‘Jannan’ – Fails to impress.

Before going to see this movie I called almost all of my friends and colleagues who are basically from Swat and one of my colleague who is an excellent cook came to my place with excellent home-made beef biryani

Once settled I asked him what jannan meant?, he immediately said “mashooq”, and he then countered a question “do you have any Janaan?. My answer was an immediate and a big No.

DIRECTION & STORY: I have been to Swat many times and have stayed there, made friends, although didn’t make any Janaan. We were told that Janaan will be a movie aimed at bringing life to a culture that is overshadowed the most and highlights the essence of Pakhtoons. I did see some glimpses of pakhtoon culture in the movie but calling this a movie based on pakthoon culture wouldn’t right.

Never heard of any pakhtoon family sending their girl all by herself overseas for education, even some-one as famous as Malala didn’t go all by herself.

Meena had been away from family for six years only and on return not recognizing Asfandyar didn’t fit well, this kind of stuff is very common in bollywood movies. There are many other scenes that can only be seen in bollywood movie not in any part of Pakistan or Swat to be precise.

Ikramullah (Nayer Ijaz) is shown as a very influential person and the way he was arrested (way too easily) is not digestible, in our part of the world even a small crook is not that easy to arrest.

ACTING: Starting with Armeena, she disappointed once again with her acting skills, although she looked cute all through-out the movie and that was the only positive aspect that she could bring into the movie.

Bilal Ashraf the other lead looked very much inspired by Siddarth Malhotra and his acting in Kapoor & Sons, for me Bilal Ashraf was the biggest disappointment of the movie, expressionless acting. He should be better at ramp-walk.

Mishi Khan and Nayer Ijaz didn’t impress at all, and guy who was playing the role of Groom will try to forget this movie pretty soon, as he just couldn’t deliver. That Canadian girl didn’t know how to cry, she reminded me of bollywood movies of early 90’s.

Ajab Gul was perfect most of the time and surprise was Hania Amir excellent on her debut, I was told by friends that this is her first acting assignment; before this movie she had not acted in any drama / movie / commercial or anything similar, she handled here character very well. Grand-Mother acted well enough.

And lastly Ali Rehman Khan future super-star, can’t wait to see you soon again on-screen, you are the kind of stuff that our industry needs the most, you know how to act on big screen and you carried your character very well through-out. Thoroughly impressed.

Pakistani movies releasing this Eid-ul-Adha season

Trying to kill time here in office, and trying to figure out what to do next. Not much people around to talk to, so what do I do next?

Write a review on Pakistani movies? sounds good, but rather then writing a review on each movie separately I would compare these four Pakistani movies in the simplest possible way.

So here is my comparison between four Pakistan movies released during last week for up-coming Eid-ul-Adha season.

Table 01:

S No	Movie	Direction	Story	Acting	Music	Score
01	Teri Meri Love Story	Bad	Worst	Bad	Average	09
02	Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hay	Average	Average	Average	Excellent	25
03	Janaan	Average	Average	Average	Average	20
04	Actor-in-Law	Excellent	Excellent	Good	Excellent	37

Table 02:

Excellent:	10/10
Good:	07/10
Average:	05/10
Bad:	02/10
Worst:	00/10

So for those of you who are planning to spend hard earned money to watch some real Pakistani movie  on big screen then “Actor-in-Law” in a must watch closely followed by “Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hay”.

If you plan to promote Pakistan movies further then you should go and see “Janaan” also.

“Teri Meri Love Story” is a total waste of money, time and your energy. Please don’t waste your hard earned money and your precious time on this pathetic movie and also try to conserve your energy.

Zindagi Kitni Hassen Hay (ZKHH)

Not sure how many of you have seen Indian movie “Akele Hum, Akele Tum” released during 1995 featuring Aamir Khan & Manisha Koirala which was inspired by American drama film “Kramer vs Kramer” from 1979 featuring Dustin Hoffman & Meryl Streep. Both these movies are based on small kid aged around 07 ~ 08 with fighting parents and then both parent going their ways, mother being more successful and father not that successful. Kid gets to stay with the father.

Now coming back to “Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hay”, a romantic drama film as claimed by directed by Anjum Shahzad is probably the second movie to be premiered this Eid-ul-Adha season after “Teri Meri Love Story” and by far this movie is better than first release of the season.

Feroz Khan was simply brilliant and to be honest I wasn’t expecting this much from him, I went to see the movie with a mind that Sajjal Ali will steal the lime-light, but it was the other way around. Feroz Khan you have impressed me with your acting skills.

Jibraiyl Ahmed real star of the movie was exceptionally brilliant and took the centre stage right from his first on-screen entrance, this kid dominated screen mostly and his presence at times made Sajjal Ali looking very mediocre actor which she was in the movie.

Sajjal Ali was the biggest disappointment of this movie, below par acting and could have done better and director of the movie could have found a better and more mature actress for this kind of role.

Alyy Khan as usual was brilliant with his role but his assistant was the dumbest character of the movie closely followed by Nabeel Zuberi. Walking on a ramp and acting are two entirely different subjects, one should understand the fact that if you are good at ramp-walk even then you have to learn to act to be in a movie.

Nayyar Ejaz and Rashid Farooqui also did well with their roles, but some-one like Rashid Farooqui should opt for bigger and better slice rather this small role.

It seems that Pakistani movies are moving in the right direction but to progress further we need to remove characters like the one played by Shafqat Cheema, these type of characters simply do not exists in our part of the world, I am yet to see one, and don’t we have any new faces for villain-type roles, why do we have to go back to these old and million times tried faces like Shafqat Cheema.

Music was good, especially Tootiya Tara & Udasiyaan which were synchronized well with the scenes, and Mustafa Zahid and Adnan Dhool rocked with their powerful vocals. Title song sung by Adnan Dhool & Momina Mustehsan had a good feel to it too.

Anjum Shahzad showed some real guts by highlighting the negative-side of our beloved morning shows and also by showing drama/movie shoots.

This movie also had its share of loop-holes, raining had a fake feel to it, and it was too much raining, fight sequence was one of the worst scene of the movie, kidnapping, police chase and hospital scene. These scenes could have been improved

And finally last scene of the movie where parents are trying to bring the kid back to life was amazing and brought tears nearby.

A must watch movie for parents specially for fathers.