Pakistan has seen an increase in movies with strong female leads. This past year we saw ‘Cake’ and ‘Motorcycle Girl’ rock our cinema screens for how they characterized their leading ladies.

This December, we’ll be adding a new film to that list. ‘Pinky Memsaab‘. 

The film revolves around a Pakistani couple who lives in Dubai, whose lives are intertwined with their maid (Pinky) and driver. We sat down Hajira Yamin (Pinky) and Adnan Jaffar (Hasan) to talk about the film and how was the experience of shooting the movie.

According to them, it’s a story of multiple families intertwined into one film. Each character is unique and adds a different element to the experience of ‘Pinky Memsaab’. 

Pinky is a maid, fresh from rural Pakistan and newly on the scene on Dubai. She has big dreams and aspirations. Pinky’s memsaab is Mehr, and Mehr is very active socially, but in reality, she’s a very insecure person. Mehr’s husband is Hasan, a confident investment banker. The comic relief for this film is Santosh, the family driver. Both actors agree that the audience will connect to the characters, in fact, according to them each member of the audience will be rooting for one of the characters in the film.

According to Hajra and Adnan, the film revolves around how these two worlds interact with each other. The characters somehow complete certain incomplete parts of each other’s lives. To be honest, that’s an interesting way  They said that the movie is continuing the trajectory of films like ‘Cake’ and ‘Motorcycle Girl’, in that they have female leads and are touching upon topics that haven’t been tackled before in films.

We also asked them why they specifically chose Dubai as the base of their film. 

They said that their aim with the film was to add some global perspective to the movie and some global perspective.  A lot of times when movies focus on Pakistanis abroad, the critique is usually that such films don’t really connect with the audience, because of the removed context. The actors, however, did not see it that way. They felt that story was still relevant and relatable to Pakistani audiences across all strata of society. They further went on to say that it is a story that could literally happen anywhere, Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad.

Historically such films have not done amazingly well in Pakistani box offices. 

‘Cake’ could be considered as an exception since it did garner a lot of interest, which could be attributed to how the film was marketed. A lot of how well (or not) a film does nowadays is dependent on how it’s sold to the people. Films like ‘Cake’ and ‘Pinky Memsaab’ are a harder sell than other, more conventional films. The content in the film might be exceptional, however, what matters is whether there’s anyone there to even see it. We have high hopes for the film, but what worries us is how little mention of the film there is. We’re really close to the premiere and the hype just isn’t there. We wish the team all the best.

Watch the trailer here and see if this is something that may pique your interest!

Cake Is The Film Pakistani Cinema Needs, But Is Pakistan Ready For It?

I Just Watched “Motorcycle Girl” And It Shows The Pakistan We Have All Dreamed Of

Cover Photo Courtesy: Shaz Media House