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                        <title>The Good Life</title>
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                        <description>The Express Tribune keeps you up to date with all the latest happenings from Pakistan and across the world!</description>
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			<title>Fighting climate change through the courtroom</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/article/97861/fighting-climate-change-through-the-courtroom</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/article/97861/fighting-climate-change-through-the-courtroom#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jul 24 09:29:30 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Mustafa Imran]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Citizen’s Corner]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=97861</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Discover why the Law and Justice Commission held a conference to raise awareness about climate change]]>
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				<![CDATA[&nbsp;

Climate change is a &lsquo;hot&rsquo; button issue in Pakistan. Both literally and figuratively. Summer 2022&rsquo;s disastrous floods submerged almost a third of the country under water, affecting 33 million people, and displacing eight million.

2024&rsquo;s heatwave is currently in full swing, with the Pakistan Meteorological Department reporting that nationwide temperatures are five to six degrees Celsius above normal. This has led to a surge in heatwave-related casualties with over 568 dead, and more than 5000 hospitalised.

Apart from this, glaciers are rapidly melting, and forest fires have increased due to the harsh weather. In the backdrop of this fast-escalating crisis in the worlds fifth most climate-vulnerable country, the judiciary&rsquo;s intervention is integral.


Recognising the importance of the climate crisis, the keen interest taken by Superior and District judiciary is highly commendable. First, a look at the recent Climate Change Conference organised by the Law and Justice Commission in the Supreme Court. It was attended and chaired by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Ayesha Malik.


The Chief Justice, called climate change an &ldquo;Illness and sickness of the Earth, as a fever is to the human body.&rdquo; He emphasised the importance of protection and preservation of natural life and the environment and urged the participants to play their part in spreading climate awareness.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, remarked that climate protection cases are still not mainstream and urged all judges to deal with them like serious human rights issues. He said it was time to go beyond human-centric approach and begin protecting nature.

Further, he encouraged the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution and Commercial Courts to solve climate issues. He gave the idea of a &lsquo;Global Court&rsquo; as a forum for Pakistan to claim losses of $15-20 Billion as a result of the 2022 floods, attributed to fossil fuel emissions from the Developed nations.

Justice Ayesha Malik delivered an insightful presentation on Environmental Jurisprudence and its enforcement. She mentioned the Asghar Leghari case, where the court formed a commission to deal with an environmental protection case. She revealed that this case ultimately brought about the current Climate Change policy at the national level and even played a part in forming the Ministry of Climate Change.

Justice Ayesha informed the audience about the tools the court uses to deal with environmental protection cases like zoning laws, which are laws that limit the commercial or industrial use of land. She urged the courts to push for enforcement of climate laws.

The Justice also mentioned how women and vulnerable groups were most affected by climate change. Further, she talked about how the courts made use of Public-Private partnership, which played a pivotal role in helping the government fight climate change in public spaces where it lacks the requisite funding.

Lastly, she mentioned that courts play a huge role in battling climate change by the method of Calling for Reports and Information in cases related to climate change. This leads to the creation of reports, data and documentation.

Secondly, last week&rsquo;s lecture at the Federal Judicial Academy, titled &lsquo;Climate Causality: From Causation to Attribution&rsquo; conducted by Ms Petra Minnerop, the Founding Director of Durham University&rsquo;s Centre for Sustainable Development Law and Policy (CSDLP), is also of profound importance.

Organised by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah (Supreme Court), Justice Jawad Hassan (Lahore High Court), and Judge Fakhar Zaman (Federal Judicial Academy), the lecture was attended by judges, magistrates and law officers from all over Pakistan.

Ms Minnerop discussed the importance of &lsquo;Climate Causality&rsquo;, which refers to the causal chain connecting climate change to losses. It plays a part in minimising the loss and damage from climate change, a duty recognised by courts, and enshrined in Art 8(1) of the Paris Agreement.

She explained how Causation and Attribution are intertwined legal concepts in global climate jurisprudence. The main obstacle faced by the courts is establishing causation.

The Professor went on to give examples of case law from around the world, from the United States, to France, to Phillipines. Cases were brought against both governments and corporations, alleging their complacency or direct involvement in exacerbating climate change.

For example, she explained how in the Australian case of Gloucester Resources Ltd VS Minister for Planning, a proposal for construction of an open-cut coal mine was rejected by a court on environmental grounds, including the projected carbon emissions that would arise from its operation. Such cases were highlighted to encourage the judiciary to take a proactive approach in cases related to climate change where the necessary criteria have been met.

She elucidated that evidence was crucial to prove a claim in climate litigation, citing the convergence of observation and climate models. The intensity of climate events confirmed by climate models, make or break a case.

The lecture followed a Question and Answer session, where a civil judge questioned Ms Minnerop as to why Pakistan was bearing the brunt of climate change alone while it was amongst the lowest contributors to carbon emissions worldwide.

Ms Minnerop replied that Pakistan was a signatory to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as well as among the more than 100 countries to pledge to curb methane emissions and deforestation at COP26.

She added that Pakistan was responsible to take a serious approach towards its nationally determined contribution and sustainable climate projects to collect the climate finances pledged by the Developed countries at COP28.

Further, she suggested that Pakistan needs to have verified data-sets available regarding climate change developments and needs to have proper legislation and research in place to take advantage of climate litigation as a useful tool in combatting climate change.

Ms Minneropended the lecture by thanking the judges and law officers for their interest and willingness to play a role in curbing climate change through their respective domains. This recent upsurge of awareness regarding Climate Change taken up by the nation&rsquo;s judiciary is commendable and gives the citizens a hope for a clean, green and sustainable Pakistan.]]>
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			<title>The plight of the noble Aseel</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/article/97400/the-plight-of-the-noble-aseel</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/article/97400/the-plight-of-the-noble-aseel#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 14 Jun 21 17:06:53 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Suhaib Ayaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[The Good Life]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=97400</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The birds are facing extinction and have started disappearing from some provinces in India]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan is a diverse country; our languages, cultures, histories are all different, and nothing unites us except religion and, maybe to some extent living in the same country. However, one thing is shared: a string that will make people from Turbat come to Sindh or Punjab and share their collective love. It is a hobby that is common in urban and rural Pakistan, in all ethnicities and all linguistically distinct areas with the same passion: the keeping of gamecocks called Aseels, an Arabic word given to our local chicken breed, developed 2000 years ago. It is said that Emperor Akbar fell in love with Aseel chickens, and perhaps that influenced the breed&rsquo;s standardisation and the name Aseel, which means pure and noble.

