Sheeshay Ka Ghar (1978)
Cast: Shahid, Mumtaz, Waheed Murad, Rozina, Ishrat Chaudhary, Nanna
Director: Nazr-ul-Islam
Synopsis: Mumtaz as the innocent babe, led astray by her lust for fame and fortune.
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

Rozina and Nanna are Mr. And Mrs. David, a couple who are constantly at loggerheads with each other—it’s a miracle they married each other, to begin with. Nanna is earnest and devoted to his bottle, which he has had to hit big time due to the constant henpecking of his crazed, if rather sultry and curvaceous wife, played by the siren of the late ‘60s, Rozina. Here Rozina plays a woman consumed by greed— she trains her daughters to snag rich men for their money without the slightest qualms about prostituting her daughter for the sake of an easier life.

Mumtaz plays the role of spunky Sonia, who is the less immoral of the two David daughters. The other sister Dolly is played by voluptuous beauty, Ishrat Chaudhary, who hasn’t been given ample scope to display her incredible talent in this particular film. The film begins with Mr. and Mrs. David constantly bickering about money—he disapproves of her sleazy ways of trying to attain a fortune regardless and the underhand methods employed.

Sonia (Mumtaz) becomes estranged from her mother due to her decision to marry a lowly clerk, but the young couple initially seems happy enough. However, Sonia soon realizes her desire for a fast life burdens her, and she yearns for the life of the rich and famous. Mumtaz marries her college beau Shahid and moves into a simple flat where the young couple has to fend for themselves on his pittance of a salary.

Slowly but surely, she is willingly led astray by a smooth film hero Imran (Waheed Murad), who takes advantage of her lust for money to lure her away from her husband.

Christmas arrives and proves to be a turning point for Sonia. Feeling insecure, she borrows a massively expensive diamond satt (jewels) from her wealthy friend and loses it during a bout of overly energetic jigging at the local club. She announces her intention to pursue a career as a film actress. Her simmering frustrations surface and the greedy Sonia walks out on her husband, leaving him in the lurch.

While Sonia plunges headlong into her role as screen siren with vigour, her jilted husband leaps headlong into a muddy river below to purge himself of his wretched existence. A bit of a wimp, but we all know that the usual passers will rescue him at some stage, and so it transpires. Still, his saviour happens to be a multi-billionaire, grieving from the loss of a son who was the epitome of the nearly drowned Shahid. Eventually, the adopted billionaire’s substitute son (Shahid) returns home but in a nifty disguise as a big-time film producer and proceeds to employ Sonia for a movie about a treacherous wife, who leaves her devoted husband for life amidst the stars. However, lady luck shines amazingly on Shahid this time because he is rescued from certain death.

Nazr-ul-Islam directed this somewhat convoluted and thoroughly entertaining Lollywood fairytale that failed to click at the box office probably because it was more than just a re-tread of the recent blockbuster Aina which featured a very similar plot. The film is typical Lollywood fare—convoluted over-ripe drama hammed to the hilt with fairytale morals, yet enjoyable for being precisely that.

Sheeshay Ka Ghar The gravelly voiced Mumtaz turns in a splendid performance as the girl is led astray by the sparkle of all things bright and shiny. She builds herself a glorious Glass House of the film’s title, which is the envy of the entire city, yet a glass house is inherently fallible, and it remains to be seen whether her dream house will come crashing down. Rozina is a scene-stealer as the shrewish, scheming and maliciously evil mother who tries to squeeze as much cash as she can from her daughters. Shahid does well as the trampled-upon husband, and Waheed Murad turns a new leaf as a slimy villain. The film suffers from having fragile music and the fact that it was too much of a re-run of the recent Aina. That aside, it is vintage, if a very stale slice of utterly typical Lollywood melodrama.