Author: Mr. Khan's Reviews

A review on Pakistani feature length film, Salute (2016). The Production House is Cinetainment Production and Distributed by IMGC Global Entertainment.

+ Crew

• Directed by Shahzad Rafique
• Cinematography by Adil Askri
• Written by Shahzad Rafique
• Edited by Mohammed Adeel PK
• Produced by Ghufoor Butt, Haji Arshad Mehmood & Shahzad Rafique

+ Note

Salute is a biographical film is based on the life of martyr “Aitzaz Hasan” from Hangu, Pakistan. He very courageously confronted a suicide bomber from attempting to blow his school saving up to 2000 lives. It’s a Cinematic Tribute to his act of bravery and selflessness, therefore the film is titled as ‘Salute’.

The music is composed by Robin Ghosh (Late) & Aamir Munawar.

+ Main Cast

1) Ali Mohtesham as Shaheed Aitzaz Hasan

2) Ajab Gul as Aitzaz Hasan’s father

3) Saima Noor as Aitzaz Hasan’s mother

4) Imran Khan as Taliban

5) Nayyar Ejaz as Mulvi

+ Plot

Shaheed Aitzaz Hasan Bangash is a healthy school boy who is often taunted by other school boys over his weight issue. His life surrounds closely with his family especially her mother. She is the only one who believes that God has created him for a special reason.

+ High Points

i – If one is aware of the true events which this film is based on, it was really heart breaking to know and watch film ending. You can see the love which is pour out by Aitzaz’s loving mother for his child. The film in the start is dedicated to the martyrs of Pakistan, especially innocent children.

ii – The performances by Ajab Gul and Saima Noor, played their part well.

iii – The locations are very beautiful as it is mainly shot at Azad Kashmir.

iv – The story shown of Aitzaz Hasan and his family are the only interesting scenes to watch.

v – Ali Mohtesham as Shaheed Aitzaz Hasan did the role properly and in most justified manner.

vi – The ‘Islam’ that is preached and how it is implemented by banned religious groups is shown to highlight their view of the religion side by side of general public. It was a good call.

+ Low Points

i – The cinematography is mediocre. There are unnecessary Bird’s eye view multiple shots been taken throughout the film. Irrelevant intense shots in slow motion are taken where there is hardly any suspense shown to the audience.

ii – There are so many armies infiltrating and attacking shots taken. Not only do they look unrealistic but with highly exaggerating manner are they shown on screen. I do understand that they were inserted in the film intentionally to show our army patriotism and their fight against such ‘Islamic & Religious’ terrorist / banned groups. Yet it ruined the main story which it was actually based on.

iii – The beard of Nayyar Ejaz is as real as Santa Claus’s beard.

iv – Then we had this Bonanza ad during the film. Sorry, what I mean is there is this couple on honeymoon who are attacked by a small group of terrorists. Bad direction, bad acting.

v – The supporting cast acting is just okay. It could have been better.

vi – The product placement of NBP is like watching an advertisement. Badly executed.

vii – The story telling precisely needs improvement on its part.

viii – The flashback scenes and present scenes were hard to tell in the start as it looked the same.

ix – By looking at different aircraft while taking off, Aitzaz Hasan’s father saddens as it reminds him of his loving wife and family. But the way it was shot, it seemed that the BTS team has inserted wrong aircraft shots. Example: In close up shots, we see PIA plane but in master shots it belonged to some other airlines. This same thing happened again with Emirates and other airlines aircraft.

x – The action scenes reminded me of illogical explosions & gun battle shown in Michael Bay film.

+ Overall

Salute is a touching story, surrounding Aitzaz Hasan’s true events which delivers so well, But it also suffers from the uninspired cinematography, lack of strong supporting cast and its clichéd action sequence that provokes to wish for a redo.

Rate: 2.0 out of 5 stars

A review on Pakistani romantic feature length film, Rangreza (2017). The Production Houses are Vision Art Films, MH Films and Malkani Films while its Distributors are ARY Films and B4U Motion Pictures.

+ Crew

• Directed by Amir Mohiuddin
• Music, Written, Produced by Akhtar Qayyum
• Co-Produced by Yasir Mohiuddin & Usman Malkani

+ Note

Rangreza is a film between two different school of thoughts and classes.

