Shanee (1989)
Cast: Babra Sharif, Mohd Ali, Sherry Malik, Asif Khan, Nayyar Sultana, Talish
Director: Saeed Rizvi
Synopsis: Lollywood attempts to tackle Sci-fi for the first time with exciting results!
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

Shanee arrived amidst an enormous wave of hype in 1989—touted as the first sci-fi film from the Indian sub-continent with special effects to rival those of Star Wars, Close Encounters, and that lot. Well, perhaps not. The Film was unleashed on a thirsting audience drooling in anticipation, owing to the waves of pre-release hype and publicity.

The ambitious project was undertaken by the Rizvi family of Karachi, who deserve credit for straying a little off the rigid formula of mainstream occasionally.

The Rizvis made a rare horror film a few years ago by the title Sar Katta Insaan, which even bagged the Nigar (local Oscar) award for Best Film. They also made a fantasy special effects extravaganza that bombed at the box office called Tilismi Jazeera. The Film was a Soviet-Pakistani joint venture, but it failed miserably.

Shanee starts with a scene reminiscent of Ed Wood at his most glorious, with a fluorescent plastic spaceship arriving in the middle of the forest near a village. A glowing figure follows a terrified Babra

Sharif to her house, where it decides to assume the appearance of a young man it sees in a lovingly framed photograph.

The villagers greet him with open arms, especially a blushing Babra and her family. Unknown to him, the spaceman has assumed the appearance of Shanee, the man who Babra was due to marry, and who was supposedly brutally murdered by a villainous goon by the name of Shamsher Khan (Asif Khan).

The fake Shanee lands in the thick of it upon his arrival because when he refuses to marry Babra as everyone expected, she blackmails him and forces him to change his mind. Anyway, all appears hunky dory, and Shanee even turns his nose up at going home, defying orders from his planet, claiming that he has fallen for the ways of the humans.

Then one fine day, things turn nasty when evil goon Shamsher Khan, king of the flesh trade, discovers that the thorn he thought he had extracted once and for all has resurfaced to threaten him again.

A chase begins, as Shamsher hunts down and confronts Shanee. Several fight sequences, long, drawn-out chase scenes, a few songs thrown in, and things jog along at a merry pace. Alas, when confronted with the tenth fight sequence, the fifteenth confrontation scene, and the umpteenth chase through the forest scene (a la Texas Chainsaw Massacre!), they grind to a virtual halt.

The Film succeeds to a certain extent despite the horrendously cheesy pre-historic special effect sequences—mainly of Shanee’s eyes emitting deadly ultraviolet rays! Sherry Malik was introduced in the role of Shanee, and either he performs spectacularly well or falls flat

Shanee on his face, depending on how you see things. He is amazingly wooden and almost zombie-like, yet one mustn’t forget that he is an alien, and it can only be expected that his behaviour is a little weird. However, he is wooden beyond belief, even if it was a deliberate attempt at the cinema verite.

Babra, who was at the peak of her popularity, does her best—to behave like a juvenile imp prancing around in a deranged manner, doing a fantastic imitation of a mentally challenged chimpanzee. She looks manic, scampering along in her 9-inch stiletto heels.

Best to focus on the merits of the Film, however few they may be. The Film ends up more of a jungle adventure of the Indiana Jones kind with hair-raising crocodile, python, owl, and cobra attacks, as well as a shocking assault by a bevy of bloodthirsty, animated bats (a leaf out of Hitch’s Birds book). There is also a cheesy Shaanee theme as he vanquishes evil off the earth’s surface.

The Film comes across as a breath of fresh air, though it should have been edited by an hour. Despite the acting range from dreadful to spectacularly good in the case of seasoned veterans, Mohammad Ali and Asif Khan, who won a Nigar (Oscar) award for his dastardly performance as the heinous Shamsher.

Nayyar Sultana lends elegant support, while Tamanna and Talish shine in brief roles. Rizvi makes a noble point about man’s inhumanity to man and how the space people are shocked at how humans treat one another. Where the Film fails spectacularly is as the special effects feast it was touted as—the less said about the special effects, the better. Pre-historic describes them quite adequately in one short, hyphenated word!

Despite all its considerable shortcomings, at least the Rizvis at- tempted something different. They walked away with 5 Nigar Awards, including Best Film and Best Director, even if their bank accounts weren’t quite affected as they had hoped. Whatever became of Sherry Malik? He probably went back to space if he had any sense.