Breaking Dawn: Doesn’t Live Up to Expectations

The most highly anticipated movie of the year is finally upon us. The Twilight saga continues with its latest installment Breaking Dawn. Although most of its fans have read the book and know what happens, it is the idea of a work of fiction being brought to life by an incredibly beautiful cast that makes us go the extra mile and watch it in the cinema. The fourth book of the Twilight series is by far the best book written by Stephenie, but the film which is based on it, does not live up to the hype. If I had to describe the movie in one word I would say,“disappointing”. Die-hard twilight fans will love it, and stand by it while others will just be mystified and bewildered by the crazy saga unfolding on screen. I wont deny there is unexpected humor thrown in the mix, but the melodrama is so intense it over powers every other theme in the movie.

The chemistry between the main leads to put it very bluntly is just plain awkward. It seems as if they are still stuck in that pubescent phase of their first meeting. Whether they are being intimate or trying to project seriousness to the scene everything seems overly inept.

The one thing I will praise however is the wedding scene. It was in my opinion the height of sophistication personified. With white flowers dangling everywhere, the gorgeous forest-ish feel enhanced the beauty of the actors and communicated to us wonderfully the union of the two souls. Bella’s dress designed by Carolina Herrera was definitely the highlight of the scene. The chic yet edgy wedding dress did wonders for Stewart on her wedding day.

Moving on to the rest of the cast, Jacob: the werewolf was simply a delight to watch. You can clearly see his evolution through the series. His acting has improved vastly and he has visibly become more mature over time.
The stages of Bella’s pregnancy were very well shot and the make-up done to show her ailing over time was very convincing – even though, the birthing scene of the film was perhaps the most gruesome and horrific one I have seen in a while. The pro-life theme evident throughout the film has to be applauded as it gives the young fans a moral lesson. Being a pro-life supporter myself, I liked the scene where Rosalie corrected Alice when she referred to the baby as a fetus instead of a “life”. In conclusion I would like to say that even though the movie was an overall disappointment, it did have its moments – not that that’s going to stop Twilight fans from watching the film. Being an avid fan myself, let us just hope the second part supersedes its predecessor.

Am I Insane?

In the last decade, Pakistan’s fashion industry has witnessed a boom, with that summer season also surged in Pakistan. Gone are the
days when the scorching heat indicated the summer arrival, now the designers’ lawn billboards are popping in every corner of the city
and the rush in the clothing shops enforces you to accept that summer has now arrived. The mad rush in clothing shops, morning hosts donning in stunning designers’ lawn prints and extensive media coverage is enough to drive any woman crazy about designers’ lawn. I am also one of those fashion savvy women who blindly fall for the designers’ exclusive designs and would be ready to pay any price.

When my mother asked me, “How much money do I need for the summer’s shopping?”, I told my mother thatI want to buy a “designers’ name” lawn suit. My innocent mother had no idea about these designers’ lawns and their prices but my sister who was standing right behind me instantly responded, “Are you insane?” First, I gaped at her and said “What?…..What’s the point of insanity in it?”. So here is her lecture, which is undoubtedly very famous these days: It is total insanity if you buy a Rs.5000 lawn suit, in that price you could buy any 2 ordinary lawn suits (with high quality). Moreover,
after 3 or 4 washes, the lawn suit will not even be worth wearing. By the way, where are you going to wear that Rs.5000 lawn suit? These
designers are experts in making people fools, their quality is just fine and the designs are not even exclusive blah blah blahhhhhh.” I was not in the mood of saying anything besides this and I had left nothing to say, so I ended up the conversation with the word
“Whatever”. The next day when I and my best friend were about to go for shopping, I told her, “let’s go to a designers’ name shop
first”. I want to buy a lawn suit. She literally said, “Are you insane?” I was immensely amazed by her answer because I was not expecting these words from my best friend, and that she repeated the exact words of my sister.

My best friend and sister both tried to convince me that people who buy these designers’ lawn suits and designers who are coming up with their lawn, are insane. But my question is “Why on Earth buying designers’ lawn doubt our sanity?”

life style

life style

Every Sana, Nida and Hina is coming out with designer lawns.
Thankfully never a fan of lawn as a material, it does not wake up the woman in me.
However I remember my mother, who lives in Delhi, where summers are really biting, once came back from a trip to Pakistan in mid 80s, all excited, for having discovered a wonder cloth. She is a woman with sensitive skin, and sweat rash (garmee daaney, as we call it in desi jargon) was what she had to struggle with each Delhi summer.
Fed up of wearing starched Khadis (hand spun cotton) and malmals (muslin) in the sweltering heat, she said she found something which was soft, low maintenance, colorfast and did not need any starching. The picture she painted with her descriptions and expressions got me really curious to open up her suitcase and dig out the jewel, basically to choose which one was mine.

