Quantum of Solace (2008) movie review

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The Bond refresher by the name of Casino Royale a couple of years ago surpassed expectations of what the franchise could potentially be. It was about as good as they could have made it, and even more impressive because they were effectively starting from scratch. So there has inevitably been excitement and apprehensive curiosity about whether the follow up could be as good.

And although Quantum of Solace is a few notches down the ladder from Casino Royale, in fact I fear the word “disappointment” will be used quite often amongst both fans and critics alike, it’s still impressive in its action-focused intents. However one-track-minded that ultimately may be.

Following directly on, in fact approximately just one hour, from the last outing, Quantum of Solace sees Bond going up against the mysterious Quantum organisation and the exacting Dominic Greene. Fuelled by his anger for the death of the woman he loved, Bond takes this mission personally as he attempts to stop Greene and his attempt to take control of one of the world’s most precious resources.

The Bourne franchise gave the Bond one a serious kick up the ass. It showed that the old-style Bond just wasn’t going to cut it in the 21st century world of the movies. And Bond did kick up its intensity, excitement, and overall quality with Casino Royale. Unfortunately the franchise has taken a few steps back as despite its actual increase in the amount of action it doesn’t seem to flow as well as it should. It feels constantly like intense action then rest, then intense action and then rest again. It travels this road throughout the entire movie and it starts to get quite distracting. In Casino Royale the action felt justified and warranted, but here it seems rather forced.

It’s just relieving, then, that on their own merit the action sequences are fantastic, equalling those done in the previous film and in places even surpassing it. From its opening minutes when we get thrust into a high-octane car chase right up until its explosive conclusive confrontation the action is top notch. It seems that the focus has been taken off the “in-between” scenes and is firmly on the physical action. And this decision is both the film’s biggest strength and its biggest weakness; lacking in emotion and anything but a simply adequate script it may be but as a far as action goes it’s about as full-on as you could hope for.

The villain in this latest installment is very effective. He’s one of the few, in fact if I’m not mistaken the only, Bond villain to not have some sort of gimmick to his persona. There’s no bleeding eye, no scar, no limp, no white cat; this is just a guy who’s very intelligent, exacting, and who knows what he wants. In that way he’s not the most intimidating of the repertoire of Bond villains, and subsequently not the most memorable, but I liked the way they handled the required “bad guy”. He’s played by Mathieu Amalric, who you may recognise from the absolutely wonderful The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I wouldn’t have mentioned his name before he was chosen but once it was thrown into the mix it just seemed to “click”.

Also in the mix, as it should be, is the Bond girl, this time around played by Ukranian stunner Olga Korylenko. She is, like the villain, perhaps not the most memorable of Bond girls but she fits the role well enough. There’s not a dreadful amount called for with the recurring role and Kurylenko certainly provides the eye-candy necessary to play the character. Along with her there’s a painfully forced side female character played by British relative newcomer Gemma Arterton. She’s in the movie for a very short amount of time; importance is placed on her for some odd reason when she first appears on-screen but she is discarded with as far as story goes far too quickly resulting in the viewer thinking, “What was the point of her?” Fortunately she’s about the only blatantly unnecessary element of Quantum of Solace; at least everything is kept tight throughout with little hindering the fast pace.

However without a doubt the single worst element of Quantum of Solace is the theme song and accompanying opening title sequence. The theme, performed by Jack White of The White Stripes and Alicia Keyes, is loud, annoying, and completely out of place. The title sequence animation, although certainly better than I could ever do myself, is bad compared to the last film and just for what it generally could have been. A solid Bond theme is essential in my eyes and Quantum of Solace has one of the worst of the franchise.

The team behind this new way of Bond is doing a great job of marrying a new style with familiar elements. For the tons of long-standing fans of the franchise right from its first outing there is the tux, silencer, martini, country-spanning escapades and so on which is so very much treasured. But it also doesn’t bog itself down in trying to stick too much to what’s expected; it acknowledges what’s loved by the fans, even giving a few nods of the head to them here and there, but this is a different beast. The decision to cast an actor who looks frankly nothing like what Bond should be in the role was the first sign that they’re planning on trying hugely different things, taking risks if and when need be. And those risks pay off for the most part; this franchise is heading in a direction that’s promising quality action from here on out.

So Quantum of Solace is good enough, parts even suggesting greatness, but unfortunately falls short of the level set by its predecessor. The action judged on its own is superior but doesn’t seem to flow anywhere near as well it should, and certain emotive qualities that Casino Royale possessed are hard to find here. I doubt there will be any huge complaints about Quantum of Solace as a whole though from the general movie-going audience, just nit-picks here, there and everywhere. And overall it delivers a quality motion picture under the guise of the Bond moniker.

 

‘Date Night’ (2011) Movie review

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Tina Fey and Steve Carell are funny, sure, but it’s an unfulfilled ‘Date Night.’

