MOVIE REVIEW
mOVIE rEVIEW:
‘Karachi Se Lahore’
T
aking the road less travelled has its pros and cons.
If you succeed in your journey you’ll have a great
story to tell and if you fail, you end up getting lost
somewhere in the wilderness. Wajahat Rauf took on a
similar task by making a Pakistani road movie but, much
like the green Foxy in the film, the story loses its ‘shocks’
before it hits the highway .Written by actor-turned-writer
Yasir Hussain, the film revolves around the life of a struggling banker Zaheem (Shehzad Shaikh). With a poster
of Joker plastered in his colourful apartment, Zaheem
in many ways represents the average urban Pakistani
in his twenties: he hates his job, and his girlfriend Aashi
(Ishita Syed) never misses a reason to be unhappy about
their relationship. Zaheem is obviously not alone and is
accompanied by
a self-obsessed
Sam (Ahmed Ali)
and the bearded
Moti (Yasir Hussain). Moti always wears a
strange collection
of
berumudas
and not to much
of our surprise,
he
stammers.
His stammer is
one of the many
clichés that become redundant
and
unneeded
after
providing
a few bouts of comic relief in the film. Their chemistry,
however, is one to look out for as the three musketeers
complement each other’s puns, gestures and mood
swings quite naturally, giving a much-needed hook to
the narrative.The three of them are at a dance party
when Zaheem finds out that Aashi is all set to get married to his family acquaintance who has just come back
from Canada. To satisfy the Romeo in him, Zaheem decides to take a road trip to Lahore to stop Aashi’s marriage and is accompanied by his friends and neighbours
Maryam (Ayesha Omar) and her younger brother Zeezo
(Aasher Wajahat).Ironically, the film nosedives as soon
as it hits the highway, with random characters that serve
no purpose in the narrative running into the caravan.
What’s even more disappointing is that most of these
characters are stereotypes, that too very inaccurate
ones. Where in the world (let alone, the route from Karachi to Lahore) do Pathans have a festival where they
indulge in ‘Kushti’?That is what brings us to the biggest
tragedy with Karachi Se Lahore: it is written like a stage
drama, not even a theatre play. You only wait for oneliners that serve no purpose in pushing the narrative forward. Beyond that, you just keep waiting for the film to
end. In fact, jokes like ‘Sardi Ka Saleem Javed’, ‘Garmi
ka Hasan Jahangir’ and a short preachy speech about
Pathans being peace-loving people at the end of that
festival reminds you about the flow of a quintessential
Umer Sharif stage drama. By giving prime importance to
making people laugh, Hussain fails to concentrate on the
plot, making people look forward to the next joke, and not
what happens next.
Where Ahmed Ali
makes good use of
his experience in
theatre,
Shehzad
Sheikh turns out to
be the real surprise
package. It seems
like Wajahat shook
him well before using him in the feature film and it turns
out to be Shehzad’s
career best performance.There was
barely anything for
Ayesha Omar in the
script, which is why
her performance doesn’t get noticed more than a girl
wearing a revealing top, in a jeep flooded by guys. Even
her item number Tooti Fruity was a touch jittery and
certainly not worth the hype. It relies heavily on inserts
that make her thumkas seem rather mechanical.You
must look out for some honest and hilarious cameos by
Pakistani musicians and the placement of some iconic
Pakistani songs in the film. Kudos to Wajahat for using
Noori’s Do Dill for the big screen, as the song leaves an
impact much more soul-stirring than many of Bollywood
OSTs.Karachi Se Lahore releases in cinemas across
Pakistan on July 31. A relativley shorter version of the
film be screened in theatres.Verdict: Karachi Se Lahore
has hilarious moments that at times seem out of place.
Watch the film to learn some new jokes, but opt out if
you are looking for a good big screen experience.
31 | BOOM