Bahadur (1967)
Cast: Mussarat Nazir, Darpan, Mohammad Ali, Zamurrad, Nasira, Lehri, Nazar, Panna, Zeenat, Bahadur (dog)
Director: Munawar Rasheed
Music: Deeboo
Synopsis: Royal intrigue, wild beasts, girl-power, dog-power…good old- fashioned fun.
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

Bahadur is a film that made me sigh nostalgically for several reasons. Firstly, it harkens back to an era when Pakistan was unrecognizable from the land it is today. It’s not that the buildings are taller or that the roads are wider but that we as people have become so much smaller and our minds narrower than they used to be not so long ago.

This movie boasts a storyline that celebrates female power. If that wasn’t enough, the main “hero” of the film is a beautiful German Shepherd Dog who a horse and Nazar capably support along with Lollywood’s ever-willing sidekick. The charmingly glib Lehri.

Mussarat Nazir towers over the film, playing a Zorro-like role where she is forced to go undercover to fight the false accusations made against her father: A trusted servant of the royal court who has fallen on hard times, having been accused of plotting to usurp masses of wealth from the Kingdom. An evil scheming politician (The Prime Minister, no less) has plotted poor Shamsher’s downfall so that he can become all-powerful and seize control of neighbouring lands and wealth. In this endeavour, he falsely blames Shamsher for misdeeds and has him arrested and locked up in a torture chamber where the PM’s jiyalas (goons?!) perform the torture duties.

Now happy-go-lucky, nature and animal-loving Mussarat must take on the burden of clearing her father’s name. To do this, she rustles up a group of her closest allies; an unlikely crew of Nazar, Lehri and Lappu, the GSD. Together they set off to the adjacent lands ruled by a benevolent Queen who the Prime Minister, with a series of vicious lies and deception, has sadly manipulated. With the Queen believing every word of his evil falsehoods, the Prime Minister is set to amass all the power he needs, but the obstinate Shamsher has the code to the safe deposits, which he refuses to give up, and remains an obstacle in his path to fame, fortune, and glory.

Mussarat now assumes the alias of a strapping young lad named “Bahadur” (The Brave) and starts her quest to rescue her father and reclaim his lost honour. Leading the pursuit is the wonderful GSD Lappu, tremendously fearless and utterly loyal to his master. Time and again, Lappu leads from the front in the fight against injustice. You find yourself cheering for this lovable crew as they bumble and get closer to their objective of freeing Shamsher and exposing the Prime Minister as the evil, powerlusting creep he is.

It’s all good old-fashioned light-hearted fun and a joy to visit an era where animals were treated with love and affection. There is no mention of “being contaminated” by the dog, which sadly is the way so many presently believe. The women are presented as gullible (in the case of the Queen), decisive, independent, fiercely brave, and capable. They are also loving and caring as daughters, friends, and people who will fight to stop animals from being needlessly harmed. Thanks to some judiciously inserted footage, there are plenty of scintillating shots of various wild beasts romping around the forest.

Mussarat Nazir carries the film with support from Bahadur (The Dog), Nazar and Lehri as the madcap dynamic duo Uplam and Jhaplam. There is also Darpan’s somewhat abbreviated appearance and Mohammad Ali’s negative role. The villain is suitably slimy but nowhere in the class of future Super-Villains Mustafa Qureshi and the

Bahadur glorious Aslam Parvez. The film moves along merrily with a lightweight family-friendly entertainer and reaches its reasonably predictable conclusion without much fuss.

A film that depressingly highlights that the Pakistani mindset has most definitely taken a “Wrong Turn” somewhere along the road, with tolerance systematically being ripped apart bit by bit by bit. The 1960s had their fair share of problems and issues, but compared to today, it was arguably a far better place than where we find ourselves today. It was nice to see that even the Crocodiles enjoyed a succulent meal, even if we didn’t hear the delightful sounds of their chewing.