‘Superstar’ all set to hit cinema-screens this Eid-ul-Adha.

When stars collide! A Superstar is born and to witness it’s birth yesterday at an impressive event, trailer of one of the most anticipated Pakistani film of 2019 ‘Superstar’ was officially launched. This very impressive trailer launch event was hosted by Tipu Shareef who also has a guest appearance in the film.

‘Superstar’ a film by Momina & Duraid Productions, releasing this Eid-ul-Azha worldwide, stars Mahira Khan as Superstar with Bilal Ashraf on male leading role and is directed by Muhammad Ehtesham-ud-din, produced by Momina Duraid and distributed by HUM Films. Superstar is written by Mustafa Afridi who is also responsible screen-play and content. Music is by Azan Sami Khan. Khizer Idress director of photography is responsible for all the excellent cinematography.

Trailer seems impressive from direction, acting, cinematography, music and dances are spot on. As we get from the trailer entire film ‘Superstar’ seems to revolve around Mahira Khan who looks very pretty, acts well and to our amazement dances well too. I see Tamgha-e-Imtiaz coming from below punch-line.

“ham chottay gharoon kay actor hain issi liay

sab kay saath so kar hi kaam milta hay hammay”

Director of ‘Superstar’ Muhammad Ehtisham-ud-din said; “this is my first film as director and it was a throughout learning experience for me. Although I have directed on television but directing a film was altogether a new horizon for me”. He further said; “story of ‘Superstar’ is strong. Story starts the journey of any film and it’s the story of any films that gets the film going. Stardom of Mahira Khan and Bilal Ashraf didn’t affect the story line. We need flood of Pakistani movies for its revival. Few drops of rain won’t do much for revival of Pakistani films”.

Sultana Siddiqui President and founder of Hum Network Limited said ‘Superstar’ is always a Superstar and will surely shine above all and on competition coming this Eid-ul-Adha from other films releasing she said; “competition should take place, which is healthy and better for Pakistan’s film industry. We do have better content when compared against India, although we may lack on technological side, but we are better on content side. We will compete with better internally and after some externally also.”

Mahira Khan, who already is a superstar said; “all of us go through same pressures when in limelight and people who go through pressures with grace are actually the ones who are true superstars. We must not get bitter with more movies coming this Eid-ul-Adha”.

Bilal Ashraf male lead of ‘Superstar’ had extra loads of work for this film as he would be showing off  his six-packs / six-abs for which he trained very hard and praised his trainer Faisal. For this film Bilal Ashraf also took training on acting sessions from Sunik Shankar theatre actor from NAPA which according to him worked well for him. Bilal Ashraf said; “competition doesn’t take anything away from you. You just have to be consistent with your hard work.”

Apart from the lead pair, ‘Superstar’ boasts a stellar cast including the industry’s bigwigs Nadeem Baig, Javaid Sheikh, Marina Khan, Asma Abbas, Saife Hassan, Alizay Shah, Ali Kazmi and Waqar, and special appearances from Hania Amir, Saira Shehroz, Osman Khalid Butt, Kubra Khan and Mani.

veteran actor Nadeem Baig said; “competition is good and healthy for revival of Pakistan film industry but it should be aimed at appreciation not jealousy”. Nigah Hussain choreographer said; “dances are dependent is music and Azan Sami Khan has composed some very excellent music on which Mahira Khan has performed even better. She has never done danced any better”.

Azan Sami Khan music director said that he an emotional attachment to most of the songs, as some of them are from his earliest compositions which he composed when he started off as a musician. This movie has 10 songs and most of them would a treat for music lovers.

On concluding note, Duraid Qureshi Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Hum Network Limited thanked marketing team, public relations (PR) team, social media team and project team of HUM Network for their efforts on ‘Superstar’. Momina Duraid producer of ‘Superstar’ and CEO of Momina Duraid Productions also thanked scores of people for their special efforts for ‘Superstar’.

Superstar will be released on Eid-ul-Azha 2019, under the banner of HUM Films.

Rangreza – will be remembered for its music.

After huge success of Punjab Nahi Jaon Gi and Na Maloom Afraad 2, I was expecting some quality stuff from the makers of Rangreza, but was hugely disappointed  and to be honest I was expecting a lot more then what I had just seen. During the promotional period I remember someone from the production team said it to one of the most expensive Pakistani films of the year. Still wondering where all that money had been dumped to. My prediction for Rangreza is that this will be last miss of 2017 as last two movies of 2017, Arth-2 and Chuppan Chupai will be hit it for sure.

Rangreza is just another addition to the long list of Pakistani movies that flopped and almost all the flops of 2017 had at-least one point to share with each other that was ‘weak story line / weak content’, but in-case of Rangreza there were some other issues too.

Weak story coupled with even weaker direction was even harder to digest even though ‘rangreza had some brilliant actors but even they couldn’t steer the ship ashore. Editing was also sub-standard and I am still wondering how suddenly the song ‘Kallu’ jumped in from. This song ‘Kallu’ had no relevance to post or pre scenes.

Some of the brilliant acting displays were by Saleem Mairaj and Akbar Subhani, both these seniors were flawless with their acting skills and they didn’t miss a single mark. Normally it’s very pretty clear that Saleem Mairaj will be spot-on and flawless with his acting. Akbar Subhani’s acting and his face expressions were awesome and will be remembered for long. Malkani also acted superbly.

Main leads Bilal Ashraf and Urwa Hocaine were just pretty faces and weren’t that impressive, Gohar Rasheed showed glimpses of his skills but at times over-acted. Goher Rasheed is a very skilled and talented actor who wasn’t used well by the director. Ghana Ali turned out to be a surprise as she was not just a pretty face, but she also acted better then main lead Urwa Hocaine.

Music was the best part of Rangreza, to start off with best song of the movie and probably the best part of Rangreza was its song ‘Bagiya’ by Jonita Gandhi, title track which was ‘Hey Rangreza’ title track was a power packed performance by J. Ali and this title track reminded me of Aashiqui 2 but even then this song had feel-good factor it, Phool Khil Jayien by Abida Parveen & Asrar Shah and Bulleya by Asrar Shah and lastly Balamwa sung by Ustaad Fareed Ayaz, Ustaad Abu Mohammad & Hamza Akram Qawal. Only one song ‘Kallu’ could have been avoided.

Dances need to be choreographed in a better way and fight scenes were as badly choreographed as they have always been done in the past. DOP and Cinematography was better as compared some recent movies.

Overall there aren’t any crowd pullers in Rangreza and also the movie has no repeat value, I don’t see this movie doing much.

‘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.