Billi

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Billi

Directed by	Syed Noor
Written by	Syed Noor
Starring	Saima Nadeem Meera Noor
Release date(s)	2000
Country	Pakistan
Language	Urdu

Billi is a Pakistani Urdu film directed by Syed Noor starring Meera. Noor and Saima. An Horror film, supposedly a true story about victim turning scum-busting Avenger!

[edit] Plot

The film opens with a courtroom scene where fiery criminal lawyer Meera is battling to put a rapist behind bars, but sadly for her the judge rules against her and the scumbag is set free. Though the rapist walks free from the law courts of the land, is there a power on earth who can save him from the justice of the “Billi” – a shadowy figure dressed in a black cat-suit who has taken to the streets at night rounding up all scum and sleaze and dishing out her own brand of justice to chilling effect.

There is an earnest police office (Saud) determined to nab the cat but he doesn’t appear to be making much headway as this cat appears to have at least nine lives. In her brutal quest for justice she doesn’t even spare the lawyer representing the rapist who was basically just doing his job. She corners him one dark, stormy night and hacks off his tongue so he can never twist a case to his benefit as he had done with the rape case.

Meera looks glamorous and turns in a suitably theatrical performance as the lawyer though she might refrain from using her English too often as her phrases are somewhat bizarre as in when she exclaims “Live Long Billi” when she probably meant “Long Live Billi”….and there is another occasion when she asks Saud if he entered from the “Bal-Konee” where one did a slight double take before realizing exactly what she meant. Sadly after the courtroom opening scene, there isn’t much else for Meera to do as the focus shifts to Noor and Saima’s characters for the rest of the film. The feline superhero rapist bashing Billi becomes a feminist champion and icon for all her deeds and the downtrodden support her wholeheartedly yet the police are embarrassed by its inability to apprehend Billi. Who is she? Where does she come from? What has turned her into the killing machine she is?

Saud has two brothers, one a fine upright journalist (Arbaz Khan) while the younger one is a total wastrel spending all his time boozing, womanizing and listening to really bad late 70’s disco as in Lipps Inc’s horrendous Funky Town! He clearly has some serious issues to grapple with and hangs out in a den of debauchery where such “anarchic” words are sprayed all over the walls and ceiling such as “Snake, Love, Cool, Crazy, Kill and Prince” – almost Mansonesque!

Seasoned veteran Nadeem plays Noor’s sensitive father, a man who has lost his first wife to some accident and who now has to deal with a daughter who is deeply troubled due to a tragedy that befell her when she was an 8 year old child. Noor is also determined to find her father a replacement wife and her primary candidate is a golden hearted village bumpkin Saima. Though Nadeem finds the idea preposterous at first, slowly he begins to warm to Saima’s busty charms and they are soon married.

Twists are revealed in a typically dramatic scenes.

[edit] Film Business

It was a hit in the Box office but died a quick death, sinking without much of a trace. However why it was of particular interest was that the filmmakers had advertised the film as being based on a true story and one wondered when, if ever there had been a case of a cat-suited female crime-buster taking to the streets of Lahore.