+ Main Cast

1. Bilal Ashraf as Ali Zain
2. Urwa Hocane as Reshmi
3. Gohar Rasheed as Waseem Wallay
4. Ghana Ali as Saba
5. Saleem Mairaj as Waseem’s friend
6. Tanveer Jamal as Reshmi’s Father

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+ Supportive Cast

1. Saba Faisal as Reshmi’s Mother
2. Shahid Naqvi as Waseem’s Father
3. Seemi Pasha as Ali’s Mother
4. Akbar Subhani as Dada
5. Alyzeh Gabol as Ali’s Friend (Cameo)
6. Saad Farukh Khan as Saba’s Friend

+ Plot

A shy, beautiful girl Reshmi, belongs to a traditional Qawwal family and has been engaged since childhood to her cousin, Waseem. Conflict arises when Ali, a famous pop star falls in love with her.

+ High Points

i – Gohar Rasheed is not only the show-stealer but also performed very well. It’s no surprise that his character was most fascinatingly written and able to pull it off perfectly. I would love to see him perform a positive role yet an interesting one. Other Honorable Mentions: Tanveer Jamal and Shahid Naqvi.

ii – The screenplay is captivatingly written; lots of humorous punchlines.

iii – Makeup & hair styling and production design is praise worthy

iv – Costume designing is well handled. Love to see cheap different shirts given to Gohar to wear.

v – The direction of photography is good, very skillful shots been taken in almost every scene.

+ Low Points

i – The film is fair at best. But good thing is that it was not lengthy as these films generally are.

ii – The chemistry between Bilal and Urwa is so-so. Their love relationship hardly made emotional connection with the audience as everything was rushed.

iii – The two lead roles performance were just okay, although I usually enjoy watching Bilal Ashraf’s performance.

iv – The same old romantic story of two young individuals belonging to two different social statuses fall in love.

+ Overall

Rangreza is able to bring audience attention particularly because of one-liner humor and Gohar’s performance. Nonetheless, it is still rather a low-spirited romantic film which ultimately loses its chances to be memorable one.

Rate: 2.50 out of 5 stars

A review on Pakistani Rom-Com feature length film, Load Wedding (2018). The Production House is Filmwala Pictures while its Distributors are Geo Films, Distribution Club and Zee Studios (Internationally).

+ Crew

• Written & Directed by Nabeel Qureshi
• Co-Written & Produced by Fizza Ali Meerza
• Cinematography by Rana Kamran
• Edited by Asif Mumtaz
• Co-Produced by Mehdi Ali

+ Note

Load Wedding is the fourth collaboration with director-producer-duo Nabeel Qureshi and Fizza Ali Meerza. The film is narrated by Mohsin Abbas Haider. He has co-written the film, as well as wrote the lyrics for two songs and sung one of them. Its music is composed by Shani Arshad.

There is an Easter egg of late fame actor, Om Puri (most probably as Raja’s father). It is a huge coincidence to find that there’s a character by the name ‘Baby Baji’ who in real life of mine was a very close and dear relative. Sadly, only a month ago she had expired. Not only she carries the same name as Faiza Hasan portrays but her characteristics (to some extent) including being unmarried and having weight issues were too similar. It made me wonder as from where the writers took the inspiration from.

The cameos are performed by Tehrim and Jameel, two NAPA artists as well.

+ Main Cast

1. Fahad Mustafa as Raja
2. Mehwish Hayat as Meerab / Meeru
3. Samina Ahmad as Raja’s Mother
4. Faiza Hasan as Baby Baji / Farhana
5. Noor Ul Hasan as Mamu

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+ Supporting Cast

1. Qaiser Piya as Raja’s Friend
2. Fahim Khan as Ashiq Rafaqat
3. Anjum Habibi as Uncle
4. Ghazala Butt as Aunty
5. Ghalib Kamal as Baby Baji’s Fiancée

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+ Cameo

1. Mohsin Abbas Haider as Mamu [Young]
2. Hania Amir as Mamu’s Love Interest [Young]
3. Hamna Amir as Meerab [Young]
4. Tehrim Shafiq as Polio Worker
5. Syed M. Jameel as TV Production Assistant
6. N/A as TV Production Security

+ Plot

Raja is a young lad who lives in a small town with his family and an unmarried sister. One day he falls in love with Polio worker Meeru, his childhood love.

