Wehshi Aurat (1995)
Cast: Saima, Sultan Rahi, Bahar, Chakori, Shahida Mini, Asif Khan
Director: Ali Raza
Synopsis: Vengeance, Rape, Murder, lesbian catfights – the usual mayhem!
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

The movie opens with Saima riding merrily on her tonga with her mates—they’re having the time of their lives, judging by the collective giggling and tittering. The girl-power posse is hurtling down the dirt tracks of the “local pind” when their route is rudely blocked by a swank Pajero bearing an assortment of typically bellied, mustachioed, wigged-out Chaudhry types. There is a heated exchange between Baali (Saima), who tells the Chaudhrys where to get off and plants a stinging slap on the leading buffoon’s fat face.

The screen freezes in shock for a moment or two before we watch the procession of Chaudhrys return home to their estate. They park their cars in the garden as is the norm and sit on sofas laid out for them in the garden. The Chaudhrys hold court before the lowly minions who must sit on the floor. The Chaudhrys and goons use AK-47s at all times; fortunately, their bullets can always be dodged by the virtuous.

The Junior Chaudhry hangs his head in shame at being slapped in the face by a lowly woman and his fire-breathing father, the senior Chaudhry and his brothers, swear to wreak havoc unless the girl is slaughtered in an instant. However, the junior Chaudhry tells them he wants the hot-headed Saima as his wife, so the senior Chaudhry sets out to seek the girl’s hand for the buffoon.

Baali’s father turns out to be the estranged brother of the senior Chaudhry, who had walked out on the family when he was swindled out of his land. He rejects his brother’s request for Baali’s hand; thus, the scene is set for family rivalry, bloodletting, and mayhem.

The humiliated Senior Chaudhry, his sons, and the goons swear revenge and plan to kidnap Saima and marry her forcibly to the bumptious buffoon. Saima’s father is bludgeoned to death, and one of her brothers is massacred by the Chaudhrys as they attempt to kidnap her in broad daylight.

The Wehshee Aurat is suddenly awoken, and Saima guns down two of the Chaudhry’s men but is caught by the police and dragged away to a unisex prison, where she comes across Majo (Sultan Rahi). Majo is in jail because he trampled a would-be rapist to death using his horse as a weapon! Majo reads of Saima’s murders in the papers and is duly impressed, but when he sees her in the flesh, he is smitten by her stunning beauty and more than ample attributes.

The film follows the path of one comic book confrontation following another, with bullets flying everywhere and loads of red paint splattered. There is the odd Madame Noor Jehan saucy number thrown in to try to break up the redundant, repetitive nature of the plot—a tactic that doesn’t work.

The film is memorable, however, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is yet another blueprint of the typical Punjabi plot involving warring evil Chaudhrys perpetrating all sorts of horrors on the poor local populace, including rape at every opportunity. Saima’s performance is considered the turning point in her early career, as she demonstrated the ability to carry off a film on her shoulders. She has devised an interpretation of sustained, demented machismo and shown that she can do a perfectly passable impersonation of Rahi himself. Throughout the movie, she scowls, growls, and struts around like a charged-up psychopath. Yet, she is pretty compelling to watch, especially in those clothes designed to accentuate her ample

Wehshi Aurat bosom. Her dances are also suitably saucy and raunchy—the prerequisites of earthy Punjabi cinema.

However, the most memorable part of the movie is a scintillating guest appearance by the ‘70s/’80s seductress Chakori as Daro Nathni (remember Maula Jatt?), a murderous She-butch queen-of-the-cell. Chakori moves on to the new fish Saima, and we are treated to a delicious catfight. Chakori may have aged a bit and gained a few extra kilos, but she still looks sublimely gorgeous, even in shabby prison garb.

Another memorable scene at the film’s climax is when Sultan Rahi is staggering to the ground, bleeding to death, having been felled by some vicious axe blows. His mother, Bahar, exclaims that he will have hell to look forward to unless he destroys all his enemies before falling dead. Naturally, Rahi rises to the challenge and reduces all opposition to a steaming pulp, and life continues. The film is run-of-the-mill Lollywood revenge mayhem, given an extra dose of botched feminism. The production values are nil, the editing a shocker, and continuity shot to pieces, yet somehow the show rolls on and is more bizarre for having Boney M’s Nightflight to Venus as the background theme. Night Flight to Venus incidentally is among Lollywood’s most worshipped western Pop music, along with such classics as Laura Branigan’s Self-Control and The Eye of the Tiger theme from the Rocky movies. Timeless Lollywood favourites.