Joyland Review (2/n - no spoilers)

LV & I finally went to watch Joyland.

Initially when I watched it; my heart burst with pride with the complexity and defntess that this film had achieved.

But as the film finished; LV turned to me and told me how the movie didn’t have the emotional resonance that it should have had for her. On one hand I had my best friend RJ rave to me about how amazing it was and on the other we had our seasoned film director cousin Shala be “meh” about it.

I was hugely conflicted about how I felt about the film but as it dawned on me that Joyland had gotten it 95% of it right but had failed to clinch it. I say this with a lot of despondence but I felt the last 45 minutes of the film (won’t give away any spoilers, do watch it) really let the film down.

The track that featured Biba was strong, powerful and conflict-driven as soon as the movie departed from that angle, it rapidly descended into a pseudo-Persian drama.

Pakistani culture is a lot like Indian culture (our original culture) in that we are a very happy, go-getting people. There was a lot enforced sadness in the film and they missed a very obvious cleft point, in that what happens when transgressive and forbidden love is expressed in a orthodox society like Pakistan.

Like it’s parent Pakistan culture there are some breathless gems of dialogue that is reflective of genius (for instance when the male protaganist reviews who he played in Romeo & Juliet). Also the goat-slaughtering scene spoke volumes. Ali Junejo and Alina Khan were simply stand out as the love interest pair and really pushed the narrative forward.

LV’s addendum: “the film indirectly alluded to the fact that being soft-natured or nice (as a man) is at odds with thriving in a rigid patriarchial society.

What was also powerful is how women suffer from a slow and gradual disintegration of their identities. It is slow but not lost on them and eventually they must pay the price.”

It was sad that the director/creator Saim Sadiq didn’t take a leaf from Bollywood with tighter more focussed storylines, with a bit of a chirpier tone, but instead took inspiration from the dreamier Western-Persian cinematic tradition of flowing melancholy. You can see his previous work, Darling,

As someone who straddles aspects of both worlds, I remained indebted to LV for really bursting my nationalistic bubble and by describing how a chaotic storyline really sank Joyland from being landmark and groundbreaking cinema that it deserved to be.

I loved the film and it is a must watch, what just saddens me is when I think how much more it could/should have been.