are destroying a man and you’re the one who’s complaining about it as well.”

    He concluded by saying, “A man cannot say no. He just can’t. A good woman can.”

  • Are Yasir and Iqra going Deepika-Ranveer for their wedding look?

    Are Yasir and Iqra going Deepika-Ranveer for their wedding look?

    Actor Iqra Aziz and Yasir Hussain are engaged and have yet to announce their wedding date but speculations have already started into what they are going to wear.

    In their latest photoshoot for one of their favourite designers, Ali Xeeshan, both look regal and heavily adorned in Mughal style looks.

    Xeeshan’s collection is called Prem Nagar and Yasir posted a picture of Iqra and himself on his Instagram.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B4NErRCjG0s/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

    Ali Xeeshan also posted pictures of Iqra on his Insta account.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B4IOITkFE6N/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

    Fans of the couple are saying that they duo looks like they are leaning towards a more Deepika-Ranveer look rather than keeping it simple like Anuskha-Virat.

    Deepika was wearing heavy, traditional jewelry and Ranveer was no less.

    Deepika and Ranveer on their wedding day

    Anushka Sharma, on the other hand, had kept her wedding look simple, with almost no makeup but covered in jewels.

    Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma on their wedding
  • Does ‘Meray Pass Tum Ho”s next episode promo show divorce papers?

    Does ‘Meray Pass Tum Ho”s next episode promo show divorce papers?

    Wait, what? Is that Danish (Humayun Saeed) trying to win back Mehwish (Ayeza Khan) after he’s been clearly told (and accepted) that she’s leaving him for Shehwar (Adnan Siddiqui)?

    That would be a twist not many would like or had expected. Others are predicting that he’s going to bid her goodbye with the sweetest gestures so she remembers his love when she is faced with troubling times (which she undoubtedly will, given this battle of good vs. evil).

    Mehwish and Danish are seen cutting a cake

    But can Danish really be such a pushover? Or wait a minute! Are those ‘divorce’ papers he’s handing Mehwish?

    Danish hands Mehwish ‘unknown papers’ as she holds her head

    Humayun Saeed in a recent interview had stated that the show was based on a true story and we are also expecting the entrance of actress Hira Mani. Needless to say, everyone is anxiously waiting for the next episode to air on Saturday and then watch it on Youtube. Last week’s episode has a whopping 4.7M views.

    Watch the full promo for Episode 12 here:

  • EXCLUSIVE: Has the Bhutto family given consent for a biopic on Benazir?

    Mehwish Hayat, in a recent interview, confirmed that she will be playing Benazir Bhutto in the former Prime Minister’s biopic and that the project is currently in the works.

    However, according to The Current‘s sources, the Bhutto family is unaware of this project and has not given anyone any consent as yet. In fact, the source added that the family is completely in the dark regarding this upcoming project.

    Meanwhile, Mehwish in a recent interview with BBC Urdu confirmed that she will be playing Bhutto.

    When the host asks Mehwish if the news of her playing Benazir is true, Mehwish said, “InshAllah. It is a huge subject and a very complicated one. But the story is one of a hero – Benazir Bhutto is a hero to me and I love that woman. Her story is so inspirational. [I think] that our current generation and the one that is to come, need to see her contributions, struggles, progress, her life.”

    “She was the first woman Prime Minister of the country. The world needs to know about her.”

    Mehwish continued, “While people write about [her] in books, films are easy access for people to know about things.”

    When the host asked Mehwish that expectations with the role will be high, Mehwish responded, “Indeed it is a difficult character to play. It is being written as of now and it is going to take some time, but I cannot wait to play it.”

    Has Mehwish started preparing for the role?

    Mehwish said, “I’ve been reading up about her. The more I get to know her, the more inspired I get and I feel a lot of pride. But at the same time, I feel sad also that we lost such a great leader.”

    “But the world needs to see her whole story,” Mehwish concluded.

    News of Mehwish playing Pakistan’s first female prime minister had first surfaced in June 2018 when Mehwish on Benazir’s 65th birthday had shared that a biopic on BB was on the cards and that she was preparing to “play the role of a lifetime.”

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BkShLv1Db4A/?utm_source=ig_embed

    The announcement had taken social media by storm and everyone was excited to see the life of the slain Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader come to life on the silver screen. However, Benazir’s daughter, Bakhtawar, slammed the idea, saying that no consent was sought from the family for the project.

    Mehwish at that time had responded to Bakhtawar saying that the project was in its early stages and that it would not progress without “the consent or blessing of the family.”

    The Current has reached out to Mehwish for a comment.