&nbsp;

Game animals have always inspired awe and respect from their human keepers. Qualities they display are considered noble, be it war horses, extreme hunting dogs or gamecocks. They are incredibly docile and trusting towards their human companions, and they do not shy away from being handled. They are happy in any environment. They never back down from the fights, which is the main trait. The only trait that separates them from the rest of the chicken breeds and even many game chicken breeds developed elsewhere. In the old days, it inspired Mughal emperors and filled them with so much awe that they made it mandatory for their soldiers to watch cock fights, to show them how bravery is defined. These birds have a high pain threshold due to selective breeding over the span of thousands of years; stepping back, running away, or crying out in pain are disqualifying traits. Such cocks are then not bred further.

&nbsp;

This ancient breed has its origins from the subcontinent, but the province of Punjab is considered their actual birthplace. Some local experts suggest that Aseel birds did not exist in Pakistan at the time of partition, and Pir Shah Alam Shah, who migrated from India to Mianwali, brought his birds and introduced this hobby in Pakistan. Attributing the entire hobby to a single person is distinctly and naively a Pakistani thing and probably untrue as it is shrouded in more myths than facts. These birds must have been here, but animal husbandry was restricted to financially stable households and families in the pre-partition era. Now the same hobby is considered as an activity for the lower class and associated with illiteracy. These stereotypes may not be entirely unfounded and untrue, but it does not mean that hobby itself is lowly. It is the illegal gambling and fight till death matches that are giving it a bad name.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Aseel chickens have a rather gamey look with tall, muscular bodies and unmistakable aggression. Both roosters and hens display gameness and never back down. Even the newborn chicks instinctively start fighting and can kill each other. There are two main categories for which Aseels are bred: open spur and closed heel games. As the name suggests, open spur games, birds fight with their spurs intact, and in closed heel games, a spur glove is used. Aseels used in open spur games are lighter in weight and smaller in size, due to which they can be faster. In closed heel games, since birds cannot use their spurs, they have to rely on powerful punches and strong shanks thus they are bred for more weight and height. Mianwali is the hub of open spur birds in Pakistan, while in North Punjab and Sahiwal region, Aseels fight with closed heels or covered spurs.

&nbsp;

Aseels&#39; sizes and colours vary greatly, depending on what lines they have been bred out of and what part of the country they belong to. They come in almost all colours; dark reds, light reds, black, speckled red, duckwings, pure whites, spangles, golden, blue, and grey. Usually, people think colours are also a marker for their breed but that is not true at all as breeds are not determined by colour, unless a line is specifically bred.

&nbsp;

Though these birds are found in abundance in Pakistan, they are still facing extinction and have in fact started disappearing from some provinces in India. The Aseel&rsquo;s eventual extinction will be a result of breeding the bird with imported gamecocks from Thailand, Japan, and Turkey. In my opinion, this is a form of interbreeding, as most these imported birds can probably be genetically traced back to the Aseels from Pakistan and India.

&nbsp;

This is not the only threat to the Aseel, as most breeders now only want to win fights and do not really care for the purity of the bird&rsquo;s breeding line. They thus breed birds that will fight in illegal pits. Heavy gambling and bragging rights further enhance the criminal element associated with cock fighting. There are certain breeders that are actually trying to preserve this noble breed of cocks and chickens but I can count them on one hand. Compared to thousands of breeders who are interbreeding, this number is abysmal. In the coming decades, we will not be able to find pure Pakistani Aseel if this trend continues.

&nbsp;

Stigma and bad image associated with this hobby can only be countered if more people from diverse backgrounds and good education embrace it. The majesty and beauty of Aseel birds are matchless. Qualities they possess are rare, even in humans. Fighting them in pits is abhorrent and must be condemned. We should encourage people to keep them for ornamental purposes especially to save this breed from extinction.]]>
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			<title>My mother Pino!</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/article/97390/my-mother-pino</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/article/97390/my-mother-pino#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 01 Jun 21 10:20:49 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Zeeshan Rahat Kureshi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[The Good Life]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=97390</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Imagine waking up one day to discover that the couple you always thought to be your parents, are your adoptive parents]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Imagine waking up one fine morning to discover that the couple you always thought to be your birth parents, are in-fact, your adoptive parents. This is how I came to know about my origins it was indeed a shocking discovery. Yes, it did hurt at the time and it hit me hard, just as a ten-ton truck would have done but little did I know that this new information would change the course of my life and trigger a bitter-sweet domino effect that would lead me to such love and affection. The discovery was indeed worth taking a hit.

I started my journey to self-discovery with just one name: Pino. Yes, that was my mother&rsquo;s nickname, and that is all I knew. I had known her as Aunty Pino through family photo albums though. Her real name was Raheela and I had always known her as my mamu&rsquo;s (paternal uncle) second wife. Mamu Ishaq was actually my birth father but I didn&rsquo;t know this until he passed away in a car accident in Syria in the early 80s. At the time, I was six years old. Before he went off to Syria on a military deputation through Pakistan Army&rsquo;s medical corp, he gifted me a teddy bear that I still have and adore.

My work was cut out for me. Pino&rsquo;s family was totally disconnected from my adoptive family. All I knew was that one of my adoptive father&rsquo;s friends was somehow related to Pino. But, my adoptive father passed away in 2014, before I could broach the subject with him. He was everything to me since Ammi passed away in 1999. I had always known him as a kind-hearted human being and also a very honest and upright administrator when on duty. He was a military officer and served as Lahore Development Authority&rsquo;s director general and also served as Water and Sewer Authority&rsquo;s managing director from mid to late 80s. Abu retired as a brigadier and was a recipient of Sitara-e-Imtiaz from the Government of Pakistan. It was through his stories that I remembered that one of his friends was related to Pino&rsquo;s family.