The result that came out of that digging was so befitting to the Hindi idiom “Khoda pahaar per nikla chooha aur woh bhi mara hua”

The first look of it was totally unappealing –bold designs on the shirt piece, with its giant replicas on the dupatta. Didn’t need to check the third of the half a dozen three piece suits she brought.

“What’s wrong with your taste? Ammi will you wear this?”


“They are so comfortable. And most of all they are so reasonable. One suit costs just Rs 225.”
She didn’t even bother to comment about my ‘taste’ rant.
From then on, I saw her pass all the worst days of summers in lawn suits. And when I got married in Pakistan (perhaps she must have prayed for this secretly for her own vested interests) all she wanted from me each visit was…”bring in lawn ke suits, so that meri garmiyaan nikal jaayein.”

I remember from 1990 onwards, buying them for Ammi from Rs 250, Rs 450, Rs500, then Rs1000, 1200, 2500, and last I got for her was Rs 3500. Agree that with time, along with the prices, the designs evolved too. And they certainly got better.

But each time, Ammi felt uneasy with the price escalation. At the 3500 one she told me, “Enough, I don’t need a dress at this exorbitant price just to soak my sweat.”
And now with the advent of designer tag they have graduated to even five digit prices (at the higher end). And they usually begin from 4,000 going upto 12,000, I am told.

I remember some 2 years ago, hearing two cousins talking of outlets where they got the same designs as the big brands copied at much lower prices.
“The original is so expensive, so I buy the duplicate ones.”

“Even the previous year’s designs are available at cheaper price,” said the other.

“Yes, but you know there is a teacher in my school who thinks she is very smart. She instantly recognizes, ‘ye to pichle saal ka design hai’. So I can’t wear that. But woh kaminee tou isko bhi pehchaan jaati hai, ke ye duplicate hai.’

“Why do you need to copy? Or in fact wear designer lawn at all”, I asked.

She rubbished my question and moved on to some other topic.

This is certainly not to act snobbish, but I certainly find it hard to fathom the compulsion to owe one’s allegiance to these ‘disposable’ pieces of cloth which are so short term that they become obsolete the next season.
If I have so much money to spare( 5-7,000+ on a dress) , I will perhaps invest in a piece I can cherish for longer, and if you ask my secret desire, it would be on something I can pass on to my daughter. And indeed I have done exactly by getting hold of some beautiful pieces with Baluchi, Afghani or Sindhi hand embroideries.
Dump my hard earned money into a casual wear lawn suit which won’t last the next summer—no way.
In the background of so much disinterest for the designer fad, I was made to see this disgusting ad ( see the bottom pic) by a twitter pal.

And this perhaps was the boiling point of my emotions for the ‘designer lawn’ and hence I decided to blog my disdain for them.
With all the designer hype or price escalation, the brand had the audacity to show their product with coolies in the background.
What did they wish to relate to?
Was it the quality of attire in comparison? Oh ! Theirs is so simple, non designer unlike mine. Yet in my two dim visioned eyes, the poor men’s is the rawest of cottons.

Or

Was it about the worth of one’s labour? Oh look at us, how much we get for the every drop of sweat we shed in the labor for those ‘designs’.

Or

Was it about the matching colors?

But then, Buddhist monks and Hindu sadhus too wear the color similar to the woman’s. With ‘Muslims’ as their major market, it was too much of a risk to take.

Oh yes, the coolies do not prick anyone’s sensitivity, so were pretty risk free to have as a background.
Kudos to the imaginative advertising companies that thought of this ad and flexibility of the Designer Textile Company that approved of it and owned it.

To me personally this was absolutely nauseating akin to showing middle finger to the poor fellows in the background.

So rightly had someone commented:

“Thank you for hiding their faces with your brand name.”

Hats off to the feudal mindset, yet another common man’s commodity, the lawn has turned into an elitist product. Of course in business jargon this is called a ‘value addition’. So what if it gets unaffordable to the vast majority, at least it looks coool (with a triple o)!

How I wish we did some value addition to Islam too in Pakistan?

On a second thought, haven’t we?
With the tags of suicide bombs, racial violence, we have made it a brand which ordinary Muslims like me find hard to afford.