Bonny young college lass is harassed and “eve teased” by some local goons on her way back home while a gnarled and wise oldie reminisces about the Raj days remarking that nobody dared to look disrespectfully at anybody’s daughter or sister and that independence has brought us very little that is positive and tangible. Meanwhile the college girl has had enough of the daily harassment at the hands of the goons and announces to her bemused parents about her intention of quitting her education altogether.

Both parents are adamant that she continue her studies and the father, a righteous honest soul decides that from the next day on he will accompany his daughter on her way to and back from her college. The next day on the way to college the father and daughter are inevitably menaced by the goons and a battle to death ensues with both father and daughter being slaughtered by the evil goons in broad daylight with no apparent fear of police intervention. Moments later the matriarch played by Madame Sangeeta in her highly anticipated return to the screen arrives on the scene and wails away in typical style promising the worst vengeance upon the murderers of her daughter and her husband. Baying for vengeance in the manner that Maula Jat’s mother Dani once did, she lets out a mighty call for her son Ali Sher who like the great Maula Jat has extraordinary sensory capabilities. Seconds later he arrives at the scene and dishes out some true Maula Jat style justice, slaying the beasts in an instant before letting out a guttural cry of victory!

A proud mother gloats at her sons brilliant and swift bloody justice as he is led off to the notorious Macch Jail bellowing loudly that her son is to be known hence not as Ali Sher but as The Sher-e-Lahore to which her son growls his approval while swaggering off. The news of the goons deaths reaches notorious underworld kingpin Bandial (Tariq Shah) who promises to unleash his own terrible vengeance for the murder of his sons and so a deadly and obligatory blood feud between the Sher-e-Lahore and Bandial and his nasties is set in motion as is the scenario of every single Punjabi movie made in Lollywood.

The usual posturing, gung ho violence, demented machismo peppered with the occasional saucy dance number completes the magic formula prepared so lovingly by Madame Sangeeta, and for some inexplicable reason this film turned into a bumper success while so many that appear utterly identical in style, execution, plot, subject matter and indeed cast seem to fail dismally. Why does a film like Sher-e-Lahore score a bull’s eye while twenty others just like seem to miss the mark? We haven’t a clue, but perhaps some of the elements that contributed to its success were the fact that Madame Sangeeta has managed to keep the pace of the film from flagging at any time during proceedings and is helped by a weird background score, some typically loaded dialogues and reasonable performances – the film is never boring.

Perhaps the ingredient that had the drooling masses returning for repeat doses of the film were Nirma’s hot dance numbers which sent local (100%) male audiences into a fever. There were situations in Lahore’s Capital cinema where firing was resorted to by some of the drooling audience members to ensure that their favourite song was repeated over and over again! There are a couple of highly suggestive rain songs in which Nirma is writhing around all over in a typically suggestive and vulgar manner which seemed to have delighted the masses. Naturally Madame Sangeeta has made sure that she wears white in one of her numbers so that when drenched her clothes are rendered virtually see through and that the clothes are designed to reveal the maximum amount of flesh.

In a country where corruption is rife at all levels of society , traditionally it has been a well known fact that people who have friends in important places can get away with certain things that others might not be able to. Such was the case with the most notorious smut-fests of the glorious 70’s such as Khatarnaak, Aaj da Badmash and Khan Zada and it seems that this might have been the case with a film like Sher-e-Lahore even though when compared to the normal Pashto stuff, this was very mild indeed.

The film is a blue print of the typical revenge based Lollywood Punjabi formula in the Maula Jat mould – loads of shouting and comic book machismo, tons of violence, the glorification and worship of guns, a strong bellowing mother figure, loaded dialogues, fat men running around with toy guns and some super saucy crowd pleasing dance numbers.

Of the performers Shaan does his Sultan Rahi thing with relish, growling ferociously and cackling grotesquely when the moment calls for it. Moammer Rana has learned how to shout like a proper Punjabi hero and has thus recently gained acceptance as a “proper hero”. Saima, as ever, looks older than Shaan but is effective in providing some comic relief along the way. She too performs some crowd pleasing dances but nothing to match the vulgarity of the Nirma numbers.

The surprise package of the film is the stupendous return to the screen of yesterday’s man-eating siren Madame Sangeeta who turns in a riveting performance and even joins the slightly younger girls for a climactic song and dance! Madame Sangeeta shows that her unique beauty is like the finest wine; improving with the passing of time till it reaches a vintage level. Here not only does the Madame show that she hasn’t lost her magnetic screen presence but in fact that he beauty has only improved with time. She now looks like an audition should be beckoning for the next John Waters production. Sangeeta proves that classic beauty is eternal and age just a flippant number!

Sher-e-Lahore was one of several aces that the Madame fired on her triumphant return to directing Punjabi films and currently she enjoys the status of being top dog (certainly not bitch) of the Lollywood Punjabi scene – a considerable feat or a dubious honour depending on how you view Punjabi filmdom.