Hassan Zee for 'Bicycle Bride'

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Hassan Zee for 'Bicycle Bride' on Buzzinebollywood.com

FILM INTERVIEW: HASSAN ZEE

Pakistani Doctor Turned American Filmmaker Talks Women Empowerment in 'Bicycle Bride'

By: Parimal M. Rohit
May 19, 2011

Hassan Zee on buzzinebollywood.comProducer Russell Simmons went from Hollis to Hollywood in establishing himself as a pioneering African American. Filmmaker Hassan Zee left a television-less home in Punjab, Pakistan to earn similar status as a budding creator of entertainment content based in Hollywood, as the former doctor prepares for the theatrical release of his second film, Bicycle Bride (starring 25-year-old up-and-coming actress Melanie Kannokada), on May 20th. The film is expected to release in New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, and Anaheim, and nabbed the Best Feature Film Award at the Southern Appalachian Film Festival.

 
If you paid close attention to the Google-friendly opening paragraph, perhaps you caught that Mr. Zee was a former doctor who one lived in Pakistan. Oh, and he did not have a television set. Of course, whether or not you caught snippets of Mr. Zee’s life in the opening paragraph or the first two sentences of this one, you had no way of knowing the 40-year-old medical professional not only received his academic training in Pakistan, but he also stayed in his home country until the age of 28 -- two years after earning his graduate degree in medicine.
 
As the popular hippity-hoppity saying goes, “If you don’t know, now you know!”
 
What you may not know is why there are so many pop culture cross references in a feature story about a Pakistani doctor-turned-filmmaker. Perhaps a little perspective would indeed be helpful.
 
You see, this man, known as Mr. Simmons, grew up in a Queens, New York neighborhood called Hollis -- a portion of town currently home to many influential personalities of urban life, such as rappers Run DMC and Ja Rule, FUBU founder Daymond John, and notable ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith. Considered an elite figure in the hip-hop world, Mr. Simmons came a long way from his humble beginnings in Hollis, Queens, flying across country to start a little music label called Def Jam.
 
Upon building his empire, Mr. Simmons maintained his humble roots, even took on many humanitarian efforts. A practicing vegan and animal rights supporter, Mr. Simmons is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations.
 
Mr. Simmons could be considered a model for combining creative and entrepreneurial ambition with societal philanthropy.
 
While Mr. Simmons and Mr. Zee have pursued two very different paths, both share a common vision in using entertainment for good. Working as a doctor in Pakistan, he saw the need to provide a voice to a very significant yet silent member of society: women.
 
“When I was a little boy, I always wanted to make movies, (but) we did not have film schools back home in Pakistan. I was (a doctor) working at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, where I was appointed to work in the burn unit,” Mr. Zee told Buzzine in an exclusive interview. “There were a lot of women who were burned because they did not have children, or they would burn themselves because they did not bring enough dowry when they were married. It was very heartbreaking. I decided … to do something about it.”
 
It did not take long for Mr. Zee to figure out what to do. Medicine, while a noble profession, did not seem to provide all the answers. Sure, he was helping people, but there had to be another way to present the societal issues he witnessed to a broader audience in hopes that people would take notice and ultimately propagate change.
 

Bicycle Bride on buzzinebollywood.com

His answer: filmmaking.
 
“I made two films. I just finished this film, Bicycle Bride. This film is about women's empowerment. It’s about arranged marriages happening here in America. I have taken it more on the funny side and given people some information and awareness to accommodate, instead of doing a very serious film,” Mr. Zee candidly told Buzzine. “It’s about a young woman living in San Francisco. She is Americanized, but her mother and the family is Indian. There is a clash of culture. It’s a very funny comedy with wonderful themes of women empowerment and pursuing your passion and freedom.”
 
Interestingly enough, the film’s title serves as an apt metaphor, both for his vision and the film’s cause.
 
“I think a bicycle is a form of freedom. When you are on a bicycle, you just go, and there is no restriction. On the bicycle, you just feel free,”  Mr. Zee said, adding that, in certain corners of the world, Muslim girls or women are not allowed to ride bicycles.
 
While a comedy film, Mr. Zee said Bicycle Bride is quite the social commentary on both Muslim and South Asian culture, be it residents of the subcontinent or amongst the nearly 40 million non-resident Indians (NRIs) abroad.
 
“Marriage is very, very important in our society. It’s basically a mother’s journey to marry off her daughter. We don’t have a dating system in our culture. Mothers arrange families that are going to be suitable for the girl. It has its positives and it has its negatives,” Mr. Zee said. “In any culture, there are positive things and there are negative things, but also, there are traditional values that are coming in from hundreds of years. Now the barriers are falling down and a new generation is picking up things and trying to see what is coming up for them.”
 
He added that he has four sisters, all of whom went through arranged marriage, with some of them never meeting her husband before the actual ceremony.
 
Still, Mr. Zee tried to steer clear of the negatives and really focus on telling a story of the culture he knows best to an audience who is still trying to gain a firmer understanding of his people: Americans.
 
“This film is made with an American point of view. If the film played in India, it would be like a foreign film for them,” Mr. Zee said.

Hassan Zee with the female cast of 'Bicycle Bride' on buzzinebollywood.com

 
Accordingly, Bicycle Bride will be making its way through American theaters and, eventually, home entertainment distribution centers. For those who live in the cities where the film is releasing, be sure to find Bicycle Bride playing this weekend at a theater near you.
 
Either way, just as Mr. Simmons traversed from Hollis to Hollywood, Mr. Zee hopes it will not be too long before he is known as the man who went from Punjab to the Pacific en route to becoming an enterprising entertainer who channeled his creative efforts for the betterment of society. If he continues to produce films such as Bicycle Bride, perhaps Mr. Zee is truly on to something.
 
Bicycle Bride is Mr. Zee's second film (after Night of Henna) and stars Andreas WIlson, Shruti Tewari, Jessica Kitchens, Rajiv Neema, Veronica Valencia, and Jonathan Bock. The film debuted in June 2010 in San Francisco, and it's about an Indian woman who wants to have the freedom to choose the man she loves, but is pressured by her mother to experience an arranged marriage.