  • Arts vs Politics: A contentious debate engulfing India

    Arts vs Politics: A contentious debate engulfing India

    The criticism of spinelessness and shamelessness is perhaps validly applied to the fraternity, although this covers players as diverse as the Hindutva poster-boy, Akshay Kumar, and the liberal-with-a-saviour-complex, Aamir Khan.

    As two of Bollywood’s most popular Khans, Aamir and Shah Rukh, join a procession of celebrities who now regularly play courtiers to the country’s Public Relation (PR) minister, sorry prime minister (PM), the morale of progressive India is at its lowest ever and Bollywood finds itself, yet again, in the midst of an intense debate on arts versus politics, best showcased in the 1984 film Party.

    In that classic, a young, idealistic K K Raina sees this as a false binary, but after a heated argument with the more jaded Om Puri, he realises that making a choice between the two might, someday, become inevitable. The argument we see today in Bollywood is one of its worst iterations.

    Those who willingly become Modi’s props are using the “arts, not politics” justification with as much vigor as those who make good, political cinema while claiming to be apolitical.

    The criticism of spinelessness and shamelessness is perhaps validly applied to the fraternity, although this covers players as diverse as the Hindutva poster-boy, Akshay Kumar, and the liberal-with-a-saviour-complex, Aamir Khan.

    The median truth is perhaps to be found in Ranveer Singh, who embraced Modi with a big bear-hug Modi himself reserves for heads of states, before facetiously explaining to Anupama Chopra that he is very apolitical. He was piggy-backing on a more carefully worded statement by his Gully Boy co-star Alia Bhatt who claimed, “I don’t think we give out a strong political vibe as actors.”

    Bhatt goes on to obliquely refer to the effects of trolling before concluding that she would rather focus on making movies than getting into any legal trouble. Chopra, at this point, is ready to let go but Singh insists on describing himself as an apathetic man who only cares about his films and his own life.

    The interview summarises the crisis in Bollywood, showcased this week by the presumed betrayal of Aamir and SRK. There are celebrities like Bhatt, who has a political view but is keeping it to herself because there is much to lose and then there are those like Singh, who has no qualms publicly stating that he doesn’t care about anyone but himself. They shower Modi with love when the PM is only coercing Bollywood to be his personal marching band.

    According to a HuffPost article, Modi’s PR team has been putting enormous pressure on Bollywood to participate in their events and follow them up with social media posts. Those who did not post their PM selfies were “gently reminded” to complete their homework.

    Whether they are spineless or shameless or both, they are under pressure. As Deepika Padukone, who happens to be Singh’s wife, could testify, even people with relative power can be vulnerable in the face of relentless right-wing hysteria whipped up in campaigns such as the anti-Padmaavat one.

    SRK and Aamir are not insulated from this world – Aamir has had several ugly episodes with the right-wing already. Modi’s machinery works on both ends – the endless appetite for trolling and threats of violence is the ugly underbelly for such glitzy PR events.

    The pathetic state of Bollywood stars today, reduced to playing cheerleaders, mirrors the larger public sphere. Some chose to enthusiastically follow Modi or due to a herd mentality; others kept their politics private due to fear of repression or routinely protest despite shrinking civil liberties.

    Regardless of these differences, we, today, stare at a breakdown of collective morale and an inclination, as a society, to surrender.

    The stakes are only higher for the Indian Muslim community. This month also saw liberal stalwarts like Zameeruddin Shah and religious establishments like the Sunni Waqf Board surrendering their community’s claim over the Babri Masjid land if it could end the unbated communal hatred and violence.

    The fall of King Khans represents nothing more than a symbolic victory march for an emperor who is parading the more colorful representatives of a collective that has now surrendered. The question of arts versus politics holds no weight in a world without choice.

  • ‘Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad’: What will Mahira & Fahad’s film be about?

    ‘Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad’: What will Mahira & Fahad’s film be about?

    The biggest ‘entertainment’ news of the week has to be Mahira Khan joining Nabeel Qureshi and Fizza Ali Meerza’s upcoming film Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad as the leading lady.

    Though the film had been announced earlier with Fahad Mustafa as the hero, the makers of the film had remained tight-lipped about the heroine and had said that the search for her was on. But that was until Tuesday evening when director Nabeel made the announcement.

    Speaking to The Current, Nabeel said that he was very excited to have Mahira onboard.

    “Both the actors fit in the characters perfectly,” Qureshi said.

    Sharing further details about the film, Nabeel said that the film will be a satirical action-comedy – something along the lines of their previous superhit film Actor in Law, which also had Fahad as the lead.

    The film will mostly be shot in Karachi and is expected to release in 2020 on Eid ul Azha.