April 09, 2010|By Kenneth Turan FILM CRITIC >>>

Think of “Date Night” as a half-a-loaf comedy. No, it’s not set in a bakery, but though it is funny it will likely leave you hungry for more as you consider the age-old perception that having half a loaf is better than none at all.

If you’ve been anywhere near a moving bus or a stationary billboard lately, you know that what’s on offer on the plus side is the presence of a pair of supremely amusing people, Steve Carell and Tina Fey.

In both their television and feature work, these two are phone-book funny: They can make you laugh by reading anything at all. When you throw in their gift for physical comedy and their world-class reaction shots — plus adept costars like Mark Wahlberg — you know that there’s going to be things here to make you smile.

That said, as written by Josh Klausner and directed by Shawn Levy, “Date Night’s” story of a romantic night in Manhattan that goes completely awry is fairly standard stuff. It is diverting, and it gives these two their first chance to work together, yet you can’t help but wish that the film functioned on as high a level as its stars do.

Carell and Fey play Phil and Claire Foster, a self-described “boring couple from New Jersey” whose exhausting jobs in business and real estate and demanding young children leave them with precious little energy to keep the romance in their lives.

That condition rises to the level of a crisis when a couple in their circle, Brad and Haley Sullivan (a woefully underutilized Mark Ruffalo and Kristen Wiig), announce they are splitting up. What he and his wife have become, Brad mournfully tells Phil, is “the most excellent roommates.”

Determined not to let that happen to them, the still-in-love Fosters decide to forsake their usual date night at the Teaneck Tavern in favor of an exciting evening out in Manhattan at a hot new restaurant called Claw. “I want this night to be different,” Phil says, and so it turns out to be.

Claw is in fact so much the hot spot that the Fosters can’t get a table. In an unusual act of bravado that becomes one of the film’s running jokes, they take an unclaimed reservation by passing themselves off as a couple called the Tripplehorns. It turns out, however, that the Tripplehorns have come to the attention of big-time crime boss Joe Miletto (Ray Liotta), who sends a pair of goons to threaten them with death unless they come up with a flash drive that belongs to him.

Not being the Tripplehorns and blocked by the script from confiding in the police, the Fosters have no idea where to turn until Claire remembers hunky former real estate client Holbrooke Grant (a very funny Wahlberg), who just happens to be a security expert. The interaction between these three, much of it involving Grant’s hot Israeli girlfriend (Gal Gadot) and his refusal to put on a shirt, is the consistently funniest part of the film. Also good are the always reliable duo of James Franco and Mila Kunis as the real Tripplehorns. Sort of.

All this is good as far as it goes, but the problem is the good parts don’t last long enough. Instead of keeping the film strictly funny, director Levy, who commissioned the script and whose credits include the audience-friendly “Night at the Museum” franchise, becomes overeager for our approval, with uneven results.

Intent on touching as many cinematic bases as possible, “Date Night” contrives some awkward and self-consciously poignant moments between Phil and Claire and the kind of super-elaborate car chase Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn would have had no part of. It’s as if there are so few movies for adults made these days the filmmakers want to make sure no one in the theater feels left out.

None of this would be troublesome except for the knowledge of how funny Carell and Fey are when the film is smart enough to use them well. This is vividly demonstrated in the outrageous gag reel outtakes placed at both the beginning and the end of the final credits. When we see what these two can do, the feeling is inescapable that “Date Night” has left some laughs on the table.

Contagion (2011) movie review

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A lethal virus spreads across the globe and inspires panic and fear in Steven Soderbergh’s thriller.

September 09, 2011|By Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Film Critic

It starts with a cough. It ends with death on an unimaginable scale.

“Contagion,” the new thriller by Steven Soderbergh, tells a story for our time, a story of raging menace and out of control fear. It offers us thirtysomething days in the life of a global pandemic, a lethal virus that travels like the wind and kills without a trace of mercy. This may not fit any conventional definition of entertainment, but it certainly keeps your eyes on the screen.

Soderbergh, who divides his career between unwatchable vanity projects and crackling mainstream fare, has never been the warmest of filmmakers, and that coldness and distance serve him well here. As the merciless MEV-1 virus ravages the planet, the uncomfortable prospect that every last person on Earth may die before the final credits roll feels all too possible.

Credit for this sense of disturbing unease has to be shared with screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, who co-wrote “The Bourne Ultimatum.” He’s constructed a story in which human arrogance, self-interest and stupidity are as dangerous as this disease that inevitably brings out the worst as well as the best in human behavior.

One of the things that makes Soderbergh (also his own cinematographer under the Peter Andrews alias) such an effective filmmaker is that he knows how to move stories along at an epidemic clip. Working with longtime editing collaborator Stephen Mirrione (who won an Oscar for the similarly episodic “Traffic”), Soderbergh’s made a film you may not want to watch but can’t stop yourself from staring at.

