‘Throughout my
career I’ve tried
not to portray
women characters
as victims or
helpless beings
whose lives are
only governed by
external factors
beyond their
control’
- Mehreen
MEHREEN JABBAR
(Clockwise from leftmost) Hareem Farooq,
Atiqa Odho, Tooba
Siddiqui, Mehreen Jabbar
& Sanam Saeed
s
What inspired the project ‘Dobara
Phir Se?’
Bilal Sami, the writer of the film
and I had been working on a story
for a short telefilm about a
couple’s marriage. Once that
script was done, we thought why
not make a film out of this. So we
sat and discussed it for about 8
hours straight and came up with
the idea of Dobara Phir Se which
ended up being a totally different
story to the short film originally
drafted.
What part of the story really drew
you in?
It’s simple and yet has lots to
say.
How vital is it (particularly in a
climate where laws centering on
women are being debated in the
public sphere) to have women
with their own agency shown in
film and on television screens?
Throughout my career I’ve
tried not to portray women
characters as victims or helpless
beings whose lives are only
governed by external factors
beyond their control. I think
especially in this day and age
where most of our dramas,
barring a few exceptions, are
increasingly portraying some very
retrogressive and stereotypical
women’s roles, it’s very important
to tell stories of women who speak
for themselves, are proactive in
society and in their lives. These
characters can both be inspiring
or flawed but at least they
shouldn’t be pathetic caricatures.
The talk about cinema’s revival in
Pakistan only grows, what do you
find most promising about the
rise? Where can improvements be
focused on?
What is very encouraging is that
more and more people are
interested in investing in cinema
and more and more people are
making films. I think we have to
be careful not to fall into the trap
of only producing one kind of
cinema. What has been great
about this revival is that we have
seen a bunch of different story
lines and visions by various
directors and that trend
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