Yorker is a short film by the digital platform Digestive Showtime released on 1st March, and received praises for its acting, direction and the message it sends to the audience about our colonial hangover. The film revolves around an upcoming fast bowler Ammar Saleem, played Wahaj Ali, whose biggest anxiety is his inability to speak in English properly. After a disastrous interview with an English cricket interviewer (played by George Fulton), he faints midway after which he sees the entire internet laughing about his English accent. So Ammar decides to take English classes secretly in order to fix his accent.
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The film’s main theme is exploring our society’s obsession with the English language and how we judge other people not on their talent but on the way they speak English. This is quite a familiar thing within Pakistan with how the public reacted to the PSL Official anthem “Groove Mera” by criticizing Naseebo Lal for singing in Punjabi. Or when the owners of Cannoli restaurant were caught on camera making fun of one of their staff members because of his broken English accent. These incidents should make us reflect on how deeply problematic the association of speaking in English is with superiority.
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Yorker is one of the five short films which are being released under Digestive Showtime on their YouTube platform, and their first release had amassed up to 300,000 views on YouTube within 24 hours.
The digital platform was created in order to bring together local artists, film makers and creators in order to celebrate story telling through the culture and norms of Pakistan. The platform cited one of its aims was to bring entertainment and solace to its audiences during a time when it was greatly needed, and also celebrate local talent.
Umair Mustafa, Director Marketing and Executive Producer of Digestive Showtime, had spoken about the importance of this digital platform and for short films like Yorker:
“The digital platform celebrates voices, elevates films that have the power to create change and bring audiences together to create meaningful connections. Assembling some of Pakistan’s most talented artists and storytellers around a central effort to provide entertainment, Digestive Showtime will offer audiences an opportunity to enjoy short films with production quality that of a feature film and this is the uniqueness about Digestive Showtime. At the same time it provides a unique story which is relatable to local audience.”
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You can watch Yorker on YouTube by clicking on the link and subscribe to their channel for more films coming soon!
by Mahnoor Jalal