As with “Traffic,” the director expertly choreographs an impressive cast that includes major players like Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet and Marion Cotillard. Some of their characters will live, some will die, and neither the virus nor the filmmakers care.

The face behind that opening, unseen cough belongs to Paltrow, who plays traveling businesswoman Beth Emhoff. Introduced in an airport on her way home from a trip to China, she thinks what ails her is some minor bug. Except it’s not.

The seriousness of Beth’s illness brings some major changes to the lives of her husband, Mitch (Damon, the best Everyman in the business), and her step-daughter, Jory (an effective feature debut by Anna Jacoby-Heron). They’re just regular folks from Minneapolis, for heaven’s sake, they’re not prepared for what’s about to hit them.

Determined to leave no sick person behind, “Contagion” swiftly takes us around the world, exposing us to a panoply of desperately ill individuals in Hong Kong, Tokyo, London and elsewhere, people who disturbingly disintegrate and die right before our eyes. After seeing how easily the virus spreads, even touching your car door on the way home will take an effort of will.

A plague this lethal inevitably involves the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its unflappable deputy director Dr. Ellis Cheever (Fishburne). He sends one of his best young investigators, Dr. Erin Mears (Winslet) to Minneapolis to see what’s going on. Similarly, Geneva’s World Health Organization sends top epidemiologist Dr. Leonora Orantes (Cotillard) to China to figure out where it all began.

The increasing severity of the disease also attracts the attention of Alan Krumwiede (an intentionally irritating Law), an Internet conspiracy theorist based in (where else but) San Francisco. Krumwiede (even his name is annoying) may know some things others don’t, but it’s not necessarily information you can take to the bank.

The challenge the folks at the CDC face is identifying the virus, growing it in the lab and then coming up with a vaccine. Enlisted in this cause are a wide range of individuals, including virus guru Dr. Ian Sussman (Elliott Gould, a veteran Soderbergh collaborator) and the CDC’s own Dr. Ally Hextall. Two-time Tony-winning actress Jennifer Ehle comes close to stealing the picture with this quietly yet quirkily empathetic performance.

Like the humans who combat the disease, “Contagion” is hardly perfect. Its sporadic attempts at sympathetic vignettes are largely beyond it, and some of its many plot strands play out less convincingly than others. But if you’re looking for a film that makes the spread of a global pandemic seem more than plausible, this is where you want to be.

Drive (2011) movie review

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Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive plots an unconventional course through action thriller territory.

Take that big chase for example. Ryan Gosling driving a getaway car for a pair of thieves while most of the Los Angeles police department pursue him by car and helicopter. All of it captured in such clear crisp tones that it amplifies reality in a way few similar scenes ever have.

After this opening, Drive switches gears and takes a leisurely but tension-filled stroll through the back-alleys of classic film noir, grafting on a hero worthy of a modern action opus. Ironically releasing the same week as the dim-witted and thematically deaf remake of Straw Dogs, Drive is the real spiritual successor of Sam Peckinpah; crafting a thoughtful spectacle of brutality wedged in between a tale of isolation and quiet solitude.

Drive is most concerned with its characters and the way they navigate the minefield of the story. The action is there to serve them, not the other way around. After a haphazard summer of junky popcorn movies, this concept feels almost revolutionary. Refn, who has been confidently building as an artistic force to be reckoned with, springs to life here and creates a world so moody, textured and tactile that it’s impossible to look away even in the slower segments. The entire trip is fueled by the performance of Ryan Gosling, who takes an enigmatic archetype and turns him into a person we can believe in and root for. This is impressive when you consider the greatest character definition we get is that Driver’s occupation is the same as his name, and that he has a strict code of conduct that one day he will break. Everything else unfolds in the course of the picture, nuances of character defined and expressed as action and reaction.

The world of Drive—an sprawling Los Angeles that contains the sunlit world of Hollywood stunt racing and the twilight streets of a seedy criminal underbelly—is populated with a host of interesting characters. At their center is Gosling’s Driver. He is mostly a mystery to us. We don’t know much about his origins, his aptitude, or his personal life. There are a few details planted that take root and grow as the film does; he’s a getaway driver for people who need, well, to get away in a hurry. This he does after his legit day job as a Hollywood stuntman, and then later still, he takes long, night-time drives through the city at a slower, more meditative pace. He has rules and boundaries, and is mostly closed off to people. There are, as always, two exceptions to that rule that cause him trouble and propel the central events of the story.

