Golden Girl (1995)
Cast: Anjuman, Sultan Rahi, Izhar Qazi, Shahida Mini, Afzal Ahmed
Director: Hasnain
Synopsis: Ostensibly just another masala movie, but this one has intriguing political undercurrents and Anjuman in a double role is a force to be reckoned!
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

Sultan languishes in jail, suffering nightmares of his impending death sentence by hanging. When the day for his verdict arrives, he sees his mortal enemy in the court, and in an uncontrollable wave of rage lunges for his adversary, causing a terrible scene in the court that doesn’t impress the judge.

A death sentence is handed down as expected, and once again, Sultan returns to his dingy cell, awaiting his call from the executioner. Out of the blue arrives shapely female lawyer, Anjuman, who snaps him out of his depressed state with a stirring lecture, before getting him to sign his case to her for fighting his lost cause of a claim.

Sultan tells her that once he was a simple, hardworking soul responsible for getting his beloved younger sister married off, fate intervened, and he was seduced by the life of politics and led astray.

We see in a flashback that while the poor younger sister is walking all over town on her bare feet looking for her brother, he is enjoying himself at a sleazy mujra. Much worse follows as she is raped by one of his new sleazy politician friends and dies in his arms upon returning home. Sultan is devastated and goes into a murderous rage. The cops arrive to intervene, explaining why he is languishing on death row.

Meanwhile, Sultan’s trial starts with Shabana Malik (Anjuman), featured as his fiery lawyer who uses such legally sound arguments to vouch for Sultan’s innocence, and claiming that she has “seen old women and young girls crying for his release”. The judge listens impassively as Anjuman runs rings around her opponent with emotional arguments. Soon we learn that there is another side to his mysterious lawyer, and that she doubles as a glamour puss by night, bolstering her claims as a top-flight lawyer by playing her opponents at their sleazy games and winning.

Finally, there is a stunning twist to the tale as we learn that Shabana Malik, Advocate High Court Lahore, has a twin sister Farzana who resides in Islamabad. Though she looks alluring, she also has a couple of chins dangling where there used not to be anything, her waistline is positively bulbous, and her thighs extend down her ankles. When the two decide to come together, you know there will be Two Tons of Fun, as Anjuman had attained quite a bulk by the time this movie was released.

The judge is not the only one impressed and bewitched by Shabana Malik’s compelling beauty and assets, and soon she has the prosecuting lawyer vying for her attention. The case goes brilliantly, and Sultan is freed.

An enquiry is ordered against his adversary, and the man is out for Sultan’s blood. Meanwhile, Sultan is out to avenge the rape and murder of his sister, but standing in the way is a very wily Sufi priest, who soon has both Sultan and his adversary (Humayun

Qureshi) eating out of his hands. So, it appears the Sufi priest also has his eyes on a slice of the power and has the perfect plan to play his shifty political games. Indeed he assumes the role of a King Maker; could it possibly be that Syed Noor was writing to reflect the political scenario in Pakistan in the early ’90s?

The plot continues to thicken as Farzana is pressured into playing her part in the evil Padre’s scheme. He diligently maneuvered himself

Golden Girl into a position where he has some dirt or some hold on everyone, and is now ready to use these people as pawns to achieve ultimate control.

In a complete turn-up for the books and destroying all expectations, Golden Girl, despite its surreal title sequence, is a fascinating concoction. It has quite a bit going for it; two Anjumans are always better than one. There is Sultan Rahi, albeit playing second fiddle to the great lady. Afzal Ahmed plays an intriguing character that reflects a warped political system akin to our own.

There is violence, mayhem, Anjuman in some jaw-dropping ensemble outfits, Shahida Mini shaking her rump, courtroom dramatics, and enough twists and turns in the plot to set it apart from the pedestrian run-of-the-mill formula movies.

A couple of songs by Madam Noor Jehan serve as a reminder of just how sorely she is missed. Yes, Golden Girl is a commercial masala movie, but it is relatively taut, and the action doesn’t flag horribly as it does in so many Lollywood movies once the premise has been established.

Anjuman is outstanding in the double role of Shabana and Farzana Malik. She is a dynamic and unstoppable force against evil in a shimmering, dazzling golden outfit with a matching hat. She is a breathtaking sight—The Punjabi Wonder Woman—as she takes to the warehouses of The Evil Padre Burhan Shah, torching them one by one to ashes and dust. Meanwhile, Sultan Rahi is on autopilot while Afzal Ahmed, the evil Padre, is quite excellent.

Golden Girl is far from being a great movie, and yet, for a film released in the mid-‘90s, it manages to surprise. The ‘90s was an era notorious for atrocious cinema and those awful “double language versions,” of which this was one. Grudgingly, one has to credit Syed Noor, who has conjured up a pretty entertaining script for a typical desi masala movie.

Expectations were meagre, which always helps, but Golden Girl held together far better than most Lollywood films and is indeed solid masala entertainment.