Sadly, human beings are no strangers to bigotry and partisanship and over the years we have become inexplicably adept at evolving new and more extreme ways of directing our enmity. Our short but violent history on earth is rife with these spikes in unrest and Operation Clean-up (also known as Operation Blue Fox) in May of 1992 in Karachi, Pakistan which ravaged the city is vividly brought back into our consciences through filmmaker Ali Sohail Jaura’s Murder Tongue – stirring story of one nuclear family’s devastating loss and suffering during that unstable period. Jaura has managed to not only pinpoint the indiscriminate nature of the violence of this time and the pervading undercurrent of fear which rightly makes your blood run cold but also speaks to the wider contentious subject of identity politics which continues to divide us today.
Working incredibly closely with Screenwriter Ammar Zafar and ensuring their message was true to real life events, the pair worked with a script doctor and took considerable time to bring together a team who understood, on a deep and essential level, the visual language and tone needed for the film. Murder Tongue will leave you speechless for multiple reasons and admirably stands as a powerful example of the narrative potency of a dramatic short that distils wider politicised movements down to a simple and relatable human level. As Murder Tongue completes its impressive international festival journey by premiering on DN, we speak to Jaura about his intricate casting process which respected the historically accurate dialects of the characters, blocking out a whole swathe of a local neighbourhood for the tension fuelled one-shot sequence and why it was so important to wait for the right moment and collaboration of people to tell this specific story.
How did you start working with Writer Ammar Zafar and come to be directing this film?
Coming from an Urdu speaking community and living in Karachi city all his life, Ammar Zafar, the creator and screenwriter of the film, came up with an original idea which was originally intended to be a thesis film for his undergraduate program at the University of Karachi back in 2014. However, given the political unrest and deteriorating law and order situation at that time, his thesis advisors asked him to park the idea despite the fact that they loved it. Ammar shelved the idea and then went on to make a totally different film for his thesis project.
I then met Ammar at a film screening in 2018 and asked him to pitch something which could be materialized into a short film and create an appeal, not only locally, but globally. We came together and developed several redrafts of Murder Tongue until we were sure that the film would work for most cinema lovers. However, when we consulted a Germany based script doctor Ms. Rachel Matthews, we received completely different feedback: the film might not work unless the characters are rewritten with more depth and purpose. It was then that they decided to do a complete rewrite of Murder Tongue. After completing 11 rewrites, they came to this conclusion: it’s a go!
After such key feedback, how did the development of the script progress?
When we were given feedback from Ms. Rachel, we knew then and there that it was going to be a long process all over again, and we’d have to be very patient with it. Since we were both working as advertising professionals at that time, we used to sit once a week for a couple of hours and discuss how the plot could be rewritten. After spending almost two months, we came up with the idea to give more weight to the female protagonist. And instead of weaving our narrative around Abdul Aziz, we decided to make Naseema the main character of our film. We did 11 rewrites which seems excessive but especially because Naseema was a disabled character, we had to learn how she would communicate and react in certain situations, and evolved our story accordingly.
It was only when we made Naseema’s character the main character of our film, we realized how powerful this story could be.
I was aware there was something hiding from us during the first watch but couldn’t put my finger on what it was and I LOVED the reveal. In a story about linguistic racism, when did the idea of having the wife and husband be deaf/mute originate?
The husband was deaf/mute even in the first draft. It was only when we made Naseema’s character the main character of our film, we realized how powerful this story could be. Also, it was a culture in Pakistan that disabled people, especially deaf/mute individuals married each other. It is not common these days, but it was very common back in the 90s.
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Your casting is impressive and I felt all of the history, backgrounds and lives in each of the characters, was this a challenging part of the process given the story?
We made sure to keep diversity and inclusion as close to reality as possible, as we cast Urdu speaking (Mahajirs) to play characters who are Mahajir in the story, while Sindhi characters are portrayed by Sindhi actors. The only challenging part was the character of the main police officer, who in real life is from the Baloch tribe. However, we loved his dedication to this film and spent months with him rehearsing during which he not only impressed us with his Sindhi accent but also impressed the rest of the Sindhi co-actors by learning basic Sindhi language in just 30 days.
I was holding my breath during that spectacular one-shot sequence in the car. What dictated that mode of coverage and how did you plan the scene to exact such exquisite tension?
The scene was originally intended to be multiple shots stitched together to create tension. However, after discussing this with our Cinematographer Mo Azmi, we decided that it had to be one shot. The reason was very simple: the viewer should feel what the characters are feeling, in real time. Another reason was to build a connection between two different events happening in two different cities: Karachi and Los Angeles. Since viewers are not seeing visuals of the Rodney King Riots of 1992 in Los Angeles, we decided to convey this event through audio while showing the audiences the visuals from Karachi, depicting the Karachi Riots of 1992.
We made sure to keep diversity and inclusion as close to reality as possible.
The scene was challenging as we had to expand our production design from our house to three alleys in Jamshed Quarters (which is the actual location where the State-led operation was conducted in 1992). We blocked a large portion of the neighborhood for the shoot. With the kind cooperation of the people of Jamshed Quarters, we were able to get the final take in just 35 minutes early in the morning, thanks to our skilled focus puller Kamran Rabbani who kept his cool during this tense and pressure building scene and a detailed two days of rehearsals which we conducted two days prior to filming day. It was shot inside the car which was rigged in collaboration with Islam Uddin, a renowned Steadicam operator from Karachi. He rigged the car with DJI Ronin inside while operating the camera from on top of the car, along with the sound recordist and focus puller, who were also above the car when the car was running on the road during the scene.
The film and its themes feel timeless regardless of the specificity of its time in history. How did you devise the look and tone of Murder Tongue’s cinematography which is so rich yet stunningly simple?
We shot the film in 4:3, an aspect ratio known for its retro look but at the same time, giving the filmmaker more space over the x-axis. We chose this ratio for two reasons; one – the ratio was very prevalent in the 90s which is the time we were depicting and it gives viewers an impression that they are looking at old photographs, an inspiration that comes directly from the work of renowned American photographer, Gregory Crewdson.
Me, Ammar and our producer Zafeer Khan, all came together to produce it only when we were sure that we were mentally and intellectually equipped to tackle the challenges of our story.
It is so important that we use film and art as a vehicle to explore our past and the shameful stories within, what does it mean to you as a director to have made such an important and well received film?
As filmmakers, it is important that we believe in our stories. Only then, others will believe in them. Ammar held on to this story for more than seven years and waited for the right moment. Me, Ammar and our producer Zafeer Khan, all came together to produce it only when we were sure that we were mentally and intellectually equipped to tackle the challenges of our story. Not only as director, but each and every member of the film who made this film possible, is proud to tell such an important story. Not because it’s a story about our city, but because it is a story about all of us; all of us are the main character of our film – silent, suppressed and waiting for things to change.
What are you putting your directorial voice to next?
Murder Tongue has been a great learning experience for all of us. It has not only taught us a lot of things we did not know before producing it, it has also given us the motivation to keep on going. And that is what we intend to do. We aim to continue our endeavours and we will continue to create inspiring stories no matter what. Our next project is the first ever collaboration between Pakistan and Korea. It is a very personal story about a connection between strangers facing the same predicament. This film is also written by Ammar and has been produced by Wide Angle Films. We aim to set the premiere of this film by the end of 2024.