First, there’s Shannon (Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston), the fallen professional racer who manages Driver as a stuntman and uses his garage to help outfit the younger man’s illegal adventures. When Shannon tries to break into the legit world of auto racing with Driver as his ringer, he ends up borrowing funds from crime boss Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks), who with his devious partner Nino (Ron Perlman), are not men to be trifled with. There’s also single mother Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son Benicio ( Kaden Leos) who live down the hall from Driver’s spartan apartment, waiting on a husband who will shortly be home from a long term in prison. With Irene, Driver shows glimpses of a warmer softer side, the only hints at longing and yearning for human companionship that we, the audience, get. When the husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac) comes back to the homestead and runs afoul of shady figures from his past, Driver finds himself stepping up for a job that goes against his rigid rules to protect the family. This is a telling gesture; he stands to get nothing from this other than the promise of safety for Standard and his clan. He, and those around him, stand to lose much. Bernie and Nino figure heavily into the trouble that follows, with others thrown in for extra threat, and we are propelled through a well-oiled machine of intrigue, violence, and exciting derring-do seen through the glorious, shadowy direction of Refn.

I mentioned film noir earlier. Clearly, this is a big inspiration on both the novel by James Sallis and Refn’s direction of Hossein Amini’s script. Visually, this is a dark and lovely picture, juxtaposing worlds of brightness and fairytale dreams of better days with the night-drenched corriders of the character’s reality. Refn, who used violence to move along the fractured plots of his previous films, Bronson and Valhalla Rising, does a more nuanced job of incorporating the gritty and gut-wrenching moments into his story, sometimes achieving a dichotomy that flirts with the existential . There’s a scene between Driver and an unfortunate thug in an elevator that sits in such close proximity to a gentle kiss with Mulligan that it casts both events in a different light.

If the film walks the walk of noir, it also manages to talk the talk, although Refn isn’t as interested in homage as creating a separate beast. He starts with the moral convictions of Driver, whose code is closer to a comic-book hero like Bruce Wayne than the wobbly, diminished values of an Edward G. Robinson sad sack, and then extends this humanity to every other character. There’s a simplicity to Irene and her relationship with Driver that smacks of innocence and compassion, and even Standard, the returning husband, isn’t a bad man. He loves his family, suspects but accepts Driver, and only returns to crime when the circumstances have spiraled from his control. Bernie, the crime lord, granted a kind of empathy by Brooks’ carefully timed performance, is also a man of quirks and not easily read contradictions. His code of values is tested by Nino’s barbarism, which in turn has been fostered by bitterness at his outsider status amongst Bernie’s crime family. Perlman rarely gets to sink his teeth into a script or character this juicy, and he relishes every bite.

The movie works best as a kind of character study in the vein of Melville’s Le Samourai, that austere classic about a hitman driven by his code. Despite the artistry put forward by the entire ensemble and creative team, it couldn’t work as it does without Gosling. He’s been a revelation as of late, working more than most of his colleagues and refusing to be fenced in by expectations, creating characters instead of performances. Here, he’s been given a man who has as many defining traits as a one-note action stereotype in a Michael Bay movie, and what he does with the negative spaces adds dimension and density to the character. What Driver doesn’t say, what he doesn’t do, and his discarding of conventional things others yearn for, speak more loudly than the limited dialogue he has been given. Leave it to Refn to redefine the parameters of the action thriller by focusing on those unseen things hiding in the shadows beyond our reach. There’s the real tip of the hat to noir.

Warrior (2011) movie review

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Warrior, not to be confuse with Warriors, tells the story of two brothers, one of whom is an ex-marine, the other is a school teacher, and they both start fighting MMA, and must eventually come to terms with why they are estranged from one another.

Tommy Riordan comes home to Pittsburgh haunted by his days in the military. He gets his father to train him as a fighter, and fighting in a cage is what every father should be training his son to do, and he gets on the fast track to fight the champ. His brother starts fighting again to help support his family, because they just don’t pay the teachers enough, y’know?

Anyways, they are estranged, probably because their father was an alcoholic, and as they fight, they must also confront one another and one will probably get hurt before fighting the champ, and the other one will take his place and win.

That last part was just a guess though.

Trailer :

The Scoop

The film was primarily written and directed by Gavin O’Connor, who also directed the crapfest Pride and Glory starring Edward Norton and Colin Farrell, so he knows stories about brothers who are estranged but need to overcome their differences. He also knows how to make a bad movie.

Oh, but this one has MMA, which all the kids are into these days.

Who’s It For?

Either PG-13 or R.

Movie Release Date

TBA 2011.

Who’s In It?

Tom Hardy … Tom Conlon
Jennifer Morrison … Tess Conlon
Nick Nolte … Paddy Conlon
Frank Grillo … Frank Campana
Joel Edgerton … Brendan Conlon
Bryan Callen … Himself
Kevin Dunn … Joe Zito
Noah Emmerich … Dan Taylor
Kurt Angle … Koba

Interesting Fact

Jennifer Morrison wants me. She wants me bad.

