Razia Phans Gayi Ghundon Mein (2015)
Cast: Nida Chaudhary, Ahmed Butt, Madhu, Babar
Director: Shahid Rana
Synopsis: A farcical revenge action drama with extreme corruption as the backdrop. Cheap and pretty atrocious with dreadfully cliched performances yet fast-moving and oddly enjoyable.
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

Razia Phans Gayi Ghundon Mein has all the ingredients that suggest another semi-pornographic, grim rape-revenge I Spit on Your Grave clone. Aziz Jehangiri as its producer, Nida Chaudhary, and many stage mujra sirens in the cast, and to its credit. It is a considerable surprise that the film hardly features a single rape scene, nor do the song picturizations stoop to the lurid levels that Saeed Ali Khan and Rasheed Dogar’s movies tend to. Sadly, this lack of obscenity could be a primary reason for its less-than-stellar performance at the Box Office.

The film’s plot revolves around the unfortunate mess that an aspiring model, Razia (Nida Chaudhary), keeps finding herself in.

A corrupt scammer initially snares her into the construction business and ropes her in to advertise his dodgy Housing Society. A bigger fish exploits the scammer himself, and then there are the cops, who are worse than most of the sleazy politicians, gangsters, and criminals depicted in the film.

Poor Razia keeps fleeing one sticky situation only to land in another equally dreadful one, if not worse than her previous predicament. This occurrence keeps revolving and evolving as the movie goes along.

The film suggests that Pakistani society stinks of corruption and exploitation at every level, including ministers, politicians, businessmen, lawyers, and police. The only segment spared is the military, which doesn’t feature in the mix.

Ahmed Butt, our muscle-bound hero, enters 30 minutes into the film and is the shining knight in armour, the sole support for beleaguered Razia. He plays a police inspector but has to dodge various sleazy situations as his seniors and co-workers are also corrupt.

Razia Phans Gayi Ghundon Mein is a sad reflection of how most cinema-going public perceives the Pakistani state. There is much villainous posturing and references to gang rapes (which fortunately are not depicted on-screen), and it very much suggests a society that has broken down at every step and sold out with a total lack of morality on any level of government and authority. Most Pakistanis are more than used to schemes, scams, looting, cheating, match-fixing, rape, murder, false police encounters and a dubious judiciary as the standard way of life.

It’s a sad indictment of how the public views the state mechanism, which seems rotten beyond redemption. The film is too crass to be taken seriously, yet the storyline’s context and texture are entirely embroiled in corruption and the ailments of a disastrously failed state.

It’s a commercial revenge pot-boiler. The usual saucy dance sequences, chases, fights, thunderous dialogues, romance, and masala are the formula of most local films. The film’s pace seldom flags, and the viewer is engaged in events as the plot thickens and winds its way to its conclusion. Characters can be shot dead and then recovered miraculously, which is one aspect that keeps the film interesting. They also suddenly have a change of nature and switch from villains to

Razia Phans Gayi Ghundon Mein heroes with disarming abilities, which adds to this production's ridiculous fun factor

Nida Chaudhary, known for her vulgar dance numbers, is relatively restrained in this film, making a surprising and somewhat welcome change, though her vengeful kisses of death are murderous stuff. Ahmed Butt has more scope than most movies he has appeared in and doesn’t take his shirt off even once, which must be some record.

It’s a pretty ridiculous film, yet quite revealing in its depiction of a society that has rotted away, eaten away by corruption at every level of government. It is a rough, jaunty film that is oddly devoid of major sleaze, and to its credit, it manages to keep the viewer engaged and amused throughout its running time. Dreadful but oddly entertaining, as well as a damning indictment of the existing state of affairs.