I knew his friend&rsquo;s cell number was in one of his telephone diaries. I was curious and wanted to know more about my birth mother. I was also worried since I had no idea who I would bump into on the other side of the wall and what would the level of acceptability be, if any. Finally, after a lot of convincing by my wife, Maryam, I made the call which opened up new doors in ways that I could not have imagined. I will always be thankful to my wife for her support when I needed it the most.

We started by meeting a couple of Pino&rsquo;s first cousins in Lahore and from there I never really looked back. One after the other, I kept meeting my blood relatives from around the world. Although, I still have not been able to meet all of my first cousins and an uncle (my actual Mamu Khalid), it is so joyful to know that my family, despite the gap of more than four decades, always kept me in their thoughts and accepted me with open arms once I showed up.

This journey has been exquisite. I met my first cousins in Lahore for the first time and could see both, sorrow and joy, in their eyes. When I telephonically talked to my Khala Zarina (who resides in England) for the first time, she could not control her emotions. She is the one who wanted to adopt me when Pino passed away. However, Ishaq eventually decided to let his sister have me so that I would live in Pakistan and stay close to him. Hence, it was a magical moment when I landed in England to meet my khala and found myself in her loving embrace while tears dropped from her eyes.

Although some of my uncles and aunties have passed away, the love that others have showered upon me has given me a very good idea of how they would have been if they were still in this world.

It gave me chills as I started to see more pictures of Pino. I came to know that she was a brilliant student, a good writer, a melodious singer and had a very cheerful and loving personality. I was able to discover and visit her grave in Miani Sahib graveyard and it felt as if I was meeting her for the first time. On her tombstone, I found excerpts from a poem written by Allama Muhammad Iqbal in memory of his mother when she passed away. Since then, I have never missed visiting her grave on her death anniversary, where I pause and reflect on these two lines from the poem on her epitaph:

Asman teri lehad par shabnam afshani kare

Sabza-e-Noorasta is ghar ki nigehbani kare

(May the sky shed its dew on your grave

May the freshly grown verdure watch over your home)

I was fascinated to know that my lineage is Kashmiri from my maternal side. The elders, in the nineteenth century, moved from India to the British Protectorate in Kenya. With time they established themselves while some of the family moved to Uganda. My great grandfather, Khwaja Shamsud Deen became a member of the Kenyan Legislative Council in 1922. Other family members served in the Bombay Police and Uganda Police from time to time. Some of the family members also became very successful businessmen in East Africa. The famous Indian/Pakistani writer Saadat Hassan Manto was also part of the family.

Pino met Ishaq while she was visiting Lahore from East Africa. It was during this time that they fell in love. There was strong opposition from the two families against their union but nothing could separate them. Even when Ishaq became a prisoner of war, the distance could only make their love stronger. They eventually got married in 1974. I was born on March 16, 1975. Like all good things must come to an end, Ishaq and Pino&rsquo;s love story also ended but it came to a close too early.

Due to tension at home owing to Ishaq&rsquo;s first marriage, Pino took her own life on September 10, 1975. I was only six months old at the time and obviously had no idea what calamity had befallen me.

I call my adoptive parents my guardian angels since they brought me up just like they would have their own progeny. Through the years, never did I realise that they were not my birth parents and all credit goes to them for loving me all through the decades while keeping me oblivious to the bitter facts.

And how can I thank God enough for bringing me in this world as Pino&rsquo;s son? Although, I don&rsquo;t remember seeing her but the thought that my tiny eyes, when I was an infant, must have gazed upon her gives me solace. She talked about me in the last letter that she left before ending her life and was concerned about my up-bringing. Her words showed affection and love that only a loving mother can feel for her child. When I go through the letters that Ishaq wrote to my maternal side after Pino&rsquo;s death, I can feel anguish, sorrow and helplessness in his writings for he was, obviously, a broken man. Both, Pino and Ishaq will always have a special place in my heart. They are, after all, my parents.

When I came to know about the facts, I never thought I would share these details in public. However, on my 46th birthday I decided to open up. I chose to share my story with the world as I thought this is a story of love that must be told: love between Pino and Ishaq; love for me by my foster parents; and love with which Pino and Ishaq showered me with until they lived.

I consider myself a person who has been very lucky; lucky to be protected by God when I was just too small to secure myself; lucky to be born as Pino and Ishaq&rsquo;s son; and lucky to be brought up immaculately by my foster parents. I am glad to say now that I didn&rsquo;t just have two parents &ndash; but four. After all these years of silence, mystery and estrangement, I am deeply relieved to have rediscovered and forged this connection, and to let the whole world know how proud I am of my mother: Pino. 

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>What would Haseena Moin’s Tanhaiyan look like today?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/article/97355/what-would-haseena-moins-tanhaiyan-look-like-today</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/article/97355/what-would-haseena-moins-tanhaiyan-look-like-today#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 10 Apr 21 11:27:39 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Faiza Irfan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[The Good Life]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=97355</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The women in her dramas were independent characters that found their strengths and rose to tackle their own issues]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Ever since playwright Haseena Moin&rsquo;s sudden demise, I have been thinking about everything that our nation gained through the world that she created for us on television. Her dramas taught us lifelong lessons on empowerment, strength, freedom of choice, romance, relationships, friendships and above all basic human integrity.

My thoughts immediately went to Tanhaiyaan that aired on PTV back in 1986, where Moin&rsquo;s script was brought to life by late Shehzad Khalil. She had written dynamic, robust characters that actually grew with the drama and had depth.

The women in her dramas were independent&nbsp;characters that found their strengths and rose to tackle their own issues, &nbsp;like the meek and shy Zara (played by Shehnaz Sheikh) who developed single minded determination to attain her goals after she goes bankrupt and loses are parents.

&nbsp;Sanya (played by Marina Khan), Zara&rsquo;s sister was a young, bubbly and confident girl who always spoke her mind and later also helps save her sisters business. Aani &nbsp;(Badar Khalil) was their aunt, a single woman in her 30s, living financially independent and on her own terms.&nbsp; Even the women playing more traditional roles like Sultana Zafar, who played Zara and Sanya&rsquo;s housewife mother, were shown as supportive characters that weren&rsquo;t subservient to anyone in the family. There is also a very interesting dynamic between the older members of the cast, where they have a relationship as well. Vida, played by Yasmin Ismail, actually leaves her fianc&eacute; when she realises he is in love with someone else and even the men are sensitive and relatable.