Also, Kurt Angle, playing Koba, is not only a Pro Wrestler, he also won an Olympic Gold Medal in wrestling while he had a broken neck. He is tougher than you.

Not me. I’m tough like Gumby.

Related Movies

Fighter, Never Back Down, Lionheart

What’s Good About It?

Tom Hardy was amazing in Inception, and Jennifer Morrison is hot.

What’s Bad About It?

Hollywood thinks that anything that has to do with MMA will make money. So they make the same movie they made 20 years ago with Jean Claude Van Damme, only with cages instead of Vietnam or Korea or wherever he decided to kick ass that week.

Our Clever Prediction

I have some hope for this, primarily because Tom Hardy rocks. I’m a big MMA fan, which makes it hard for me to accept the overdone fighting they have in these films, but it could still be decent. My hope is that the tone is similar to Pride and Glory, so that instead of some stupid Fighter or Never Back Down type of film O’Connor actually tries to make a decent film that just happens to have MMA in it. Fingers crossed.

POLAR BEAR

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Field Marshal Ayub Khan.

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Muhammad Ayub Khan was born on May 14, 1907, in the village of Rehana near Haripur, in Hazara District. He was the first child of the second wife of Mir Dad Khan, who was a Risaldar Major in Hodson’s Horse. According to Ayub, his father had the greatest influence on his character, outlook, and attitude towards life. For his basic education, he was enrolled in a school in Sarai Saleh, which was about 4 miles from his village. He used to go to school on a mule’s back. Later he was shifted to a school in Haripur, where he started living with his grandmother. As a child he was interested in playing kabaddi, gulli danda, marbles and hockey. After passing his Matriculation Examination in 1922, Ayub was sent to Aligarh University where he spent four years. However, before appearing in his B. A. exams, he was selected for the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He sailed for England in 1926.

Ayub khan in army :
Ayub’s performance in Sandhurst was exemplary and he won several scholarships. After the completion of training, he got commissioned in the Indian Army in 1928. He fought at different fronts during World War II, first as a Major and then Colonel. During the communal riots of 1947, he was assigned to assist General Pete Rees in the Punjab Boundary Force. At the time of Independence, Ayub Khan opted to join the Pakistan Army, where as a Brigadier, he was the senior-most Muslim officer. In 1951, he was raised to the status of a four-star General and was appointed as the first local Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army.

Military involvement in politics :

The first time military was directly involved in politics of the country was when Ayub Khan, a serving Commander-in-Chief, was inducted into Muhammad Ali Bogra’s Federal Cabinet in 1954, and was given the portfolio of Defense. As Commander-in-Chief and Defense Minister, Ayub Khan played a key role in negotiations concerning Pakistan’s entry into United States’ sponsored military alliances, C. E. N. T. O. and S. E. A. T. O. On October 7, 1958, Iskander Mirza enforced the first Martial Law in Pakistan with the help of Ayub Khan. Ayub Khan was designated as the Chief Martial Law Administrator. However, the two leaders couldn’t work together for long. Ayub Khan snatched away Mirzas’ powers and assumed charge as the President of Pakistan, in addition to his role as Chief Martial Law Administrator. Later on he gave himself the rank of Field Marshal.

    

                                                                                       Ayub Khan’s takeover :

                                                   Most people in Pakistan welcomed Ayub Khan’s takeover because they were sick and tired of the political instability that had racked the country since its birth in 1947. Immediately after assuming his new responsibilities, Ayub tried to wipeout corruption and get rid of several social problems the country was facing. All these steps enhanced Ayub’s popularity among the masses. However, he was conscious of the fact that he could not rule under military cover for long and thus appointed a Constitutional Commission headed by Justice Shahab-ud-din. On Ayub’s instructions, the report presented by the Commission on May 6, 1961, was examined by many committees, modified, and was  finally given the shape of a Constitution.

The new Constitution :
On June 8, 1962, Martial Law was lifted from Pakistan and the new Constitution was introduced. According to this new Constitution, Presidential form of government and the principle of Basic Democracy were introduced. The imposition of the Constitution made no change in the powers of Ayub Khan and he remained President even under the new setup. Presidential elections were held in 1965. The Combined Opposition Party nominated Fatima Jinnah as their candidate in the election but Ayub Khan managed to sweep the polls. His critics consider rigging as the chief cause of his victory as they believe that Fatima Jinnah secured fewer votes  than her popularity, which was quite visible during her public meetings before the election. However, another factor considered for her defeat was that the franchise was limited in the election. Masses only had a chance to turn up in the public meetings but had no right to vote.

