MovieChat Forums > West Is West (2011) Discussion > They didn't look Pakistani at all to me.

They didn't look Pakistani at all to me.

posted 13 years ago by keshav7732
21 replies | jump to latest

The people in the film did not look Pakistani to me - I am a Northwest Indian (Punjabi) myself - and most of the actors in the film were Dravidian's and looked like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56316055@N02/5540450951/

They didn't actually show proper none-Dravidian Punjabi people like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56316055@N02/5473315273/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56316055@N02/5540472463/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56316055@N02/5541047588/

<< If you looked at the actor who played Sajid (Aqib Khan) he looked like a fish out of water next to them, and didn't really look racially the same at all.

I am not trying to be racist or anything but I am just saying, it kind of made the film lose it's authenticity for me to a certain extent..

[–] shiroi_rain 13 years ago

Well you clearly come of ass a bit racist. Dravidians? Who in the film was Dravidian. And by that do you mean South Indian? The punjabi people your showing
pictures of are the ones that dont look punjabi at all. They actually look more Arab. I know several Punjabi people who are fairly dark and also look more or less like the people depicted in the film.

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i think its in my contract. somewhere near the end?

[–] keshav7732 13 years ago

LOL how am I racist? - how are the people I am showing not looking Punjabi? They are people I know and have the very typical Punjabi ethnicity look about them.

Aqib Khan, the actor who played Sajid as well - stood out like a fish out of water, it just made the film seem unrealistic to me. Most Punjabi's in general look like these:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60925882@N05/5554107173/

Certainly not how depicted in the film...

[–] shiroi_rain 13 years ago

The thing is most punjabi's DONT look like that. Certainly some do, but like all parts of India there is a very high variation in skin-tone and variations in all states. The truth of the matter is South Indian people are not all dark and Punjabi people are not all fair. The people in the film, none of them were of South Indian origin so i don't know what your saying. Secondly, who exactly didn't look Punjabi? Posting pictures of the fairest Punjabi people you know doesn't prove any point, it just further points out the fact that variations exist.

* * * * * * * * *
i think its in my contract. somewhere near the end?

[–] keshav7732 13 years ago

<< Most Punjabi's do look like that and the people I am showing are typical Punjabi looking - the Dravidian Punjabi's which make-up around 25% do but most such as my family, friends and myself certainly do not.

It was just Biased and unrealistic - it makes us all look ugly and black - when in general most of us don't look like that.

<< Most people in the film (their names) are Marwari's and other Indians who also usually look like that. But the film is supposed to be set in a Pakistani Punjabi village whereas most of us don't look like that - on typical we look like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60925882@N05/5554653660/

<< The boy on the left looks like most other typical Indians - whereas the boy on the right looks more Punjabi.

More typical Punjabi's look like these:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60925882@N05/5554535942/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60925882@N05/5554036093/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60925882@N05/5554135255/

So why didn't they show what we really look like? This isn't racist but I am just saying - that is like if they made a film about Sub-Saharan Africans but instead used the lighter skinned Blacks such as Beyonce or Chris Brown.

Most other Indians in general don't look like this so I don't know what your on about? The only people in general who look anything like this in India are in the Northwest regions such as Punjab, Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh. Indeed Punjab is mixed with variation of facial features (YET the film did not even show this variation?) - most Southern Indians are really dark and in general have Dravidian facial features - the only one's who look more like that are from higher castes who have Northwestern ancestory anyway.

Other than dwelling deep into genetical perspectives I just don't think the people looked Punjabi at all - and it made the film seem so unrealistic to me, because I go to Punjab every year in Pathankot and no-one ever looks like that. Most in general look like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60925882@N05/5554021085/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56316055@N02/5550907862/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56316055@N02/5550355113/

[–] shiroi_rain 13 years ago

"it made us all look ugly and black"

i feel like were not really seeing eye-to-eye here and your someone whose extremely insecure about skin-color, and are really not willing to admit that several north Indians are dark. So i'm going to stop arguing and continue thinking that the Punjabi's in the film are exactly what Pubjabi's look like.