Seeing the kind of dramas and characters created today, I shudder to think what Tanhaiyan would look like if it was created in 2021. I am sure Sanya would be shown as a scheming&nbsp; sister who would only be after Zain (Asif Raza Mir) who was her sister&rsquo;s love interest, while Zara would probably just sit and cry after losing her parents, waiting for a knight in shining armour to save her. &nbsp;Aani&rsquo;s character would definitely be shown as one having loose morals, especially because she lived alone. While Vida would have nothing better to then focus her energy on Zain, instead of realising the relationship would be just as toxic for her if Zain did not love her.

Even the comic relief of the drama in the form of Barkat and Qabacha would consist of slapstick comedy tropes that would be tiresome to watch. The masala (spice) of the story would come from an over the top fight between the characters of Zain and Salman and the whole thing would be neatly wrapped with a sad OST peppered with solo shots of actors reliving their saddest memories.

&nbsp;In fact most relationships would be toxic and the characters would be out to get each other at every turn without any real justification, which is the face of Pakistani dramas today. Black and white characters, with no development or even shades of personality; they are either all good or all bad.

It is for this very reason that Moin&rsquo;s characters were relatable. They seemed like living breathing people as their character arcs were not only properly defined but also helped to push the narrative along. Tanhaiyan was a prime example of how people in real life also have flaws but yet they can too be on a journey of self-fulfilment. Her characters fought back, without really laying a hand on anybody and despite their limitations as people. Moin&rsquo;s world was much more progressive than many dramas produced for TV today and the themes she tackled included women empowerment, gender equality and the right to marry out of choice.&nbsp; I, unfortunately, do not see an iota of her forward and independent thinking that Moin showed in the 80s, today.

I, for one, will forever be indebted to Haseena Moin for helping me, an 80s kid, realise that I&nbsp; too can be strong and that I too have a voice in society, something we are increasingly not helping the kids and especially women, realise today.]]>
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			<title>Is Pakistan’s N-CPEC+ vision finally beginning to take shape?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/article/97252/is-pakistans-n-cpec-vision-finally-beginning-to-take-shape</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/article/97252/is-pakistans-n-cpec-vision-finally-beginning-to-take-shape#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 31 Dec 20 11:31:23 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Andrew Korybko]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[The Verdict]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=97252</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Russian, Chinese, and Pakistani interests are all directly served through N-CPEC+]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan&rsquo;s unique geostrategic location at the crossroads of East, South, West, and Central Asia enables it to function as the &ldquo;Zipper of Eurasia&rdquo;, as I wrote over half a decade ago in September 2015 for the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies. I built upon this observation in March 2019 to declare that the creative leveraging of the unprecedented trans-regional connectivity potential offered by CPEC enables Pakistan to become the Global Pivot State. This ambitious vision is finally beginning to take shape after Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Uzbekistani Minister of Transport agreed to pursue a trans-Afghan railway line on Wednesday.

I previously proposed such a corridor in my April 2019 debut analysis for CGTN about how &ldquo;CPEC+ Is The Key To Achieving Regional Integration Goals&rdquo;, which described the northern branch of CPEC through Afghanistan into Central Asia as N-CPEC+ (&ldquo;N&rdquo; referring to North). Eventually, this corridor could expand as far northwards as Russia to create a new North-South integration axis across Eurasia which aligns with President Putin&rsquo;s vision for the Greater Eurasian Partnership (GEP) like I explained in an academic article that I co-authored over the summer that was republished by the prestigious Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC).

As Pakistan begins to take on a more prominent role in trans-Eurasian integration processes, its strategic importance to both China and Russia will continue to rise. Both Great Powers have a shared interest in the South Asian state fulfilling its destiny to unite the supercontinent through CPEC+. It&rsquo;s only through this connectivity paradigm that a true Convergence of Civilisations can occur, like I explained in an analysis for CGTN in May 2019. The outcome of Eurasia&rsquo;s diverse civilisations cooperating on trade and other forms of integration could powerfully discredit Huntington&rsquo;s infamous prediction about a coming &ldquo;Clash of Civilisations&rdquo;.

Russian, Chinese, and Pakistani interests are all directly served through N-CPEC+. Moscow&rsquo;s regional allies can become more internally stable as their economies grow upon securing access to the global markets that this corridor provides through the Indian Ocean, as could Russia&rsquo;s resource-rich Siberian region. Beijing, meanwhile, will see its Pakistani-based CPEC investments put to use as a springboard for trans-continental integration processes and could also secure contracts to construct parts of its northern branch expansion as well. As for Islamabad, it would financially benefit by having its ports facilitate Central Asian trade with the wider world.

N-CPEC+ is therefore more than just a connectivity corridor, it&rsquo;s a grand strategic concept for the future of intra-Eurasian relations in the emerging Multipolar World Order. Russia, China, and Pakistan are coming closer together as each country realises that they need the others in order to fulfill their shared vision of stability in the supercontinent. In fact, continued movement in this direction might even lead to the creation of a new multipolar trilateral between them to replace the stalled one between Russia-India-China (RIC). The end result could be that a Golden Ring rises between them, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan in the Heartland of Eurasia.