Era of Industrialization :

Ayub Khan’s era is known for the industrialization in the country. He created an environment where the private sector was encouraged to establish medium and small-scale industries in Pakistan. This opened up avenues for new job opportunities and thus the economic graph of the country started rising. He also tried to raise the education standards of the country by introducing educational reforms. He was the first Pakistani ruler who attempted to bring in land reforms but the idea was not implemented properly. Labor, law and administrative reforms were also introduced during his regime. Ayub Khan also initiated Family Laws in the country. He planned a new city and moved the capital from Karachi to Islamabad in 1962.

The removal of Ayub Khan’s government :
Every thing was moving in the right direction for Ayub Khan till the start of the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965. The performance of the Pakistani army was good but the war caused a rapid decline of the country’s economy. He is also criticized his role at the Tashkent Declaration. Many believe that he negated the victory on the battlefield with a defeat at the negotiating table. His right-hand man, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, also turned against him and launched his own party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, with the aim to remove Ayub from power. The Awami League under Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman started propagating his rule as pro West Pakistan and claimed that his policies had snatched away the Bengali’s rights. The rest of the political parties formed an alliance, the Democratic Action Committee, with a one-point agenda, i.e. the removal of Ayub Khan’s government.

In addition, Ayub’s policies of concentrating political power in his own hands, his control over the press and media, imposing state of emergency in the country, and his interference in religion were also responsible for his downfall. Adding insult to injury, Ayub Khan decided to celebrate a decade of his rule in 1968 and made exaggerated claims about the development in the country.

By the end of 1968, the public resentment against the Ayub’s regime touched a boiling point and an anti-Ayub movement was launched by the urban-middle class; including students, teachers, lawyers, doctors, and engineers. The Joint Labor Council called for a labor strike. Demonstrations and agitation swept the whole country. Law and order broke down and Ayub was left with no other option but to step down.

On March 25, 1969, he resigned and handed over the power to the Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army, General Muhammad Yahya Khan .

Pakistan a worth living place..!!

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Pakistan has been on the brink of being tourism’s ‘next big thing’ for more years than we care to remember. It’s a destination that has so much to offer visitors; drive the Karakoram Highway through the endless peaks of the Karakoram Mountains, or wander through the architectural glories of the former Mughal capital Lahore, the ancient bazaars of Quetta or the cosmopolitan streets of Karachi. But every time the country seems to be gearing up to refresh the palates of travellers jaded with last year’s hip destination, world media headlines send things off the rails – again. No matter the attractions, tourism in Pakistan has always been something of a hard sell. A glance at the map shows the country living in a pretty difficult region: always-unruly Afghanistan to one side, Iran to another, and a border with India running through the 60-year-old fault line of Kashmir.

 Karakoram Highway :

A thin ribbon of asphalt strikes north from near Islamabad and leaves the modern capital and the dusty Punjab plains far behind. As it weaves through sparse green hills, the first wrinkles of mountain-building in this geological ‘collision zone’, this unassuming road gives little hint as to what lies ahead. This is the high road to China, the Karakoram Highway (KKH), which was blasted and bulldozed through an intractable landscape of raging rivers, deep ravines and precipitous peaks in the 1960s and ’70s. It is a 1200km marvel of engineering and a symbolic collaboration between Pakistan and China. It is also a magnet for adventure-seekers.

The KKH unites the plains of Pakistan with erstwhile independent mountain kingdoms and connects South Asia with West and Central Asia. It follows a branch of that ancient network of trade routes known as the Silk Road, and one of its tricks is time travel. The KKH takes you to where Buddhism spread to China and Tibet, to the colourful bazaar of Kashgar that remains more than just a memory of a Silk Road oasis, and to the intrigues of the 19th-century Great Game. It has also brought the 21st century to the fabled valley of Hunza, and fume-belching trucks and minibuses have now mostly displaced donkeys and camels as the caravans of trade.

As it traverses northern Pakistan and enters western China, via the 4730m Khunjerab Pass, the KKH navigates the highest concentration of soaring peaks and long glaciers in the world. Intrepid travellers are delivered to some of the most awe-inspiring and challenging trekking they are ever likely to encounter. And for some, this is where the real adventure starts.

Places linked with Karakoram Highway :

1. Karimabad and Baltit Fort.

Unwinding in Karimabad, the heart of the fabled valley of Hunza and home to the 700-year-old mountain-top Baltit Fort

2. Passu.

Testing your courage and sense of balance on the Two Bridges walk near the peaceful village of Passu

3. Gilgit.

Marvelling at the mallet-wielding mayhem and horsemanship at a polo tournament in Gilgit

4. Kashgar.

Bartering in the colourful bazaars of Kashgar, former Silk Road oasis and legendary market town

5. Baltistan.

Exploring the trails of Baltistan and beyond, where the Karakoram ruptures from the earth’s crust in an unequalled display of high peaks and twisting glaciers

6. Khunjerab Pass.

Crossing the Khunjerab Pass, a geographical and cultural watershed, in a modern replay of an ancient passage between empires past

Abbottabad :

Abbottabad (ab-it-uh-baad), Hazara’s headquarters and biggest town, was founded as a British garrison town in the 1850s, and the shady gardens, church bells and wide streets in the Cantonment evoke the colonial era. Beside the Cantonment is a compact and vibrant bazaar. At 1220m, Abbottabad has a cool climate, and one of the country’s finest hill-station retreats is an hour away at Thandiani. Southbound cyclists should take a rest and contemplate the scenic mountain route via Murree rather than the truck-choked KKH. Apart from changing money for an excursion into the Kaghan Valley there’s little reason for other travellers to make a halt.

