Aurat Raj (Women's Rule, 1979) — Uncut

A bomb blast reverses gender roles across the country, forcing men to live under the same patriarchy they once imposed.

Directors and writers: Rangeela (director, writer), Jaffar Arsh (screenplay), Ibn-ul-Hassan (dialogues)
Runtime: 155 minutes
Country: Pakistan
Language: Urdu, with English subtitles
Format: Feature film
Production company: Rangeela Productions
Original distributor: United Traders
Original release: Premiered in cinemas across Pakistan in 1979
Produced by: Rangeela
Starring: Rani Begum, Waheed Murad, Sultan Rahi, Usman Peerzada, Badar Munir, Nanha, Shehla Gill
Release date: 1979
Distributor: Khajistan Releasing, Bubonic Films

Aurat Raj (1979) is one of the most radical and misunderstood films produced in Pakistan’s popular cinema. Directed by Rangeela, the film blends camp, political satire, and fantasy to tell the story of a country where patriarchy collapses overnight. After decades of domestic abuse and social humiliation, a group of women finally revolt when a magical twist flips the gender order, forcing men to live under the same restrictions they once imposed.

What follows is a delirious tour through the moral anxieties of late-1970s Pakistan: street protests, televised speeches, corrupt politicians scrambling to maintain control, and men suddenly confronting the violence of structures they had built for themselves. Beneath its slapstick comedy and disco songs, Aurat Raj is a piercing critique of authoritarianism, gendered violence, and the fragility of power. Actor and wrestler Rangeela wrote and directed Aurat Raja and Rangeela's friends appeared in the film free-of-charge.

Long dismissed as a curiosity, the film survives today as an early, subversive attempt at meta humor made against the tightening cultural censorship of the Zia era. Khajistan Releasing presents this title as part of an ongoing project to recover censored and banned histories across the region. 

Themes: Patriarchy and Power Reversal, Meta Humor, Feminist Satire and Political Critique, Gender, Performance and Spectacle, Censorship and Moral Panic, Class and Everyday Oppression, Rebellion, Imagination and Liberation.

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