Lok Virsa screens ‘Sher Khan’

The Mandwa film club of Lok Virsa on Saturday screened the hit Punjabi film ‘Sher Khan’ on Saturday.

Film star Bahar Begum, who had starred in the film, attended the screening as a guest. The movie had been released in 1981 and was one of the hit productions of that year. It starred veteran actors such as Sultan Rahi, Anjuman, Mustafa Qureshi and Bahar.



Apart from the star power which the movie boasted, one of the major highlights of the film was the background score by Wajahat Attrey and rendered by Noorjehan.

The movie managed to make its mark despite the fact that the industry and audience was already entranced by films such as ‘Maula Jatt’ [banned by the censor board several times and exhibited under court stay order equal number of times]. The film had propelled Rahi and Qureshi to stardom.



Sher Khan had borrowed a number of elements from Maula Jutt including the violence, action and gore. In fact, the movie was felt to have lifted elements from ‘Maula Jatt’ primarily because both movies had involvement of director Yonus Malik and screenwriter Nasir Adeeb.

Apart from Maula Jutt, other hit Punjabi films from that year were ‘Sala Sahab’, ‘Chan Veryam’, ‘Jatt in London’ and others, but Sher Khan managed to stand its ground. Attrey’s score combined with Noorjehan produced several hit songs from the film such as ‘Jhangeria pehnaado’, ‘Toon ai mahi’ and ‘Tu joo.’

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2017.