+ High Points

i – Beautiful work behind its lighting, the cinematography that it gives whole new meaning and reasoning to watch the film.

ii – Once again we witness an enjoyable performance by Fahad Mustafa as Raja who goes deep into his character in able to win the audience hearts. Fahad is the heart and soul of Load Wedding.

iii – Faiza Hasan as Baby Baji plays an elder sibling with an attitude and stubbornness issue, who cannot accept herself to be left behind while her younger brother gets married before her. Faiza performed very well as playing an arrogant character. Other Honorable Mentions: Fahim Khan, Samina Ahmad and Qaiser Piya.

iv – The team behind its production design and shooting locations, helps us to in believing the surroundings’ realism.

v – The direction by Nabeel was fun loving and entertaining. There are many scenes in the film where we could see why ‘Nabeel Qureshi’ is a big name in the market.

vi – Songs, such as ‘Rangeya’, ‘Kooch Na Karein’ were very pleasing and lovable to listen to.

vii – The costume designing works well on the given characters, it helped them to convince the audience to accept their characteristics with their good performances.

viii – Effective use of the product placements except for McDonald’s.

+ Low Points

i – The first half is the real film to watch, because after the interval… the storytelling slides down to a great fall that it never fully recovers.

ii – After NMA2 and now this, I think Nabeel Qureshi & his team should sit down and work out on how to come up with good scripts as they once did in NMA1 and Actor-in-Law.

iii – I don’t think people came to watch game shows’ / Amir Liaqat’s parody which he conquers in the second half of the film.

iv – I have watched many TV dramas, films which carries the same core message as of this film.

v – I didn’t enjoy listening to the song ‘Munday Lahore De’. I know well that the team of LW could come up with a much better song.

vi – It seems that Mehwish looked bit older than Fahad to show as his love interest. Though, she appeared fine in ‘Actor-in-Law’ (2016). She is more suitable pair (in appearance) with Humayun Saeed.

vii – It was hard to take last emotional scenes seriously where Raja shares the screen time with Ashiq Rafaqat.

+ Overall

Load Wedding works well in terms of humor level and Rana sb’s spectacular cinematography but lacks humongously with a good storyline and script.

Rate: 2.75 out of 5 stars

A review on Norwegian-Pakistani Drama feature length film, What Will People Say (2017) aka Hva Vil Folk Si. The Production Houses are Mer Film, Rohfilm GmbH and Zentropa International Sweden while Its Distributors are Lucky Red, ARP Sélection and Avalon.

+ Crew

• Written & Directed by Iram Haq
• Cinematography by Nadim Carlsen
• Edited by Janus Billeskov Jansen and Anne Østerud
• Music by Lorenz Dangel and Martin Pedersen
• Produced by Maria Ekerhovd

+ Note

What Will People Say is inspired by director Iram Haq’s own life. It is claimed that she was once kidnapped to Pakistan. Almost all of the supporting cast are Indian performers.

Due to the security concerns & to have the film crew upper hand, the shooting besides Norway, took place in Rajasthan, India. Although, the film shows it as Lahore, Pakistan.

What Will People Say had its world premiere at the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival in 2017. This film is translated in Norwegian language as well.

+ Main Cast

1. Maria Mozhdah as Nisha
2. Adil Hussain as Mirza
3. Ekavali Khanna as Mother Najma
4. Rohit Suresh Saraf as Amir

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+ Supporting Cast

1. Ali Arfan as Asif
2. Sheeba Chaddha as Aunt
3. Jannat Zubair Rahmani as Salima
4. Lalit Parimoo as Uncle

+ Plot

Nisha is a daughter of a Pakistani-Norwegian family, who is later kidnapped to Pakistan by her parents when her father finds her in bed with a man.

+ High Points

i – Adil Hussain is an Indian actor, with a long list of films mentioned in his career. In this film, he portrays the role of a strict father who wants Nisha to follow their ancestor’s societal norms. I’m very pleased and satisfied with his believable portrayal as a desperate father to save his girl from falling into western attributes and lifestyle. The viewers are made aware of his great love for his daughters underneath the strict discipline that he wears in his daily life.

ii – It may come as shocking to many, but this is Mariah Mozhdah’s first film as an actress. Here she portrays the daughter of a Pakistani family settled in Norway. Her character is shown as being torn apart between two very different cultures. One belongs to Norway life, which is socially progressive while the other is her family’s traditional roots. Mariah has given a phenomenal performance. Its just matter of time, when she appears in future projects.

iii – Iram Haq’s direction has made it clear to the audience and critics alike that she means serious business when it comes to film making. She gives a brief insight to the both cultures norms and living styles. What one needs to understand is that we can not enforce our beliefs and traditions to our children, especially without their consent. They are after all, of different era.

iv – Surprisingly, there are some daring scenes that were shot.

v – The film comes to an end with a realistic view.

+ Low Points

i – The film’s plot is very similar to the films that I have watched earlier.

+ Overall

What Will People Say brings us to the point where we stand between the societal norms and self-freedom.

Rate: 3.50 out of 5 stars