Khamosh Pani
| Khamosh Pani | |
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Khamosh Pani movie poster
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| Directed by | Sabiha Sumar |
| Produced by | Peter Hermann |
| Written by | Paromita Vohra |
| Starring |
Kiron Kher Shilpa Shukla Aamir Malik Adnan Shah Tipu Rehan Sheikh |
| Distributed by | Shringar Films (India) |
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Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
| Country | Pakistan |
| Language | Punjabi |
Khamosh Pani (Punjabi: خاموش پانی, Silent Waters) is a 2003 Pakistani film about a widowed mother and her young son living in a Punjabi village as it undergoes radical changes during the late 1970s.
Shot in a Pakistani village, the film was also released in India. It won seven awards, including Golden Leopard (Best Film), Best Actress, and Best Direction at the 56th Locarno International Film Festival, Switzerland.
In 1979 in Charkhi, a village in the Punjab province of Pakistan, Ayesha (a middle-aged widow) lives with her son Saleem, a teenager in love with schoolgirl Zubeida. Ayesha supports herself and Saleem with her late husband's pension and by giving lessons in the Qur'an to village girls. She refuses to go to the village well, and her neighbor's daughters draw water for her. Villagers like Amin, the postman, are troubled by the recent hanging of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto by Zia-ul-Haq, the new military ruler who has promised to enforce Islamic law and encourages Islamic missionary and political groups. Two Islamic activists come to the village and, supported by the village choudhury, spread their message of Islamic zealotry and gain recruits to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The older men in the village are disdainful of their intolerance and puritanism, cynical about Zia's postponement of elections and angry when the activists accuse them of being traitors. The activists gain a following amongst the village youth, including Saleem. They cajole and intimidate Saleem into attending a political meeting in Rawalpindi, where the speakers exhort the audience to commit themselves to jihad for the creation of an Islamic Pakistani state. Attracted by their zeal and call to serve Islam and Pakistan, Saleem (who wants to be more than a village farmer) breaks up with Zubeida and becomes estranged from his mother. Ayesha unsuccessfully tries to discourage him from following the Islamists. Saleem helps build a wall around the girls' school to "protect" them and enforces the closing of village shops during namaaz in line with Zia-ul-Haq's Islamisation, and Ayesha and Zubeida are alarmed by his transformation.
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Wikipedia