Choosing to care is the first step

This review is my opinion and contains spoilers.

The film Josh: Independence Through Unity encourages everyone to participate in change, whether through giving or having the bravery to say a change should be made.

“A woman is murdered and no one seems to care.” 

Earlier this week, I watched “Josh: Independence Through Unity” on Tubi. A 2012 film directed by Iram Parveen Bilal, with its cast as its strength, speaks to the issues in tribal culture politics. It begins in a classroom where the lecture is poised to question the logistics of the borders drawn during the Partition. There isn’t clarity to the people as to whether there is an agreement or how this affects Kashmir, which is left to be addressed in the next class session (which the audience never attends). From the beginning, we can tell this is a film that wants to look into the issues in Pakistan while knowing its limitation as to how much time there is to give a full explanation in the span of a 90-minute film.

Josh follows the storyline of a teacher, Fatima (played by Amina Sheik), from a privileged background, seeking answers to the disappearance of her nanny, Nusrat Bi (Nayla Jafri), after she leaves to visit her village. As Fatima walks into Nusrat Bi’s village, she arrives at Nusrat Bi’s janaza. From scenes the audience was aware of prior and is beginning to know more about, Fatima learns that her nanny raped and murdered her in front of her mother to pay for her brother’s theft of wheat and subsequent hiding. With her determination and the help of friends, Fatima uses her resources to make a food kitchen and expose the damage done by the landlord’s rationing and brutality. The villagers were hesitant to support Fatima; Nusrat Bi’s murder served as an example of punishment for those who rebelled. There are also comments from the villagers and the landowner that the “city woman” is not truly invested, nor would she follow through. But she does and faces personal consequences during her pursuit. At the end of the film, she watches the news as to how the crimes of the landowner are under investigation. She smiles and switches the channel. An audio montage of flipping channels showcase the various issues in Pakistan, from the bombing of masjids, Sikhs protesting at Panja Sahib, and political corruption, issues that still affect Pakistan today.

Viewing Fatima’s perspective as a vessel into how people react to Pakistan’s issues is the best way to make sense of the characterization of a city person of status taking on village tribal politics. To some extent, having such distance from how most of society operates allows one to see the conditions around them changeable within their own lives—having resources enables this person to make these changes for themselves and others, whether it is the villagers or the arthritic street painter who never gets a fair deal, whom she purchases all his works at what she finds a more than decent price (of 50 rupees). Fatima’s attachment and loss of her nanny show how genuine her sentiments are. While there are issues this teacher could solve with her funds and connections, the ones showcased at the end of the film are not. I did want to watch a film that had an overview of Pakistani society. Still, I hesitate to think that showing apathy as the root of the problem in Pakistan’s infrastructure is really the best way.

I hope those who watch the film feel compelled to make a difference where they can with whatever resources they have and to challenge their emotional bandwidth as much as possible. I felt that. Democratizing education could help with empowerment, but everyone in Pakistan seems to know the issues in the country. Perhaps, as I am sitting in the diaspora, I struggle to agree that the overall infrastructural issue is that fear is the only thing holding people back from receiving help. This might not be the film’s goal; maybe showcasing the other issues in Pakistan will show many more problems there. Some are addressable with resources in the short term. Others can’t. And perhaps that is where the conversation should begin. The film’s title tries to call in that resources were not the reason the food kitchen could be implemented, but it was the collective effort of the village to accept and make use of the resources. Coming together is what solves problems. If everyone from all backgrounds worked together to use their unique assets, many of the issues in Pakistan could be solved.

Watch “Josh: Independence Through Unity” on Tubi.