In conversation with Maaz Maudood

Number may dictate a lot of things in the entertainment industry but they can’t account for talent.Just this year, it is Kamal Khan’s debut feature film - Laal Kabootar - that has the honour of being the best film of the year with a killer soundtrack to go with it. The outliers have proven to be the ones to watch. Rani, the short film, is another great example. In the same vein is Maaz Maudood’s Machinepur (watch out for its review in this space) which he wrote, directed and animated as well. As the plotline suggests, the film is “a story about finding purpose and meaning in a robotic world. It is the journey of a robot, named circuit, from slavery to his awakening. After finding himself trapped in the routine created by the system, a dream leaves him with questions that had never been asked before. As he travels in search for answers, his life unfolds in front of him in ways he had never imagined. Based on a planet far far away, Machinepur is a ride to unexplored territories of our hearts”.Machinepur has managed to make a mark and made it to a number of festivals such as Official Selection AKS international Minorities Festival 2019, Official Selection Asia Peace Film Festival - Campus Cinema 2019 and Official Selection SSFC - StarzPlay Shortfilm Competition 2019.Speaking to Instep, director of the film – Maaz Maudood - discusses the film, his band Kaavish and what his next film will be about. “My main purpose is the idea and the message behind the film, which is a little wake-up call maybe for people to be more altruistic. We are all so caught up in our routines that we’ve forgotten about the main things that matter, which is love, compassion and empathy.”As Maaz notes further, “The film was an attempt to appeal to maybe even just one person who watches it and maybe gets some direction; I knew the film would not be seen by millions.”The reason he made it, primarily, as Maaz notes, is that there was something inside him that kept telling him to make something meaningful. The purpose hasn’t changed, even with his next film but if Machinepur is a little over 10 minutes long, his next – so far untitled – will be 20 minutes long, confirms Maaz. “It’s slightly similar but not similar at all actually. It revolves around a scientist who starts building a robot and the tentative name is The Robot Who Wanted to be Human. I made a list of what makes us human and once again, there’s love, compassion, empathy, loyalty, sacrifice, and all of these things. So the film is about the scientist and the robot and how he teaches him all these wonderful things that make us human. I’m still deciding if it should be a short film or something else.”As for similarity, in terms of idea, with Hollywood films like I, Robot and the more recent Ex Machina, says Maaz, “It’s about how you tell the story. It’s not about the label. It’s about the key elements, and local elements and its totally animated.”Fans of Maaz Maudood, along with Jaffer Zaidi, who form Kaavish and released the sonorous Gunkali nearly a decade ago and have since then also appeared on Coke Studio on multiple occasions, need not worry. As Maaz confesses, “Kaavish is not going anywhere; no one can take that away from us. We keep doing it. In recent month or two, we’ve spent a lot of time in the studio and we’re trying to figure out what approach to take. Our genre and style will stay the same but to enhance it musically is the goal. It’s feeling-based so it’ll be interesting to see what comes out. In bits and pieces, we’ve done 10 tracks. But they are incomplete.”“I don’t know when, but Kaavish will come out with new music. It’s something very close to us; it’s for the sake of doing music, not for money or fame. We love music and you know Jaffer (Zaidi), he was born for it. That’s something we’ll never part ways with,” he concludes.

from The News International - Instep Today http://bit.ly/2V3qB4P