'Lahore' seeks to build bridges between India, Pak
New Delhi | Friday, Mar 19 2010 IST
 

At a time when Bollywood films and sports form two of the biggest factors to bring people of India and Pakistan together, a film using the sport of kickboxing as a medium to strengthen the bond between the two nations hits Indian cinema screens today.

With its tag line 'Beyond borders, between Nations lies a battle to end all wars', 'Lahore', which hits theatres across India, is another film, after R K Films Henna and Yash Chopras Veer Zaara, that seeks to build bridges between the two countries.

Directed by debutant filmmaker Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan and produced by Vivek Katkar and J S Rana, Lahore features talented actors like Farooq Shaikh, Nafisa Ali, Sushant Singh, Shraddha Nigam, Saurabh Shukla, Kelly Dorji, Mukesh Rishi and the late Nirmal Pandey. It also marks the debut of Aanaahad and Shraddha Das in the lead.

The film is about Veerendra Singh from India (Aanahaad) who is living with an aspiration to quench the thirst for revenge for a wrong done to his brother who died during a kickboxing match with Pakistan. He has to satisfy the nation of a billion. Though he is a sports person who has to win the kickboxing tournament for his nation, more than the sport is a feeling of vengeance mounting deep in his heart which is much bigger than any victory. The film is about whether he puts retaliation for that past ill event before the spirit of sport and goodwill between the two nations.

For the debutant director Sanjay Puran Chauhan, a kick boxer himself on the international arena, Lahore was a medium to portray how sports can be an excellent medium for strengthening the bonds between the two countries if only one could rise over the antagonism characterising relations between players of the two countries and the bitterness added by people around.

I envisaged the film 14 years ago when I thought of making a film around kickboxing. Having been an integral part of that world became my strength to portray what I have in the film today. Lahore was a dream I believed in and every single day of its making was like waking up to relieve that dream,' the filmmaker said.

Shot in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lonavla, Malaysia and Lahore, the film, which has won several international awards, is considered as the most authentic sports films ever made in India and has had some of the best technicians from Hollywood and Bollywood working on it.

Produced by Sai Om Films Private Limited, Lahore, which is being released in India by Warner Bros, has production design by Kesto Mondal, music by M M Kreen, action choreography by Master Tony Leung Sui Hung. Wayne Sharpe has done the original background score while Rob Miller (of Chak De India fame) was its sports consultant.

Lahore has already won many international awards including Best Feature Film Jurys award at the 42nd World Fest (Houston), Most Aspiring Filmmaker at International Filmmaker Fest (UK), Best Actor award at the Salento International Film Festival at Italy, Best Actor Award at the Tenerife International Film Festival award in UK and six nominations including Best Picture and Best Director at the Asian Festival of first films at Singapore.

-- (UNI) -- 19DI10.xml

 

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