To be clear, this won&rsquo;t happen overnight, but the progress that was just made on agreeing to the Peshawar-Kabul-Mazar-e-Sharif trans-Afghan railway shows that the political will is certainly present to take this vision to its ultimate conclusion with time. Some formidable obstacles still remain, however, such as the unresolved conflict in Afghanistan and the efforts of external powers like India to sabotage this vision. There are also obvious questions of financing and other issues related to project implementation, as well as identifying which companies in the region and beyond are most eager to immediately tap into this project upon its completion.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of reasons to remain optimistic, especially since it&rsquo;s becoming undeniable that Russia and China both appreciate the strategic significance of Pakistan&rsquo;s N-CPEC+ initiative to their GEP and Belt &amp; Road Initiative (BRI) respectively. In fact, as GEP and BRI continue to synergise their connectivity capabilities, their patron states are realising that N-CPEC+ is indispensable to the success of their joint vision for the supercontinent. This understanding is accelerating trilateral integration between them and therefore leading to one of the most exciting geopolitical developments of the 21st century thus far.]]>
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			<title>Has contemporary Urdu poetry lost its essence?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/article/90038/has-contemporary-urdu-poetry-lost-its-essence</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/article/90038/has-contemporary-urdu-poetry-lost-its-essence#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 20 10:43:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Aziz Ali Dad]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[The Good Life]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=90038</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[A shrinking imagination and an absence of philosophical thinking have contributed to the downfall of Urdu poetry]]>
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				<![CDATA[In Urdu literature, traditionally two concepts have remained dominant with regards to where creativity emanates from. The first is amad (spontaneity) and second is awrad (contrived). For a long time, the majority of Urdu writers, and the socio-cultural ethos in general, tilted more towards the amad theory, with Mirza Ghalib writing,
“Aate hain ghaib se ye mazaameen khayaal mein

Ghalib  sareer-e-Khaama nawaa-e-sarosh hai…”

(The subjects (for my poetry) come to me from divine hidden sources,

The scratching sound my pen makes resonates like the sound of angels)
There were several writers who grappled with these ideas in Urdu literature, however they were not formally conceptualised until Muhammad Hussain Azad, Altaf Hussain Hali and Shibli Nomani began to engage with these concepts. They were the ones who laid the foundation of modern literary criticism in Urdu literature. However, the very principles which underpinned poetic thought in Urdu are now under threat.

Today, unfortunately, a great deal of poetry in Pakistan contains imitation sans thought. This is against the Aristotelian concept of imitation wherein an artist internalises the process of imitation to conceive an idea within the mind and then creates a work of art by employing their imagination. There is no doubt that feelings and emotions play an important role in poetry, but they remain discordant and chaotic unless they are brought within a creative framework. Fredrich Nietzsche in his book The Birth of Tragedy stated that creativity manifests itself in two ways: Dionysian and Apollonian. Nietzsche was of the view that the tragic poetry of ancient Greece was born out of a rare cooperation between the Dionysian spirit of ecstatic intoxication, which imbues the work with vitality and passion, and the Apollonian spirit, which is the form-giving force that creates harmony. It is important to grasp this before one attempts to tackle the poetry of Allama Iqbal since since he tried to harness the Dionysian energy.

Dr Khalifa Abdul Hakeem in his book ‘Fikar-e-Iqbal’ seems to suggest that Iqbal’s poetry is inspired more by Dionysian zeal than his Apollonian spirit. Hakeem contextualises Nietzsche’s idea of Dionysian ecstatic intoxication in the Muslim context by endorsing Nomani’s favour of Arab poets who through their poems inspired warriors to fight fearlessly with typical Dionysian passion. Here we can clearly see a split in the thought and poetry of Iqbal. However, the purpose of this is not to degrade the quality of his work but to instead attempt to identify the locus where poetic thought diverges from rational thought. Both poetic and philosophical thought explains the same experiences through the same medium but with different teleologies.

Wisdom comes through a cultivation of unified sensibilities. In order to understand the quagmire Urdu writing in Pakistan is currently in, it is helpful to contrast our current predicament with the literary ideas which came to define Germany literature. The writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Friedrich Holderlin, Christian Friedrich Hebbel, Heinrich Wilhelm von Kliest, Gunter Grass and many more were steeped in philosophical concepts – a notion which Urdu poetry appears to be increasingly bereft of.

Poetry sans ideas provides only pleasure without ending in wisdom. However, Urdu poetry today is not the only victim of this poverty of ideas and is in fact emblematic of the general intellectual condition of the region. When we take stock of the pre-modern period of Urdu literature, we see darbars (courts) of kings and rulers filled with legions of poets competing with each other by playing with words and composing poetry without much thought. In the court of Bahadur Shah Zafar we find poets indulging in typical jealousies, and scheming to win his favour through poetry. But we cannot find many instance during these times where thinkers were debating over the ideas related to humanities, science, philosophy and other fields of knowledge. This problem has only become further exacerbated with time, hence resulting it the current predicament which Urdu poetry faces today.

When Azad and Hali started their project of literary modernism, they wanted to infuse new ideas into poetry by introducing fresh themes and reworking the modern literary canon. In a lecture in 1874, Azad urged writers to emancipate poetry from traditional enclosures and shackles, otherwise, he warned, “a day will arrive when your offspring will find their language without any trace of poetry.” Thereafter, Urdu witnessed some quality poetry that synthesised the breadth of thought, profundity of feelings, and the sublimity of imagination. During the mid twentieth century, Urdu poetry enriched the poetic oeuvre of Urdu literature by dwelling upon a growing disenchantment with the modern world. But now that wave resides on the peripheries, and the contemporary literary landscape of Urdu poetry is increasingly resembling a wasteland. Two factors have contributed to to this worrisome scenario – a shrinking imagination and an absence of philosophical thinking. When a poet ceases to absorb new streams of knowledge, this only serves to limit their imaginative horizons.

Abdul Rahman in his book ‘Ma’rrat ul Shair’ comments upon how both these factors have contributed towards the poverty of poetry. According to Rahman, only when a poet’s corpus of knowledge is vast will he be able to find an abundance of meaning and metaphors. He writes,
“Between thoughtful and vulgar poetry you will always find a wide spectrum of ideas in the former, and narrowness and paucity of ideas in the latter. The one which addresses wider ideas will repeat the same thought hundreds of times but always express them in a novel way with new meaning. On the other hand, the one which adheres to a narrow spectrum of ideas will fail to do so.”
Therefore, much of the poetry in Pakistan today is found to be lacking because the fountains of philosophy have almost dried up. Consequently, while our hearts are still saturated with emotions, our minds are becoming increasingly bereft of philosophic thought. Urdu poetry today needs a reconciliation between thought and feeling by creating a new romanticism in which both poetry and philosophy can once again begin to inform one another. This is imperative if we wish to recapture the glory of Urdu poetry.]]>
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			<title>Is Durj worth the controversy?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/article/89852/is-durj-worth-the-controversy</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/article/89852/is-durj-worth-the-controversy#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 20 10:43:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Shafiq Ul Hasan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[The Good Life]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=89852</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Despite the criticism, Durj is an earnest effort by Abbasi and team to break from the mould of Pakistani cinema]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistani cinema is slowly (read at a snail's pace) evolving to encompass a wider range of issues rather than just plots centred around the typical boy meets girl and disaster ensues. Durj is one such offshoot movie that tackles the sensitive, almost taboo, subject of cannibalism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY4DF21KkQo

