乐土

Hyped as a cause célèbre that blatantly promulgates trans-representation in Pakistan, Saim Sadiq’s debut feature JOYLAND is so much more than a topical succès de scandale, in fact, it is almost a transcendent subversion, prominently engulfed in a fetchingly lurid palette, graced with bisexual lighting and intimately composed close-ups.

Present day, Lahore, Haider (Junejo) accepts a job as a back dancer for Biba (Khan), an erotic transgender dancer on whom he is hipped and must conceal his new-found salacious vocation from his family. Less does he realize, such a seemingly gainful decision inimically disrupts the equilibrium in the household.

Previously jobless, Haider is supported by his wife Mumtaz (Farooq), a salon beautician. Now with Haider finally asserting himself as the breadwinner, Mumtaz is steamrollered by Haider’s father Amanullah (Peerzada), to give up her job so she can help Nucchi (Gilani), Haider’s sister-in-law who already has four daughters under her belt, tender to the extended family of eight, aforementioned seven plus Saleem (Sohail), Haider’s elder brother and Nucchi’s husband. Haider acquiesces in the decision.

Also, Amanullah’s expectancy of having a grandson to carry the family name puts a heavy strain on the childless Haider and Mumtaz whose sex life is anything but passionate. Now with Haider wholly punch-drunk by his obsession, habitually returning home late in the name of work, Mumtaz is deprived of her job which she likes, neglected by her husband and domesticated into a traditional housewife role that suffocates her. Even her unsatisfied desire is regarded as a shame under a masculine gaze, laughter only surfaces fleetingly when she and Nucchi let their hair down in the local amusement park “Joyland”, the same place where Biba works.

In the conceptualization of Biba, Sadiq empowers her with unquenchable fire in her belly, she is an outright diva and will not take the short end of the stick without putting up a fight, and it is very clear to understand why she mesmerizes Haider, essentially a kind-hearted, sensitive, but innately indeterminate man, whose passivity will eventually enrage Biba, as we can see, she doesn’t make any concession of what she wants and who she is, refusing to see her and treat her as a woman is deal-breaking.

In a sense, JOYLAND is nothing if not about female experiences, albeit it has Haider as the sole protagonist, whose own closeted homosexuality slowly emerges as a key factor in unwittingly emplacing Mumtaz into an inextricable plight. Unlike Biba’s fire-breathing assertion of her full-bore femininity, Mumtaz reifies the harm inflicted on any number of an ordinary woman, by the whole patriarchal system (encapsulated by a diatribe unleashed by an impassioned Nucchi).

Even with a bun in the oven (a boy no less!), Mumtaz fails to find her life’s worth, it seems there is no place for her in this vast world. The most soul-shattering scene occurs quietly when Haider, feigning care and attention out of formality before sacking out, cannot even espy the pestilent bottle in her clutch, that is the last nail in her coffin, and she exacts her revenge in the most radical and pyrrhic approach. Farooq manages to bring off a slow-burning, internalized encroachment of loss, desperation and embitterment without ever resorting to overt affect, Mumtaz’s every splinter of emotion is calibrated to an incrementally devastating effect, conditioning audience to that forlorn inevitability. However different their denouements are, both Biba and Mumtaz are liberation-fighting heroines rebelling against an unjust society with all their might.

In the aftermath when the film flashbacks to reveal us how Haider and Mumtaz gladsomely agree to the arranged marriage, both painfully oblivious of the dire straits they’re about to entering, and how naively, Haider promises to Mumtaz that she has the freedom to work. Poignancy is so keenly and masterfully evoked, and Sadiq’s film acquits itself brilliantly in terms of the superfine coalescence between form and style, one of the most puissant films about women empowerment is certainly, not an overstatement.

referential entries: Maryam Touzani’s THE BLUE CAFTAN (2022, 7.7/10); Isabel Sandoval’s LINGUA FRANCA (2019, 6.8/10).

Title: Joyland

Year: 2022

Genre: Drama

Country: Pakistan, USA

Language: Punjabi, Urdu

Director: Saim Sadiq

Screenwriters: Saim Sadiq, Maggie Briggs

Cinematography: Joe Saade

Editor: Saim Sadiq, Jasmin Tenucci

Cast:

Ali Junejo

Rasti Farooq

Alina Khan

Sarwat Gilani

Salmaan Peerzada

Sameer Sohail

Sania Saeed

Ramiz Law

Rating: 8.1/10