An 18th-century Urdu poet and his muse are the focus of Pakistani biographical drama Mah e Mir

Director Anjum Shahzad tells us why the independent, non-commercial project could set a benchmark for the country's film industry.

Fahad Mustafa on the set of Mah-e-Mir. Courtesy Hum Films

Hot on the heels of the immense success of last year's biographical drama Manto, based on the life of Pakistani short-story writer Saadat Hasan Manto, comes a story involving another literary giant. Anjum Shahzad's Mah e Mir, inspired by the 18th-century Urdu poet Mir Taqi Mir, opens in cinemas on Thursday, May 5.

“The one thing I want to make clear from the outset is that it is not a historical or biographical film,” says Shahzad. “It is the fantasy of a poet who is facing inner turmoil and conflict, and whose poetic inspiration is Mir. This is not just his fantasy, but also ours, because we have never seen Mir. We have no idea what he was like. We can know his poetry, but we can never know for sure what kind of a person he really was. All we can do is guess and imagine. So, all of it is a lot of fantasy … the fantasy of the character in the film, and the fantasy of me as a director on the screen.”

Written by Sarmad Sehbai, the film stars Fahad Mustafa, Iman Ali, Sanam Saeed, Alyy Khan and Manzar Sehbai.

Mustafa, best known for the 2104 film Na Maloom Afraad, plays the lead role of the conflicted poet Jamal, and that of his fantasy, Mir.

“When the script came to me, I sent it back saying I am not worthy of this script,” says Mustafa. “I questioned whether I could deal with such an intelligent script. I will say repeatedly that this is not a story about Mir Taqi Mir and that I am not playing Mir Taqi Mir. I portray a character who is a poet, and every poet has a connection with some classic poet or the other. For my character in the film, it is Mir. It’s a story about a person who is not appreciated in their own time. It’s just a metaphor. It could be you, it could be me … I think it can be anybody’s story.”

The actor sees the film's complexity as a strength. "This film is really close to my heart because it proves to me that you can bring something to the table that is so complex. It has a lot of layers to it," he says. He is quick to point out that Mah e Mir is also about love. "Don't think of it as being the film equivalent of Mir's poetry, where you will have to bring a dictionary to the theatre to be able to understand what is being said. This is a very intense love story, but there is humour in it as well. You will enjoy it."

Actress and model Iman Ali, who made her debut in 2007 with the successful thriller Khuda Ke Liye, and later appeared in the equally well-received 2011 social drama film Bol, plays Mahtab, Mir's love interest.

"It was a very enriching experience getting to know Mahtab through the making of this film," says Ali. "She was a mystery to me for a long time, too, because she is the kind of character who is hard to grasp and requires a lot of imagination to understand. We never get to know her, but we get to know who she is for him. We get to see this character through Mir's eyes. She is his fantasy and his imagination. 'Mah' is technically nothing without 'Mir'. And that is why it is Mah e Mir."

With such complex ideas behind the film, one wonders what the reception will be in a market used to commercial projects, such as last year's Jawani Phir Nahi Ani, which won a slew of the Viewers Choice awards at the recently held ARY Film Awards 2016 in Dubai.

“This was the right time to release this film,” says Shahzad. “It’s a little different from most of the films coming out these days because it is based on ideologies and contains a lot of subtext. But we think that this film might become a benchmark for other producers in Pakistan for what a film’s production value, performances, script and other things should be like.”

Originally, the idea was to make the film for festivals, which meant the producers did not want to invest a lot of money. “But when we started shooting and we saw the result, we felt that this could be something very positive for Pakistan,” says Mustafa.

"It's not just the likes of Na Maloom Afraad or Jawani Phir Nahi Ani that can make it big. Films like Mah e Mir could work, too, and Manto is the perfect example," he says. I am not saying this film is like Manto, but it's something that everybody would enjoy. Yes, they would need to pay a little more attention to the movie. That's one thing I would advise audience to do when they go watch the film: be a bit more alert, and watch it mindfully."

Mah e Mir releases in theatres across the UAE on Thursday, May 5