* * * * * * * * *
i think its in my contract. somewhere near the end?

[–] keshav7732 13 years ago

Lmao they didn't look Punjabi at all but whatever, not just their skin but their facial features as well. And as far as I know the Pakistani Punjabi's look even more different to that!

The Punjabi's I know (Cousins and Friends and myself):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60925882@N05/5564788993/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60925882@N05/5563421121/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60925882@N05/5560987305/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60925882@N05/5558814555/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60925882@N05/5561384854/

And in general the typical Punjabi's in Pakistan look like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60925882@N05/5554565426/

<< Sorry but the people didn't even look Punjabi in the film one bit - they didn't even show the mixture and diversity Punjab has they just showed all one looking people..

[–] aysha_rafique 13 years ago

I'm Pakistani Punjabi and I'm pretty fair.

Having said that not all of my family are. I also know a lot of Punjabis that aren't. I've travelled around Punjab and yes, you can say that plenty are fair but there are also lots that aren't. For example I've noticed that people who live in villages and work in the land tend to be darker because they work under the sun all day long. Similarly the only picture you posted of darker-skinned Punjabis also happened to be poorer looking than the people from the other pictures.

[–] shiroi_rain 13 years ago

Thank you aysha thats the point i was trying to make. Naturally a lot of Punjabi people are fair but there are several dark people as well. And the ones depicted in the movie were living in a rural area so it made sense how they looked.

* * * * * * * * *
i think its in my contract. somewhere near the end?

[–] keshav7732 13 years ago

Well atleast now you get the point - that's the thing Punjab is mixed! But the people they showed all looked very similar, they should have shown the diversity Punjab had, instead of showing we all had the typical Dravidian kind of look - I don't mean that in a racist way but just saying in general...

[–] shiroi_rain 13 years ago

shutup -_-

* * * * * * * * *
i think its in my contract. somewhere near the end?

[–] keshav7732 13 years ago

Why are you telling me to Shutup - because your being contradicted and you don't like it?

Look the people in the film did not look Pakistani - the film was set in Pakistani Punjab. And I am from Indian Punjab here are some pictures from my family:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61573942@N06/5706924574/in/photostream/lightbox/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61573942@N06/5703870259/in/photostream/

Now we certainly don't look anything like the people are depicted in the film. And if anything the Pakistani Punjabi's look even more different like these:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61573942@N06/5695262321/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61573942@N06/5691006322/in/photostream/lightbox/

There are of course these Dravidian types - but Punjab is mixed. And the actors were not even Punjabi :S

[–] sparrowsprinklers 13 years ago

You are the worst of racists I have come across. Having fair skin makes no -one a better human being or a better actor...and every cross-cultural movie is not meant as a homage to whereever you are from and bring in the entire diaspora of facial differences on screen.

Aqib looks like somebody from India or Pakistan...who's been born and bred in Europe with a Mother who is a caucasian.

Racists like you should be shot at sight

[–] zorro_786 13 years ago

keshav7732 your are a racist troll. Sorry but I have seen people from the Khyber Pass to the Bay of Bengal and everything in between and they are all a lovely mix bunch of skin tones across the all the indian sub continent!

[–] Imdb11168 12 years ago

Im a Sikh ( North Indian ) and I'll tell you the problem with Keshav, many other Sikhs , Hindus and Pakistanis of Punjabi descent. They have a fair skin hangup, some are obvious about it, and some like Keshav make the point subtly.

I have seen so many of these characters. They look down on others in their own countries, because according to them, fairer and taller is better.

Keshav, in that case, what do you think of the Afghan who is fairer and taller than us Punjabi's ? And the Russian that much more Fairer & Taller than the Afghan, and the Norwegian that much more Fairer & Taller than the Russian ? Stop being subtle........ and forget the movie, tell us what you really want to say.