The town has a sizable Christian minority and three active churches (Presbyterian, Anglican and Catholic). The language of the region is Hindko Punjabi, but you can get by with English and a little Urdu.

  Islamabad the capital :

The so-called twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi are commonly viewed as one unit, and indeed, one day the two will physically merge. However, these twins, with separate ancestry and distinct personalities, are far from identical. Islamabad is a late-20th-century capital laid out in straight lines and right angles: a proud metric showcase of government and administration. Rawalpindi, on the other hand, grew from a ramshackle backwater village to a sprawling hub on the Grand Trunk Rd during the 19th century.

The twins’ personalities are rather like chalk and cheese: Islamabad is patently more subdued and suburban with broad avenues, grassy parkland, shiny restaurants and just a whiff of the exasperating human and mechanical crush that epitomises most subcontinental cities. For those with a penchant for the adrenaline-pumping hullabaloo that a typical South Asian metropolis delivers, all that awaits in Rawalpindi – affectionately dubbed ‘Pindi’ – a mere 15km away.

Neither city is a major tourist drawcard in its own right – most foreign travellers only pause here to arrange visas/permits or use it as a jumping-off point to other destinations – yet not far away are the fascinating archaeological digs around the Gandharan city of Taxila.

Here, Buddhism and the sublime Graeco-Buddhist art evolved and flourished, and its glory can be appreciated in Taxila’s splendid museum and at several major sites. And if the energy-zapping heat of the plateau starts to take its toll during the warmer months, you can flee to the cool mountain air of Murree, an erstwhile British Raj hill station. Even better, ramble around the less developed, more serene hill stations strung out along the forested ridges known as the Galis, a truly welcoming escape from the frazzling rat race and other vicissitudes of life on the road.

Peshawar :

Peshawar (pronounced pu-shah-wur) conjures images of romance, intrigue and danger – the archetypal frontier town. Sat at the foot of the Khyber Pass, it has been an important trading town and staging post for invasions for centuries, its fortunes often more closely linked to affairs in Kabul than the flat lands of the Indus and Punjab. Even today, the Pakistani government maintains an often tenuous hold over the local Pashtun population. Recent elections have returned a provincial government sympathetic to the Taliban. West and south of the city, highways lead into the autonomous Tribal Areas where government writ vanishes the second you step off the main road: visitors to the Khyber Pass must be accompanied by an armed tribal escort.

Atmosphere is all in Peshawar. The old city is a warren of bazaars, where samovars dispense green tea into tiny enamelled pots, which are raced by eager boys to reclining merchants through an air thick with the smell of kebabs, rickshaws fumes and the cacophony of an endless parade of (mostly male) humanity. Modernity abruptly collides with tradition – there are more autorickshaws than camels and mobile phones are everywhere, but Peshawar’s past remains persuasive, tangible, visible.
Away from the throng of the old city, the British cantonment has shady boulevards, churches, army quarters and lavish high-walled homes. The city’s post-Partition face includes well-to-do University Town and the sprawling administrative-residential township of Hayatabad.
Peshawar’s close relationship with Afghanistan continues. Waves of refugees swelled the population in the 1980s, making up a sizable minority. Many still live in the refugee camps outside the city limits. Much of the city’s exotic character is derived from this Afghan connection, as is its reputation for intrigue (and occasional instability).
Modern Peshawar almost chokes on its popularity. Amid tough competition, it makes a strong bid for the most polluted city in Pakistan. Everyone seems to be in business, and politics and religion are often on the street. A conservative city, but one buzzing with life, Peshawar remains a fascinating place to get lost in.

Karachi :

Although Karachi lost its crown as Pakistan’s capital to upstart Islamabad and the country’s cultural elite look towards Lahore, Karachi is the undisputed heart of the nation’s economy. A true world mega-city, greater Karachi is spread over an ever-expanding 3500 sq km, ­ perpetually sucking in workers from across the country. If you want to make it anywhere, the saying goes, you have to head for Karachi.

