( Her screaming of Capt Naveed’s name repeatedly and showing extreme displeasure at his T-Shirt, which the poor guy refused to part ways with till the end, is another sorry tale in this love saga)
My last act of insanity came to its logical end almost three decades back when I stopped watching Urdu films produced by our rotten film (filth) industry. The final blow came when I sat in the stinking cinema hall while the celluloid showed our fifty year old great legend star, Muhammad Ali, wearing shorts, jumping like a child, entering the house and grabbing his mother who looked almost twenty years younger than him and shouting “‘Maa! mein ne matric ka imtehan pass kar liya!’”. At his age, for all practical reasons, he should have announced the completion of a doctorate. The last thing I heard before walking out of the cinema was the promise he made to his sister “shaboo” for arranging her dowry owing to his “matriculation” degree.
Times have changed since then. Like most of the things around us, the film industry died long time back. But certain things associated with our celluloid celebrities take away all our sensibilities as we float in the sea of social media revolution. One such incident was the emergence of a “family” video clip of our Lolly-Wood actress Meera, which puts to shame the adventures of bold and the beautiful Veena Malik or for that matter most of the Hollywood actresses.
The video went viral within seconds which literally puts to shame the maximum speed of light. The world’s biggest search engine, Google, received record number of hits from around the world from people searching the most sought after video. It is reported that many servers simply crashed because of excessive load on their networked resources. Every household, may it be conservative or liberal finally got hold of the clip and then started an endless debate on its “contents”. Our Moulvi’s also had a field day when they shed light on the “moral” aspects of the clips during the Juma Prayer sermons.
Media, as usual, looking for or creating a new scandal, had a great feast. One anchor known for his questionable credibility got hold of the “approximately-married” couple and came up with two classic talk shows. The channel ratings went sky high as millions glued their eyes to the TV screens to listen from the horse’s mouth the authenticity of this “ferocious family” clip. The cities looked like Ghost cities with the sight of humans as rare as the sight of any foreign tourist in Pakistan.
Historically, Meera, the famous Pakistani actress, is always in the news because of her notorious scandals. She has always remained in the limelight may it be her repeated multiple marriage issues, alleged affair with cricketer Shoaib Akhtar (derailed Rawalpindi Express) or Atiq ur Rehman; the man claiming to be her “actual” notary public attested husband. It is widely believed that most of the scandals are orchestrated by her media managers to ensure that the demand for her “companionship” remains high (has sky rocketed to lacs after the release of this clip).
The controversy is about two, 2-Min 34 Sec (each) intimate MMS videos featuring her and her ex-fiancée captain Naveed Pervaiz. Just wonder how come the captain used to flying high got into such a low flight. Although the contents of the clip relate more to the “crimes of passion”, however for the sake of “innocence”, they can be categorized as homemade amateur family divine conceptions.
However one should salute the courage of the lady to declare that it was a fake video in which the body doubles were used who wore masks to replicate her and her “approximate-husbands” body. She went on to site the Bollywood movie Dhoom-3 in which similar top of the line technology was used. Her screaming of Capt Naveed’s name repeatedly and showing extreme displeasure at his T-Shirt, which the poor guy refused to part ways with till the end, is another sorry tale in this love saga.
The real tragedy is that despite her immense talent, our country has failed to reap any sustainable benefits. In the last general elections, she announced her plans to enter politics by applying for the women reserved seats. No party; not even Moulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, offered her any place.
To sum it up, this whole episode just proves that we as a nation are neither moved by the site of dead bodies flying around us in the daily bomb blasts nor our conscience is stirred by the decapitated bodies found rotting in the sewers. What really matters to us are Meera and her videos. We are for sure destined to be doomed.
The writer is a PhD in Information Technology, alumni of King’s College London and a social activist. He has authored two books titled Understanding Telecommunications and Living in the Grave and several research papers.The writer prefers to avoid human interaction and finds peace & happiness being alone, in silence with his own self.
Email:drirfanzafar@gmail.com drirfanzafar.com
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