Chalay Thay Saath (2017): A Tour Through Northern Pakistan
Though I have never been there, it seems that there’s something truly special about northern Pakistan. So many of the photos I’ve seen of the area are mesmerizing. The mountains are tan and jagged and cast dramatic shadows on valleys of bright green and rivers and lakes of turquoise blue. The region’s history is equally dramatic, and its hills are dotted with fortresses.
Perhaps needless to say, I was super excited to watch Chalay Thay Saath, a 2017 Pakistani film about a group of friends who travel through the region. And from a vicarious traveling perspective, I wasn’t disappointed.
Chalay Thay Saath stars some major players in Pakistani television, such as Syra Shehroz, from Mera Naseeb, and Behroze Sabzwari, from Humsafar, and Shehroz’ real-life father-in-law. Shehroz plays Resham, a young woman who, along with her friends, travels to a number of tourist attractions in the Gilgit-Baltistan region. One of the things that I appreciated in the film is that each location that the characters visit is labeled in closed caption. This allows a Wikipedia-traveler such as myself to research away.
(Above is Attabad Lake, which was created after a landslide in 2010. Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attabad_Lake#/media/File:Attabad_lake_Gojal_valley.jpg)
The movie’s romance centers on the relationship between Resham, a Pakistani citizen, and Adam, a Chinese citizen (played by Canadian actor Kent Leung) who visits the Pakistani mountains where his father lived, worked, and eventually died. Adam’s father immigrated to Pakistan from China to help build the Karakorum Highway, a road that is notably high in elevation and links China and Pakistan. As Resham speaks Urdu and Adam speaks Chinese, they communicate with one another using a phone app that listens and then immediately translates what one another says into each person’s respective language (that app will be a game-changer if it is ever built and perfected). From this humble beginning, their relationship blossoms.
As some of my other posts on this blog may make clear, I’m really fascinated with not only how film connects cultures, but also with how film represents the connecting of cultures in our increasingly globalizing world. For Adam and Resham, technology, both in the form of a high-altitude highway and a phone-based translator, helps them bridge the difficulties of physical and cultural distance.
Watching Chalay Thay Saath, I couldn’t help but think that it was telling a story of cross-border romance that may become more and more common in the future. Who knows; maybe more and more films will focus on this very theme.
Happy watching! The movie is on Netflix and I’ve added the trailer below.