As a result, Karachi is one of the most diverse and cosmopolitan cities in Pakistan, with ethnic Sindhis matched by large numbers of Punjabis, Pashtuns and other nationalities. After Partition, Karachi received significant numbers of Mohajirs, who have since become the key players in Karachi politics under the MQM party that dominates the city. Karachi also has significant Christian and Hindu communities, and is a centre for Zoroastrianism.

This diverse mix doesn’t always rub along well, and has given Karachi an unenviable reputation for civil unrest and communal violence. The 1980s and ’90s were punctuated by regular outbreaks of rioting, and although these are now largely a thing of the past, real tensions still exist. The shadow of 9/11 has also fallen on Karachi, with attacks on Western targets and minority Shiites from Al-Qaeda–inspired extremists.

Few travellers choose to visit Karachi these days, and the insane traffic and frequent power cuts from an overstretched infrastructure can make any stay a challenge, particularly in the stifling heat of summer. But there’s a definite buzz here, and a few days in Karachi can tell you more about life in modern Pakistan than any number of historic mosques or mountain treks.

Lahore :

Although Lahore may not be Pakistan’s capital city, it wins hands down as its cultural, intellectual and artistic hub. If history and architecture are your passion there’s an evocative mix, from formidable Mughal monuments to faded legacies of the British Raj. Indeed, even a ramble around the Old City can unfold into a mini-adventure. For those in search of spiritual sustenance, Lahore has qawwali (Islamic devotional singing) and Sufism (Islamic mysticism) that will blow your mind.
Pakistan is crazy about cricket and one way of breaking the ice with Lahorites is to strike up a conversation about the game. Lahore – which, incidentally, is home to former cricket great turned politician Imran Khan – sometimes serves as the venue for high-profile international matches. If there’s one on during your stay it’s worth experiencing it as much for its wildly ecstatic spectators as for the game itself.
Over the years Lahore has burgeoned into a bustling and increasingly polluted metropolis with festering social undercurrents, but it also has some of the most defiantly serene architecture and gardens on the subcontinent. It takes more than just a couple of days to get to know this splendid city, so don’t regard it merely as a jumping-off point to nearby India. And whatever you do, make absolutely sure your stay in Lahore includes an afternoon on the outskirts in Wagah and at least one Thursday.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

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Pakistan, one of the largest Muslim states in the world, is a living and exemplary monument of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. With his untiring efforts, indomitable will, and dauntless courage, he united the Indian Muslims under the banner of the Muslim League and carved out a homeland for them, despite stiff opposition from the Hindu Congress and the British Government.

About Jinnah :
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was born in Karachi on December 25, 1876. His father Jinnah Poonja was an Ismaili Khoja of Kathiawar, a prosperous business community. Muhammad Ali received his early education at the Sindh Madrasa and later at the Mission School, Karachi. He went to England for further studies in 1892 at the age of 16. In 1896, Jinnah qualified for the Bar and was called to the Bar in 1897.

Jinnah’s political career :

Muhammad Ali Jinnah started his political career in 1906 when he attended the Calcutta session of the All India National Congress in the capacity of Private Secretary to the President of the Congress. In 1910, he was elected to the Imperial Legislative Council. He sponsored the Waqf Validating Bill, which brought him in touch with other Muslim leaders. In March 1913, Jinnah joined the All India Muslim League.

League were held at Lucknow. The League session was presided over by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It marked the culmination of his efforts towards Hindu-Muslim unity. Here, both the League and the Congress adopted a scheme of reforms known as the Lucknow Pact.

Jinnah’s marriage :
On April 19, 1918, Jinnah married Rutanbai. Their daughter, Dina was born a year later. In 1919, Jinnah resigned from his membership of the Imperial Legislative Council as protest against the “Rowlatt Act”.

Nehru Report :
Until the publication of Nehru Report, Jinnah continued his efforts for Hindu-Muslim unity. The Nehru Report, published in 1928, was severely criticized by all sections of the Muslim community. In December 1928, the National Convention was called to consider the Report. Jinnah proposed some amendments, but they were all rejected. He finally parted ways with the Congress.

Jinnah in response to the Nehru :

In 1929, Jinnah presented his famous Fourteen Points in response to the Nehru Report. When he returned from England, he reorganized the Muslim League. In 1934, he was elected as its permanent president.
The Provincial Assembly elections of 1937 swept the Congress to power in eight provinces. After almost two years of oppressive rule, Muslims under the leadership of Jinnah, celebrated the Day of Deliverance at the end of Congress rule.

The demand for Pakistan :
The Muslim League held its annual session at Lahore in March 1940. This was presided over by Quaid-i-Azam. The demand for Pakistan was formally put forward here. This goal was realized on August 14, 1947. Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was appointed as its first Governor General.

Death of Jinnah :
However, he did not live long to witness the progress of the state that he had founded. On September 11, 1948, he died after a protracted illness at Karachi. He was buried in Karachi that witnessed the entire nation mourning over an irreparable loss.