This dark theme, however, is not the reason why Durj has been in the spotlight of late. Controversy has surrounded the Shamoon Abbasi starring mystery thriller even before its release, with only two out of three censor boards of the country clearing the movie initially. But as they say, no publicity is bad publicity and the censor board fiasco only helped boost Durj's chances of faring well at the cinema by increasing the curiousity around the film.

Apart from writing and directing the movie, Abbasi is also playing an integral character in the film. He is joined on the big screen by Sherry Shah, Maira Khan, Nouman Javaid and Dodi Khan. Khan is also the movie's producer.
What adds to Durj's appeal or perhaps thrill, is that it is based on real-life cannibalism incidents in Bhakkar, where two brothers were caught for eating more than a hundred corpses from a graveyard in the vicinity of their home.

[caption id="attachment_89894" align="alignnone" width="600"] Photo: IMDb[/caption]

With such a strong base, one would expect the movie to be just as, if not more, exciting than the nail-biting trailer but alas, the story-telling falters a little bit and even if the story may be linear, it is not fluid in its execution.
The performances do save the movie, with Abbasi essaying Gul Bakhsh with a ferocity that would leave you a bit shaken up. Shah plays Laali and even though her initial performance is over the top, her character settles and she becomes a powerhouse to watch. There is a scene where Laali loses her cool at Abbasi with an almost tangible intensity.
The one thing that Pakistani cinema is consistently improving is the cinematography and Durj too upholds these standards. It seems like Abbasi has put in a lot of thought into the shots. I do wish the same attention to detail went into the editing process as well, so that the movie seemed less choppy. There is also a misplaced shift in the narration, which makes the storyline seem scattered.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="480"] Gif: Giphy.[/caption]

Despite the criticism, Durj is an earnest effort by Abbasi and team to break from the mould of Pakistani cinema; a quality that could be both its claim to fame or a disaster on the big screen. It is a serious watch peppered with good dialogues, while it lacks the typical song and dance perhaps making it a movie that only niche audiences will appreciate.

Even if Durj may not be the best of the lot, it certainly does promise to pull mature audiences and is a decent attempt at creating an alternate cinematic experience.]]>
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			<title>Zahid Mayo: Breaking the canvas</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/article/89364/zahid-mayo-breaking-the-canvas</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/article/89364/zahid-mayo-breaking-the-canvas#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 20 10:43:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Haroon Shuaib]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[The Good Life]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=89364</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Mayo believes that art can have an impact on people and can help initiate dialogue.]]>
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				<![CDATA[When Zahid Mayo was studying at one of the most notable art colleges in the country, the National College of Arts (NCA) Lahore, he was a square peg in a round hole. Mayo had dreamed of studying there since he was a teenager and finally managed to gain admission in 2008. But, having come from a small village near Gujranwala, he felt alienated in his new surroundings. His fellow students with their impeccable English and urban ways made him feel like he will always be an outsider. But then again, Mayo was not one to take such things sitting down, and he transferred his fire into his art.

As he wandered around the city, Mayo began to include images of those densely packed Lahore crowds into his paintings since the crowds allowed him to just blend in and get away as a faceless, nameless observer. This exercise not only helped improve his skills but also helped evolve his artistic expression into a unique one. In 2013, right before he graduated, he set up his thesis display on the roof of the campus building, away from the walls of the gallery, where the rest of his class was displaying their work. That roof was where he had spent most of his time in college and that was where he believed his art belonged. The jury was reluctant to come up to see his work till he started breaking and burning his canvases one by one. Stories of Mayo’s eccentricities have now become part of NCA folklore, but his beginnings were very humble. He says,
“I had a really good time at my primary school. It was a small two-room building with a tree. We used to take rags from home to sit on. Three or four teachers were ‘katibs’ (calligraphers) and that is where my training started. I started with calligraphy but was soon also drawing as I was a natural at it. My teachers encouraged me and I think what I learnt there was something really precious and it has stayed with me to this date.”


Mayo comes from a family of landless contract farmers. In his village and the neighbouring town, every other house had a katib or calligrapher. These katibs, once in great demand, found themselves out of jobs once creating calligraphy on computers became more popular. Mayo was trained as a child to write with a bamboo qalam (pen) on a takhti (board) and was always praised for his beautiful handwriting. Therefore, unsurprisingly, he was quite miserable when his parents forced him to study computer studies in the hopes of a better future.

After passing his matriculation, he spent a year doing almost nothing before he decided to pack his bags and travel to Lahore to join NCA, a college he had heard about from an older boy in the village. To his family’s relief, he did not ask for financial support, but they were sad to see him go. Once in the city, he spent his initial days making whatever money he could by sketching portraits of tourists at the Lahore Fort and other odd jobs which took him around the city. But those experiences would go onto shape his artistic sensibilities, as he recounts,
“I think my initial experiences in Lahore made me want to create art beyond the limits of a canvas. I have a problem with art being confined only to galleries, studios and private collections away from the reach of common people. Art should not belong to only those who can afford it, especially since such people do not always appreciate it.”
Instead, Mayo prefers to paint on walls, trees, rocks, various pieces of scrap and sometimes even on trains.
“I knew about this abandoned train carriage parked on a dysfunctional track near Lahore Cantonment’s railway station. I thought of turning it into a safe space for children from the nearby katchi abadi (illegal settlement) to practice art. I gathered a few friends and we spent hours cleaning the space and I did some calligraphy on its exterior as well. When we were about to finish, the police raided the carriage and we ended up spending a couple of hours in the hawalat (jail).”


