Yesterday, it was announced that the social media influencer and actress Dananeer Mobeen was set to mark her big screen appearance in Abu Aleeha’s upcoming movie ‘Behnaaz’. The film revolves around an aspiring football player from Lyari, and actress Ayesha Omar is set to play the team coach as well.
Dananeer Mobeen had recently won rave reviews for her performance in the romantic comedy ‘Meem Se Mohabbat’ where she played a young girl Roshi who falls in love with her grumpy boss Talha (played by Ahad Raza Mir) and helps him navigate trauma from a horrific incident that left his adopted son with a speaking challenge.
Social media’s reaction to the announcement was divided, with many congratulating the actress on taking on such a challenging role for her first film.
“So proud of her. She’s rising high and inshallah ll kepp going high,” as user wrote.
“Omg thats my girl”, wrote another user in the comment section.
“Istg her success feels personal”, wrote an X user.
But however, the other side of the internet slammed the decision to cast Dananeer in a film about a minority group as ‘reeks of colorism and co-opting stories’. Climate change activist and organiser Maryam Jamali shared the news announcement on her X account, where she questioned why wasn’t a Baloch woman from Lyari cast in the movie, rather than someone like Dananeer.
“log isse hot take samjhein ge, but casting dananeer in a film on football in lyari probably based on or inspired by stories of baloch footballers, especially afro-baloch communities is not it. she’s the big new star but this also reeks of colorism and co-opting stories,” wrote Jamali.
Maryam Jamali went on to point out that the decision to cast Dananeer was controversial since historically, the community from Lyari looked more Brazillian.
“People in lyari don’t look like her. their identity as little brazil historically comes from people watching brazillian players like pele and relating to them, joking that they look the same.”
“Lyari has such a huge arts community,” added the activist. “Specifically into filmmaking and music that they can easily cast local people in their own stories. this interest in the arts was driven by young people coping with the amount of violence that took place there.”
Do you think that it was the right decision to cast Dananeer Mobeen to play a Lyari footballer? Do let us know in the comments section!
