"Realism" is the most accurate and expressive feature of the films of the director Muhammad Khan who marks the fourth anniversary of his death, as he missed the film scene in 2016, leaving behind a great cinematic legacy in its content and success.
However, the harvest of 73 years lived by Muhammad Khan was only 24 feature films, and the experience of Fawazir Farah Farah and his first short film, in addition to his work as an assistant director at the beginning of his artistic journey.
Humans and location in Khan movies
“I don’t care about the story, and I don’t care about solutions to reality, I only care about the details, there are small things that I try to pass in my films that I hope people will understand,” statements that Muhammad Khan said during interviews before his departure reveal his passion for details and human beings, while the secret also lies in its connection with the place and the streets , Which is clearly shown by his films.
Muhammad Khan, who was born in 1942 in Egypt, has a Pakistani father and an Egyptian mother of British descent. He traveled with his family to London when he was fourteen years old, to study architecture first before he decided to go to the Film Institute and study there.
After returning to Egypt, he stayed for only one year, during which he worked in the screenwriting section under the direction of director Salah Abu Saif, but the matter did not satisfy the passion of Khan who traveled to Lebanon and worked as an assistant director with directors such as Wadih Faris, Kosta, Youssef Maalouf and others, he participated during those years In films such as "The Adventures of Filfila" and "Interpol in Beirut," he also directed a short film called "Watermelon" in 1972.
But he then returned to London before deciding to return and settle in Egypt in 1977, after which he set out on his camera in the streets of Egypt, observing details, changes and people.
Nour Al Sharif Adventure
The breakthrough was three years after his return to Egypt, specifically in 1980 when he presented the movie "Sunstroke", and Khan was not a well-known director in Egypt, but Noor Al-Sharif's enthusiasm to work as a producer and actor gave the beginning spark to an important director, Muhammad Khan.
Khan noted in his first experience, "Sunstroke", the changes that took place in the Egyptian street, despite the simplicity of the story covered in the film, but it carried a philosophical dimension, such as the suffering of the self with others and embodied in the hero of the movie "Shams", that seemingly normal, simple, but complex character.
Khan's efforts to work were also crowned with huge public success, as he participated in international festivals at the time. Because Khan is a fan of details and streets, the outside scenes were the predominant "sunstroke", a feature that characterized other films later on.
Six films with Ahmed Zaki
The success of "Sunstroke" was enough to define the identity of Khan at the time on the cinematic map, so his name became an element of attraction for big stars on the scene at the time, but Ahmed Zaki had the lion's share of six films that started in cooperation with him in the movie "A date at dinner" and with the participation of the artist Suad Hosni At the height of her stardom for a director still in his first experiences
And the movie - "A date for dinner" - weaves human relations through the wife who suffers from her husband's neglect and tries to get away from the control of the husband who annexed him to his properties through a love story she lives with a hairdresser.
Because human relationships were the focus of Khan's interests, and although some classify the movie "The Wife of an Important Man" as a political act, the film that he also presented with Ahmed Zaki and co-starred Mervat Amin reveals the feelings, human feelings and intense hatred between the two protagonists.
Najlaa Fathi is also one of the stars who shared his films. She presented with "Zaki" the experience of "Dreams of India and Camellia", a work through which Muhammad Khan cared for the marginalized and the poor. To Alexandria to see the sea.
Zaki and Khan also introduced "a bird on the road" and "Mr. Karate", through which he returned to the marginalized class through the hero who came from his simple village dreaming of professional karate and worked in a garage.
Muhammad Khan has returned to cooperate with actress Mervat Amin Zaki in the movie "Days of Sadat", which is the only work to be classified from the biographical films in Khan's career.
Food Drama in Khan Films
Eating is one of the protagonists of his movie "He Has Come Out", which was starred by Farid Shawqi, Yahya Al-Fakharani, and Leila Alawi. Khan monitors, through the relationship of the film's hero, Attia with eating, how his lost lost life has turned into a stable life after a packed meal provided by the people of the countryside coming from the city.
In this film, the hero also discovers simple pleasures in life away from the brutality of the city in which he wasted his life between her books and employees, and despite the many scenes of food in the film, he was keen to have it in an attractive template.
In the movie "A date for dinner" also, food was the expression of love, and it is also the hero's revenge for her husband after he killed her lover, as she put the "poison" on him in the tray of the "mesqaa" that he loves.
Also through food, Muhammad Khan expresses estrangement between the two protagonists of the movie "Wife of an Important Man". When Hisham insists that he accompanies his wife to dinner outside in order to control her, the food comes cold and the meat is raw to confirm the estrangement and apathy between them.
Young generation
With the same spirit and passion, Muhammad Khan was able to continue his success, so his latest experiences with the young generation came with Mena Shalaby and Hind Sabri, the film "Girls in the Downtown", with Ghada Adel and Khaled Abu Al Naja in "Heliopolis Apartment", and with Yasmine, the head of "Factory Girl", A year before his departure, he presented his latest movie - "Before the Summer Crush" - and here was her last female hero.