Darkness lies an inch ahead

[–] Yuckademus-99-928654 13 years ago

I'm sorry to tell you this but "Pakistanis" especially from the region that the movie was based in (Northwestern Punjab/Azad Kashmir) vary in skin tone from very dark skinned to fair skinned, indicative of our mixed origins. How do I know? Because my family is from there. I thought the actors for the most part represented the diversity of the people of this region very, very well.

[–] keshav7732 13 years ago

Well I am actually Kashmiri. And the film did not show any of this diversity to me at all. I don't mean to sound racist or anything. But the Pakistani Punjabi's I know generally look like this:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6126/5949235518_e68bf8f253_z.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6149/5947231668_f05f5f649c_z.jpg

Whereas the people in this film looked like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/altamash/476571264/sizes/z/in/photostream/

I just did not think the people in the film were at all representative. Aqib who played Sajid is a friend of mine but he does not look mixed race - He looks fully Pakistani. They should have shown real Pakistani's - And then showed a kid who actually looks mixed race in my opinion.

[–] Yuckademus-99-928654 13 years ago

Why are you posting pictures of people who aren't even in villages in Pakistan?

I'm from the Potohar (area around Rawalpindi), and this is what people in that region *really* look like:

family from a village in Potohar: http://www.unclimbed.com/p5large.jpg
women in taxila: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fezaizmir/2889148569/
kids in kallar syedan: http://www.flickr.com/photos/iamkhayyam/486332769/

I love being brown.

[–] keshav7732 13 years ago

@ Yuckademus. Aren't Potohari People Mirpuri? Mirpuris are generally darker skinned than Punjabi's (FYI There is nothing wrong with being Brown I never meant that) - The Pakistani Punjabis I know look like these anyway:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5124/5240750489_8aee7f378a_z.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5127/5241219071_6c6594c673_z.jpg

I don't think the film represented Pakistani's at all. They looked more like Sri Lankans.

[–] Yuckademus-99-928654 13 years ago

You keep posting pictures of women covered in gobs of makeup trying to look as white as possible given the insane South Asian obsession with whiteness and not typical Punjabis living in rural Punjab who are exposed to the sun on a daily basis, and not a bunch of upper class types who probably get skin whitening treatments every month and shade themselves from the sun every chance they get.

Remember now the film depicted a VILLAGE in Punjab and since the main character portrayed by Om Puri was from Bradford, where the vast majority of immigrant Pakistanis are *wait for this* from "Mirpur"! lol - and now you're saying that Mirpuris are generally darker skinned than Punjabis? That doesn't even make any sense considering Mirpur is NORTH of the majority of Punjab.

So now I'm going to post pictures of villages throughout Punjab and show you that they look pretty much the exact same as Potoharis (who are also Punjabis, lol).

family from bahawalpur, punjab: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ss154aa/4186801407/
people from rajanpur district: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shirazbashir/4953953795/
kids in lahore: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pjwar/2291331624/
village outside of lahore: http://www.flickr.com/photos/owlese/5755312416/

The fact is: Punjabis are a population of heterogenous/mixed origin with a likely "dravidian" stock forming the base of the population, and that is why you have Punjabis that can be fair skinned, fair eyed to dark skinned, dark eyed...with most being of a medium brown complexion. The film didn't show anything atypical or different.

[–] Princess_Ashmi 11 years ago

C'mon, all types of asians come in a range of different shades. I've been all over pakistan, from the city to the villages and in all places I was always seeing a range of different colours and shades.

And anyway, when it comes to a film they don't always pick people who they think would look the part, they simply narrow it down to -> looks asian, can act/isn't camera shy and thats good enough for them.

Ashmi any question

[–] avia2 10 years ago

How is Keshav racist?

I don't know about India, but as an Asian (Oriental) I easily notice when a Chinese is cast as Burmese, or a Filipino is cast as Vietnamese.
... It does make a film look less authentic.