    Fans had been eagerly anticipating Mahira and Fahad’s pairing on the big screen, particularly after Mahira came on Fahad’s Jeeto Pakistan in May. Looks like their wish has finally been heard.

    Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad will be Fahad, Nabeel and Fizza’s fifth project together – the trio has given us Na Maloom Afraad 1 & 2, Actor in Law and Load Wedding previously.

    Meanwhile, promotions for the film have already begun and the filmmakers have started teasing audiences with short videos like the one of Mahira asking Fahad why he used to say that she doesn’t want to work with her.

    “Bolo haan keh naa“, has been a tagline in most tweets.

    Mahira’s last film was Superstar which released this year while Fahad was last seen on the big screen last year in Load Wedding and Jawani Phir Nai Aani 2.

  • The curious case of three Khans of Bollywood

    The curious case of three Khans of Bollywood

    I can’t help worrying about Shah Rukh’s health. Can a damaged spine send wrong signals to the brain?

    Ever since I suffered a back injury a few years ago, I have been deeply interested in the functioning of the spinal cord. Especially, of celebrities I admire.

    Shah Rukh Khan, the Badshah of Bollywood, headlines my list. For years, I have been closely following details of his knee, shoulder and back injuries and his pain management technique(s). I admire his ability to endure excruciating pain with a chuckle.

    I have seen pictures of him walking away wearing his characteristic dimpled smile after surgical procedures as I sat around worried about being rendered spineless, at least literally if not metaphorically.

    My hero, going strong on the other side of 50, has continued to stun me with real-life lessons on how to survive successfully with pain in the spine. Just a few years ago, he won a million more fans, and me all over, when he articulated his angst against the growing intolerance in India. “…religious intolerance and not being secular… is the worst kind of crime that you can do as a patriot,” he was quoted as saying by the media back then.

    This Shashi Tharoor of Bollywood has cast a spell on almost everyone with his insights on such soul-stirring issues and more. However, his latest lesson – batting for a totally spine-free existence – has left me stumped.

    Earlier this week, a much haggard version of Shah Rukh was seen taking a selfie with the prime minister (PM) of India, Narendra Modi, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, at an event called #ChangeWithin.

    The resultant candid shot, Shah Rukh smiling ear-to-ear, along with another famous Khan of Bollywood, Aamir Khan, was telling of the early onset of degenerative and, perhaps, irreversible changes in Shah Rukh’s spine.

    Eloquence has been Khan’s constant companion right from the days when he had an impeccable spine. “Thank u @narendramodi for hosting us & having such an open discussion on #ChangeWithin & the role artistes can play in spreading awareness of the msgs of The Mahatma. Also, the idea of a University of Cinema is extremely opportune!” he later tweeted.

    That’s the #ChangeWithin, if you like.

    And, now I can’t help worrying about Shah Rukh’s health. Who would have thought that the many expensive surgical interventions would not have helped his nerves behave better? I know that messages are sent from the brain through the spinal cord to the different parts of the body, but I am left wondering if the reverse is true too? Can a damaged spine send wrong signals to the brain? Or do brain cells, at the tail end of their life, only send signals to parts of the body that are able to decode words that are spelling variants of the word money?  

    Which brings me to the curious case of the other Khan of Bollywood I admire – Aamir. The man who has long exemplified Mahatma Gandhi’s three monkeys – hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil. His larger-than-life image, thanks to his choice of films and his association with social issues (spoke out against the Gujarat genocide of 2002), was bolstered by his flagship television show a few years ago “Satyameva Jayate” (Truth Shall Prevail).

    Aamir raised issues that are usually brushed under the carpet and exposed India’s hypocrisy. He talked about LGBT rights and honour killings, and there was an hour-long episode on elections and corruption. That Aamir posed with the PM barely hours before Maharashtra state was to go to polls may be a coincidence, but what wasn’t was that he was also smiling through an increasingly intolerant India he expressed shock at a few years ago. An India where lynching of minorities is no longer news.

    In a film called “Ghajini”, Aamir plays a tycoon suffering from acute short-term memory loss and he does everything possible to preserve that memory. In real-life, Aamir, the tycoon, seems to be suffering from long-term memory loss. A messed up nervous system?

    This brings me to the third Khan of Bollywood – who rules hearts, owns roads and also a clothing line called Being Human. I was never a fan of Salman. I always dismissed him as an overgrown kid whose nervous system liked sending wrong messages to his body all the time — kill wildlife, run over pedestrians, punch women.

    However, in this vicious circle of pain called Khans, I would vote for a familiar pain near the spine. Let’s call it Salmanitis.