Will Rang Raaz: The Secret of Colour be a step forward in Pakistani cinema?

The more we support our independent filmmakers, the better chance they have of making Pakistani cinema better

Making it as an independent filmmaker in Pakistan is not easy. Having a film industry that consistently puts dance numbers, good-looking actors and fancy costumes over character, story and plot is bad enough. But the fact that studios here are not ready to invest and original ideas only makes it worse.

But that hasn’t stopped aspiring filmmaker and playwright Hamza Bangash from bringing his ideas to life and overcoming a number of barriers that can come in the way of any aspiring filmmaker. In 2014, his short film Badal premiered at the Cannes Film Festival’s Court Metrage, which is an incredible achievement in itself. And now, two years down the line, he’s behind the camera again to make another short film, Rang Raaz: The Secret of Colour.

Hamza BangashPhoto: hamzabangashfilms.com

The story is relatively simple. It’s about two young kids, who fall in love and decide that love is enough to live on. They plan to run away together in the night and get married.

The only problem is she’s Muslim and he’s Hindu. And they live in Pakistan, which complicates things, a lot.

Inspired by the works of virtuoso filmmakers like Wong Kar-Wai (Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love) and Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, The Past), the film has been described as Hamza’s vision of Pakistan,

“Dynamic, complex and fundamentally at war with itself.”

Getting original ideas financed in Pakistan is not easy, which is why he has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help crowd-fund his film, a platform that has helped launch the career of a dynamic independent filmmaker like Jeremy Saulnier.

Filmmakers like Hamza prove that there is still hope when it comes to making original and authentic pieces of art that possess some genuine artistic integrity and are trying to actually say something about our society. And I think the more we support our independent filmmakers, the better chance they have of succeeding and making Pakistani cinema better.