New Delhi: Pakistan is gearing up for what is no less than a cinematic revival – its first Sindhi film release in 26 years. Indus Echoes has been described as a film “of Sindhis, by Sindhis, for Sindhis”. But for director Rahul Aijaz, it’s more than that. It is the “latest manifestation” of his “obsession with making films on the Indus.”
“The gap of 26 years is due to [former President] Zia-ul-Haq, who Islamised Pakistan and destroyed the media industry and the freedom they had,” says Aijaz while speaking to ThePrint. When the Pakistani film industry slowly woke up from the dead after 2007, it began to favour formulaic mainstream cinema – one that was less risky and generated more benefits.
There were few takers for independent filmmakers’ work as no one was willing to take a chance. Aijaz decided to change that and bring “some difference and diversity” to the industry.
“I was tired of waiting, so I wrote something I could make on a limited budget”, he says.
For Aijaz, who is also a journalist, making Sindhi films could lead to the “rebirth of Sindh cinema” in Pakistan. In 2020, he made a short film called The Train Crosses the Desert, the first-ever Sindhi short to come from Pakistan. It was also screened internationally at prestigious events like the Jaipur Film Festival in India.
“It’s just a lot of creatively hungry people trying to make something with our hearts,” he says earnestly.
Aijaz was toying with a Sindhi phrase, “conversations with the River Indus”, when he came up with a full-length feature film idea. The filmmaker’s “self-destructive affair with large bodies of water,” also prompted his interest in the theme. As a Sindhi, the Indus River, or the “Sindhu Dariya”, as he calls it, has always been a part of his existence.
A truly global affair
Indus Echoes is a co-production between Pakistani, South Korean, and Ecuadorian production houses and talents. Post-production work has begun on the film, which stars Vajdaan Shah, Ansaar Mahar and Samina Seher. The trailer has a sombre and intriguing mood and gives nothing away.
“Indus Echoes examines the relationship between humans and the great Indus River through five stories set on, across, and around the Indus,” the synopsis reads. The stories examine our relationship with the river and the many benefits it has brought us throughout the millennia,” it further states.
Aijaz describes the film’s themes as “the push and pull that we feel with our home and our mothers” because, for him, the river Indus is akin to a mother.
“The region we live in would not have had that civilisation if it were not for the river. Wherever there is water, there is life – be it [the] Ganga, [the] Indus or the Nile or [the] Han.”
Currently in South Korea’s Busan, Aijaz has already started work on his next venture on Ajrakh makers in Sindh, which is again centred around the Indus River.
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What Indus means to Sindhis
The idea underneath, he says, is to understand the pangs of staying away yet holding on. Migration in Pakistan is a current issue. Most Pakistanis want to leave the country but also struggle to leave their home behind.
“For Sindhis, the Sindhu or the Indus is our river. It is our mother–the one who gave us existence,” he says, recalling how many Indian filmmakers he met shared similar sentiments.
The Sindhu Dariya, he was told, was the most mentioned river in the Rig Vedas. There is “an overarching understanding and longing for the river” among the South Asian population, he says.
The filmmaker excitedly informs that the reception to the film has been “amazing” in Pakistan, and he looks forward to a positive response. His phone hasn’t stopped buzzing since news about the movie’s release broke this Tuesday, and Aijaz couldn’t be more excited. Indus Echoes will first premiere at film festivals before opening in theatres worldwide.
“It’s something universal. It doesn’t matter where you come from, what language you speak, what colour you are—when you watch the film, you’re going to identify with the struggles of the people because the emotions are universal.”
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)