Painting in public was more of a social experiment for Mayo as he wanted people to get inquisitive and ask him about his art. He once painted Ustad Daman’s poetry on a wall of inner Lahore. Even people who had lived in the area for generations had never seen a project like this before. Mayo says,
“Women from the neighbourhood would come and talk to me while the children giggled and observed from a distance. I also experimented by painting the same poetry in Gurmukhi, a language that I spent some time learning, as an homage to the people that had migrated from the walled city of Lahore. That is when the situation became a bit tense as people started getting agitated by this text that they could not understand, which is why I had to leave that poem halfway.”
That effort was not lost though and many months later a Sikh from India got in touch with Mayo to appreciate the incomplete verse in Gurmukhi. He had come across the wall while on a pilgrimage in Lahore and was impressed enough to make a video and share it on the internet.
“Art can initiate a dialogue, isn’t that the idea? I was disappointed when they restored the murals on the walls of Karachi Press Club after they were vandalised. Painting portraits of the city’s heroes was a statement by the artists but when the faces were blackened, it started a dialogue, which the artists should have continued.”


A 90-foot long, concrete boundary wall of the French Embassy in Islamabad features a mural that Mayo and his friends painted. The mural incorporates some verses of Iqbal along with the words of Victor Hugo, which Mayo managed to juxtapose through the help of the French ambassador. Mayo thinks that even though his art in public spaces may wither over the years but it will never be lost as it will be etched on the conscience of people.
“I think many times the process of art creation in public spaces and how it has the power to involve people is much more important than the art itself.”
So with feverish intensity, Mayo continues to paint on nonconforming surfaces and in atypical surroundings. His calligraphy extends beyond flat surfaces into curvatures and trail off of canvases onto walls. What surface Mayo's work ends up on is decided very organically, with the surface sometimes dictating what he paints on it and other times his ideas inspire a hunt for the surface they can be executed on.
“Every artwork has its own requirements and for my practice, I cannot act a certain way to fit the rules defined by society. I am, what I am. Artists should be honest with themselves without the fear of judgment. Honesty is the basic prerequisite for practicing any art form, otherwise its magic fades away with time.”


Mayo was tickled when a few people got in touch with him and said they had seen his work at the Lahore Biennale even though he had not been part of it and was in Karachi at that time. The people were not wrong though, as his calligraphic work is prominently displayed on tree trunks at Jinnah Garden but it was done a long time ago, even before the biennale culture came to Pakistan. Mayo wants to continue experimenting with different mediums and subjects. At the heart of his art philosophy lies the belief that his work should be accessible to as many people as possible and not just the individual that owns it.
“My friends and I have also started a clothing and tote bag line by the name of Sazish (conspiracy). My calligraphy adorns the pieces, making my art mobile and accessible to many people even when a single person owns the shirt or bag. I like to continuously reinvent myself, break rules, push boundaries and challenge norms. I want every exhibition of mine to be different from my previous work. May be I will try video art next. I am also experimenting with my subjects for my upcoming exhibition. Life is so much more fun this way.” 
All photos courtesy of Zahid Mayo ]]>
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			<title>El Camino is nothing more than an extended Breaking Bad episode</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/article/89108/el-camino-is-nothing-more-than-an-extended-breaking-bad-episode</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/article/89108/el-camino-is-nothing-more-than-an-extended-breaking-bad-episode#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 20 10:43:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Sameen Amer]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[The Good Life]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=89108</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Some sequels are designed to cater to viewers not familiar with the original series, this is not one of them]]>
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				<![CDATA[In the days leading up to the release of El Camino, the Breaking Bad fandom eagerly dissected every single frame of the film’s trailer, making it glaringly obvious that there were high expectations from the movie. And why wouldn't there be? After all, the movie is a follow-up to one of the most critically acclaimed television series ever made. 

Drama creator Vince Gilligan once again taking the helm for the movie was another factor screaming that the cinematic continuation was bound to be a masterpiece. But high expectations are a slippery slope and perhaps, for this very reason, the thoroughly entertaining El Camino seemed just a tad bit underwhelming in the end.

The movie picks up right where Breaking Bad left off. A beat-up traumatised Jesse Pinkman, essayed by Aaron Paul, escapes captivity and runs to Skinny Pete and Badger; played by Charles Baker and Matt Jones respectively. 

Pinkman decides to lay low as the events of the scene he fled from make the national news and mark him as a person of interest. With the law enforcement hot on his tail, Pinkman not only has to figure out how to evade capture but also how to forever leave the mayhem behind that led him to this disastrous point. Guiding him on his journey are memories from his past in the form of flashbacks that both shape the narrative and give familiar faces a chance to reappear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JLUn2DFW4w

Some sequels are designed to also cater to viewers who may not be familiar with the original series, El Camino is not one of them. The film recaptures the feeling of its parent show and feels like an extended episode of it.  But the familiar characters, setting, and ambience invoke nostalgia that Breaking Bad fans will find impossible to resist. Gilligan's powerful writing provides compelling characters with wry wit at the centre of a dark drama coupled with an intriguing narrative.

Despite Gilligan's prowess, El Camino doesn’t make any mind-blowing revelations nor does it contain spectacular twists.  Instead, this meditative slow burn follows Pinkman on a journey, the trajectory of which is highly predictable. Although one cannot argue that the story reaches its end efficiently, it does leave one thinking had the movie started where it finally ended, it may have made for a more fascinating watch.

The movie focuses on the immediate aftermath of the Breaking Bad series and perhaps covering a longer timeline may also have been a better idea.

[caption id="attachment_89158" align="alignnone" width="600"] Photo: IMDb[/caption]

Those expecting to see the return of the entire cast and wanting to watch their storylines unfold would be sorely disappointed. Although some characters from Breaking Bad do come to the big screen, many of them are conspicuously absent. But then again, this was meant to be Pinkman's story and not an all-encompassing epilogue to the series. Whether or not that is a sign that Gilligan may have more movies in store for us from the Breaking Bad universe remains to be seen. 

Stellar storylines can get lost if the actors don't do them justice but just like the series, the actors bring their A-game, while Paul is nothing short of fantastic in his portrayal of Pinkman. The only thing that may distract from the acting is that some of the actors look drastically different, which is not a surprise considering Breaking Bad ended in 2013.

