Jano Kapatti (1976)
Cast: Asiya, Iqbal Hassan, Munawar Zarif, Anita, Saba, Najma Mehboob, Munawar Saeed, Saiqa, Jaggi Malik, Taya Barkat, Khalid Saleem Mota, Chun Chun
Director: Naseem Haider Shah
Synopsis: An incredible film on many levels, but mainly as a film in which a sex change operation is a focal point and a phenomenal performance by Munawar Zareef in the title role. Unmissable!
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

Gorgeous, feisty (Kapatti) Jano fritters away her youthful days, being gawped at and proposed to by her many swooning admirers. A manmagnet, she is constantly surrounded by suitors who grapple with one another to grab her attention. Husbands are ready to abandon their wives for a new life with Jano. Some call her Cleopatra’s Daughter; such is her beauty and regal manner as she romps around the village with her girls in complete abandon. She is the girl every man craves and every woman wants to be.

They call her Kapatti because of her fiery spirit that invokes equal amounts of fear and lust. A Kapatti is known to have a bite far worse than her bark. If you look it up online, it suggests a “nasty, mean and angry person”. Our Jano often fits that description quite perfectly.

A subplot involves Jano’s elder sister, who has a monster for a husband bent on extracting as much money from his wife as possible, even offering her as a prize at his next gambling session.

However, the horrid Munawar Saeed has a fine, upstanding brother (Iqbal Hassan) whose sympathies lie with his sister-in-law (Saba). In his spare time, Iqbal is romancing the town’s other soughtafter beauty, Aasia, the village Chaudhary’s daughter.

The Village Chaudhary is a just and benign man, eager to help his workers reap the rewards for the benefit of the community. Unknown to him, a snake amidst his workforce is intent on ripping him off to win Aasia as the ultimate prize (sonay ki chidiya).

Jano lives in a quiet town, where the only action is when frenemy Aasia’s enemy gang confronts her gang, and breaks out into impromptu songs and dances. There is sobering news amid the hilarity of Munawar Zareef, turning on his excellent drag performance during the film’s opening sequences. The audience learns that the adorable and vivacious (read, Bubbly) Jano suffers from a terrible medical ailment for which she has been having injections in the posterior. Things have gotten out of hand, and she will unlikely survive without significant surgery soon. Jano suffers crippling headaches when her “beer” strikes, leaving her no choice; surgery or death.

Desperate for gambling money, Saeed assaults Jano, after which she suffers a horrific attack on her sides and ends up on the operating table. It’s a delicate operation, but with the surgeons’ diligence, expertise, and Allah’s blessing, Jano survives miraculously but with one slight complication. The gorgeous bombshell Jano of before is now a handsome young man. But, the entire community appears delighted

Jano Kapatti that Jano is now known as Jani, the man, so that problem is soon resolved.

Another problem remains, however: the “man” they have created is a tad effeminate and relatively uninterested, almost intimidated by women. Hence, the medical and psychological staff decide to have him “corrected” by having the seductress Anita work her charms on him. After rigorous analysis, the Doctors and Psychologists determine the way forward and introduce the sultry Anita to Jani. With the help of some seductive songs and dances, Anita slowly but surely manages to work her intoxicating magic. It isn’t long before Jano is transformed into a full-blooded CIS Man with eyes only for women. As Jani grows more and more masculine, his personality changes likewise. While Jano is a big-hearted, righteous woman full of mischievous fun and frolic, Jani is a bit of a selfish git. When an old family associate asks for assistance to help his ailing mother and sister, he refuses to associate with his village-idiot family.

A desperate mother and daughter trek off to the city to look for Jani, try to remind him of their existence and beg for help. It doesn’t take them long to find Jani in the arms of his girlfriend Anita, languishing in a drunken stupor. When he realizes his mother and beloved Baji stand before him, he turns full circle, seething for revenge from those who have dared to cause his family hardship. As he storms off with his mother and Baji back to the village, Anita urges him to stop, but he scoffs at her calling her a “Vilayati Chowk”. Meanwhile, the evil Munawar Saeed and his accomplice make plans back in the village, but Jani arrives, letting everyone know he is not a former woman-turned-man to be messed with.

The conniving evil duo repents but only for a moment. There are some stirring fight and stunt scenes and a reasonably well-executed twist to round things up.

The film is tailored to suit the considerable skills of Munawar Zareef as a drag artiste, doing his typical Punjabi village belle to perfection. The film’s first half features Zareef in his pomp as Jano, the village bombshell who is every man’s dream, while the second follows his transformation into a man. His values are shaken as he finds his feet in his newfound masculine self, but he soon gets back on track. Iqbal Hassan is his usual dependable and earnest robust self as the younger brother of the lecherous drunkard, Munawar Saeed. Saeed is married to Saba, Jano’s elder sister, so they’re all related.

Saba and Munawar Saeed are impressive, while Aasia was at the top of her game in the mid-‘70s. Anita has a decent role, but unfortunately, the tunes and the dances for her in this movie are not her strongest. Her talents were thus criminally wasted.

The Music by Nazir Ali fails to fire with no memorable numbers. Jano Kapatti is a weird and wonderful delight, even if it leaves you frustrated as it sputters towards its climax. The film starts with the most seriously insane storyline, goes completely nuts before losing steam, and ends up as typical formula. After the halfway mark and Munawar Zareef’s sex-change surgery, the film follows an intriguing path. Sadly, it falters following a familiar recipe, leaving viewers slightly disappointed. The film displays the potential to take its groundbreaking storyline to a suitably ridiculous conclusion. Still, it cops out and falls short of the delicious standards it promised to set. The movie completely disconnects from the Jano Kapatti theme and is changed into a regular, non-subversive, and safe formula effort. This is where Jano Kapatti fails, having promised so much. One of the strangest aspects of the film was the scenes as the news of Jano’s transformation from female to male occurred. People of all kinds express their joy and delight that she should become a man rather than a woman. Perhaps it’s because the operation has saved her

Jano Kapatti life, or maybe it’s a bit to do with society’s values now that she is a man. Also odd, though refreshing, was that nobody seemed to be phased by this change to their gender. In this case, it could be considered less “questionable” as it wasn’t something Jano had willfully wanted. Thus, it is not morally offensive as a “sex change” procedure would be otherwise viewed.

On the whole, two-thirds of Jano Kapatti is an absolute riot. It deserves to have its minor footnote in the history of Pakistan, even Asian cinema, for featuring a sex change operation as a significant part of the storyline. Memorable moments include the medical experts discussing “sexual reorientation” or “correction therapy”.

It shows that just a few months before General Zia Ul Haq dawned on the country, people were experimenting with some wild and wonderful if equally loopy and whimsical ideas in cinema. Only good could have come of such creative liberty. Jano Kapatti may have missed the bull’s eye, but it is a trailblazer in many ways, and the initial hour and a half are Lollywood at its most insanely brilliant.

Jano Kapatti may be uneven and otherwise flawed, but it’s also a landmark film—a rough, raw diamond. The film promised to be the most provocative in Pakistani cinema history but then opted to play safe and suffered for it, tellingly.

Munawar Zareef’s tragic demise just six days into the film’s release was a fatal blow to Jano Kapatti’s box office hopes. Audiences found watching a movie featuring Zareef cringing in agony and ending up in the hospital was too much to suffer.

Meanwhile, an upcoming film, “Anjam”, started to exploit the actor’s untimely death touting itself as “Munawar Zareef’s last complete colour film”. That film didn’t fare well either, and it was a while before audiences recovered from the shock of losing their beloved actor. Munawar Zareef’s loss to Pakistani cinema was immense.