'Aadha Pakistan khali ho jayega': Here's how Pakistanis reacted to Sunny Deol's Gadar 2 dialogue

Sunny Deol's one dialogue in his latest blockbuster 'Gadar-2' has surprisingly got some backers in Pakistan. Deol, very often, faced backlash for his characters and dialogues in some of his movies like Border, Gadar, and Gadar 2, which have not been taken very positively by Pakistanis. But surprisingly, even his critics have, probably for the first time, found some truth in one dialogue that if the people in Pakistan get another chance to settle in India, half of Pakistanis would leave their country.

One Pakistani YouTuber, Sohaib Chaudhry, recently took a public review of Gadar-2, which is smashing box office collection records in India. Chaudhry showed the people a clip of Gadar-2's trailer, where Sunny Deol, while responding to a provocative statement by a Pakistan Army general, said that half of their countrymen would leave if they were given a chance to settle in India.

Most Pakistanis Sohaib spoke to agreed to this and said this was true as the economic conditions of the country had deteriorated. "Main ye maanta hu ke Pakistanis hamare bado ke wajah se itne tang aa chuke hai ke agar inko izazat di jaye ke aap Pakistan se nikal jao to ye ek din bhi yaha nahi rahenge (I agree to this fact that Pakistanis are fed up with their rulers. And if they are permitted to leave Pakistan, they will not stay here even for a day)," said Zaved Ali Khan, who is pursuing a course in Islamic studies.  

Another person joined the conversation and said two ships carrying Pakistanis had sunk recently. "They had also gone for employment, but both ships sank," he said, referring to two separate incidents where 380 Pakistanis died after ships they were travelling capsised. The first incident happened in February when 28 Pakistanis died after a migrant ship capsized off Italy. In June, at least 350 Pakistanis died after a trawler capsized off southern Greece.  
 
Sohaib again Zaved whether he thought Indian Muslims would go to Pakistan if given a choice. To this, Zavid responded negatively: "Lagta nhi hai wo yaha aayenge (Don't they they will come here)." "Because their employment is good compared to us. They are, in my view, living the good life there in terms of employment...and their administrators are better than ours," Zaved said. He also said that the youths in Pakistan are forced to leave the country as there is no employment there.  

Sohaib and the responders agreed that the Pakistan government, instead of saying they would free Kashmir, should focus on freeing its people from poverty and hunger. "Ek time khate, dusri time nahi khate, gareeb log kha kha jaaye (we don't even get two meals a day, where do we poor people go?)," a person said.    

He further said he himself got a message from a person saying he would get a free visa, residence, and job in Dubai. At this point, the interviewer interjected and told him to not entertain such a message as most of the time they are frauds. The person agreed and said his maternal uncle too said not to fall for it as a visa for Dubai costs at least Rs 8-10 lakh (PKR).

Sohaib then turned to another person and asked the same question whether Pakistanis would leave the country if given a choice, the person said: "Haan...bilkul chale jaayenge, and kaafi log yaha see chale gaye hai (yes, definitely people will leave and a lot of people have already left)." He further said that people were dying hungry there in Pakistan, power tariff rates were increasing every other day, and inflation was high. At least ten people were asked whether they would like to leave, and they all responded in the affirmative.  

Pakistan has been in the middle of a serious economic crisis as the country's growth has slowed down, employment has risen, and inflation has soared to a record over 28 per cent - the highest in Asia.    

Released on August 11, Sunny Deol's latest blockbuster Gadar-2 has so far minted over Rs 400 crores at the box office.