https://www
youtube
com/watch?v=CgzJ6KRBK8w In order for cinema to grow, all kinds of audiences have to start coming to the theatres; the kind who would watch Kahaani or Andhadhun over Thugs of Hindostan
If you go wrong in making a Jawani Phir Nahi Ani or a Na Maloom Afraad, there will be three more films of the same genre releasing in the next six months and the maintenance will continue
Failure of a comedy will not hurt cinema as much as it would if you go wrong while making a Laal Kabootar, because these films bring in a new audience to the cinema and their failure can alienate those viewers from Pakistani cinema forever
Laal Kabootar has a strong pull for the indie audience
It’s trailer, even though not promoted enough or in the right way, hits the cord and generates enough interest for that specific audience
Once it brings you to the theatre, it has a lot of ingredients working well for the recipe
Taha Malik’s soundtrack is brilliant; probably the best element in the mix, taking a leaf out of Bejoy Nambiar’s book
*Spoilers alert* The actors are deeply involved
From the smallest roles, such the cameo by Ali Kazmi, to the main leads of Mansha Pasha (playing Aliya Malik) and Ahmed Ali Akbar (playing Adeel Nawaz), everyone took ownership of their character and added zing to the overall flavour
Take Kazmi’s mumbling on Pasha’s treatment of his shirts before being fatally shot
It’s those little details that have been taken care of
The art direction is apt
Take those Kurt Angle and Raveena Tandon posters, or the Dubai sign hanging on the car’s rear-view mirror
Mo Azmi’s work behind the lens is rustic and natural
Kamal Khan’s directorial debut is solid
While comparisons to Anurag Kashyap at this stage would still be ambitious, in many scenes he still reminded us of the last 15 minutes of Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya, which itself was written by Kashyap
You would probably never see the underbelly of Karachi the way Khan has shown it in Laal Kabootar
Its language, its graffiti, its faces on the streets, Khan clearly knew all along what he wanted to show
I was not even surprised to see Ahmer Naqvi’s name in the writing credits
Yes, it is that much of Karachi
In the first scene of the film, the steering wheel is in the hands of Pasha, the wife
The husband is on the passenger seat, and then he is shot dead
We should have seen it coming – she was going to drive the film forward, not him
Add to that the sensitivity of the father-daughter relationship, the soft romance of an urban married couple, the conflicts of street criminals and their own friendships
Laal Kabootar has its moments, quite a lot of them, and quite strong ones
It might appear so far that the film has fulfilled its responsibility of being a great parallel cinema experience that a mainstream cinemagoer will not get
Unfortunately, the answer is no
Laal Kabootar has its flaws; the major one being its writing
The grip of the first one hour loosens gradually and by the time we reach the climax, it actually becomes an ordinary story from an extraordinary story
The plot premise of land mafia, the pace of the first hour, the acting and technical soundness of the film, the attention to detail, all look haplessly at the story in the second hour of the film, like a man in a hurry would look at his car’s deflated tyres
There is a damaging suspension of disbelief in the second hour of the story
(Spoiler) Shahi, interestingly named, is the land mafia: the powerful man in the business
Yet he is treated like an ordinary conman by an ordinary corrupt cop
Here, you start thinking that this would turn out to be the point where Shahi would show his merciless side, and that he does; however, that mercilessness is short-lived
The super cop raids the Shahi abode with only two cops and runs havoc
Shahi is seen begging for forgiveness
The whole sequence is colourless
Dramatised well, but failing to convince us of the whole thing
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="480"] Photo: Giphy[/caption] Adeel’s ambitions are real; his conflict and turning point, not so much
Mama, the gangster, is unable to kill a helpless woman in an elevator, despite having a gun
You don’t get around to investing enough in Adeel and his drive as much as you do in Aliya’s revenge story
The irony may be that there is no single defining code that binds the lawlessness to senses
There is nihilism constantly undercut by the hope of good guys winning, even if it is logically questionable
Laal Kabootar is a good film, very well-made and an exciting debut of a talented director
It checks the regular boxes required for a good film, but for my selfish reasons, I want cinema of this nature to work very well and be successful, otherwise investors and audiences will keep ignoring this genre and keep putting their money behind romance and humour
It’s the trendsetting area where Laal Kabootar falls short, where Cake also did
When the history of Pakistan cinema will be written, Laal Kabootar will not go down as a film that changed Pakistani cinema and introduced a new way of filmmaking to the Pakistani audience
As things stand, Pakistan cinema is still waiting for an Andhadhun… a Kahaani
All photos: Screenshots
Date: | 27-Mar-2019 | Reference: | View Original Link |
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