Pakistani Film Cake Breaks Sindhi Stereotypes
Pakistani movie "Cake" is a Sindhi family drama set in Karachi and rural Sindh. I had the chance to see it on a Silicon Valley theater screen in California. Cake is nothing like the usual Bollywood fare featuring an "item song" included in a series of song-and-dance sequences. It tells a story accompanied with a great soundtrack showcasing the classic Sindhi poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai and Shaikh Ayaz, some of it sung by Allan Fakir in his mournful voice. Directed by Asim Abbasi, the movie has an interesting plot and it tells a good story. What makes its plot especially relevant to the Pakistani diaspora is that it involves a theme familiar to them: Ailing elderly parents (Jamalis ably played by Mohammad Ahmed and Beo Raana Zafar) in Pakistan with two of their three children living overseas. It also defies the stereotypical depiction of patriarchal Sindhi men as cruel landlords oppressing their women and peasants. At the cente...