All in all, El Camino is an entertaining continuation, even if it does not rise to all the expectations one may have had from the sequel of such an incredible show. But the movie is definitely worth a watch and will fill at least some of the void that Breaking Bad left in our hearts after its end.]]>
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			<title>Joker is a masterpiece in (almost) every sense</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/article/88746/joker-is-a-masterpiece-in-almost-every-sense</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/article/88746/joker-is-a-masterpiece-in-almost-every-sense#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 20 10:43:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Faraz Talat.]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[The Good Life]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=88746</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Joker is the uninhibited madness of a fractured, two-faced world order, manifesting itself as a weeping clown.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[You would think that Joker has no earthly reason to exist as anything other than a gimmick aimed at making profits off a highly marketable property. However, Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix have elevated it into a politically conscious art piece that defies all expectations.

Joker’s past

The most important thing to understand about the Joker, is that he isn’t meant to be understood. He is, by design, a villain beyond comprehension. You are not supposed to put yourself in his big clown shoes. Joker, more ‘it’ than ‘he’, is an avatar of chaotic evil; a human-ish represenation of a gas cylinder exploding unexpectedly in a crowded room. You cannot make quite make sense of why it happened or who precisely is to blame for it. All you can do is try and cope with the loss.

Until Todd Philips’ latest rendition, Joker never really had a definitive origin story. His story has changed constantly over the last half a century or so; an accidental fall into a vat of chemicals at one point, and an abusive parent at the other. In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight – featuring the award-winning portral of Joker by the late Heath Ledger – this ambiguity is represented by Joker telling different stories of how he got his facial scars.

It’s unlikely that Joker was ever conceived as a solo character since he was written as the absolute inverse of the Batman. Joker is wild, colourful, and unpredictable, with a need for constant attention, relative to Batman’s bleak outlook and secretive, brooding personality. This powerful antagonistic relationship is smartly parodied in The Lego Batman Movie.

In the age of dark and gritty reboots of old comic book characters, Todd Phillips has reclaimed Joker from the Comics Code Authority and its active attempts to sanitise this character. Now more sinister than comical, Phoenix portrays Joker as a manifestation of the contradictions we all embody.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGVQLHvwOY

Joaquin Phoenix as the definitive Joker

The film opens with Phoenix as Arthur, putting on clown makeup while a solitary tear rolls down his painted cheek. Eerily, he lifts the corners of his mouth with his fingers to feign a grin, though the trauma embedded in his eyes is painfully noticeable. The first scene is a user manual of sorts for the audience: expect the visuals to be inconsonant with the emotional tone of the film at all times. Phillips reinforces this by adding a neurological disorder to Arthur, which results in uncontrollable bouts of laughter, often at highly inappropriate times.

Phoenix’s performance for a character as complex as Joker is crucial to the story. You can get an actor to cry on cue. You can tell an actor to laugh maniacally. Rarely can you get an actor to do both at the same time, and convincingly enough so as to not lose the emotional weight of either. Phoenix’s performance is reminiscent of the ‘Hide the pain Harold’ meme, portraying an elderly man whose eyes signal sadness while his lips indicate mirth. His ability to convey conflicting emotions is key to the film’s theme.



The killing joke is ‘capitalism’

While reviewers will inevitably draw comparisons to previous iterations of the Joker, it’s hard not to compare him to an unlikely Disney character remake. Like Maleficent, Joker sets out to explore and ultimately humanise a popular villain. Maleficent, despite Angelina Jolie’s stellar performance, failed as a remake because it ended up altering far too many elements from the original story; thus failing to transform Maleficent from a evil sorceress into an indignant protagonist.

Joker, miraculously, changes very few plot details from the previous versions. The only thing that changes significantly is persective. For the first time, we are no longer looking down at Gotham city from the eyes of an angsty billionaire orphan perched on top of a tall building. We’re now looking up from gutters at the smug billionaires and their empty promises, through the eyes of an abused, mentally unwell worker.

Joker is still an agent of chaos, while Bruce is an innocent boy coping with the loss of his parents. However, as the film examines each character by grounding them in a socio-economic context, it begins to take a stranger yet far more sensible shape. Joker didn’t wake up one morning cackling and wailing at the same time. He was created in the grim crucible of capitalism – the ultimate circus of contradictions. We are free citizens, but also wage slaves forced to perform humiliating chores as rentable clowns. We feel alone and miserable on the inside while wearing deceitful smiles on the outside. We are told that there isn’t enough for all of us as our healthcare and social security slips through our fingers, yet somehow there’s always enough to satisfy the endless whims of the upper class. Joker is the uninhibited madness of a fractured, two-faced world order, manifesting itself as a weeping clown.



The cinematic method to the artistic madness

One of Joker’s many internal contradictions is that he is simultaneously unpredictable yet eerily methodical. Ledger’s Joker famously asks,
“Do I look like a guy with a plan?”
But his elaborate schemes and strategies are not products of a disorganised schizophrenic mind.

The story structure is never tempted to join the dance of its unhinged protagonist. Unlike many other films following the stories of mentally unwell characters, like Sarmad Khoosat’s Manto, there are no bizarre dream sequences that take the audience into the mind of a ‘mad’ character. The idea behind the screenplay is that the severity of a psycho-social disturbance is most noticeable when contrasted against other elements that sit neatly in place. Disorder is viewed best from a place of order.

Joker relies on simple chronological storytelling. There are no dizzying time jumps, no parallel storylines, and no other structural gimmicks to complicate the presentation of the already complex, multi-layered characters on display.

A masterpiece in (almost) every sense

Minor plot contrivances appear and disappear so fast that the audience barely has enough time to register them in Phoenix’s constantly entertaining presence. Some small elements, like the single mother living next door to Arthur, have been seemingly forced into the story for no purpose other than to traumatise Arthur and facilitate his transformation into the eponymous character.

These, however, are peccadilloes that only the most discerning writers and nitpicky reviewers would come forth to denounce. The rest of us stand in awe of Phillip’s cinematic vision, and Phoenix’s unmissable performance as Joker.



All photos: IMDb]]>
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