There are over 20 plus feature films currently under production in Pakistan today. That is a big number considering that only a few years ago, local entertainment awards giving bodies only had one film under consideration for an award because only one film had actually been made that year. Needless to say, it bagged all of the awards.

This Eid two of the most eagerly anticipated films, Na Maloom Afraad and O21 are slated to hit theatres. Even before their release, the first few days of their shows have already been sold out due to advance bookings. We love watching foreign films, but needless to say, we’re also hungry for our own content.

A ‘soft’ premiere of Na Maloom Afraad (directed by Nabeel Qureshi and produced by Fizza Ali Meerza) had taken place last week. The film which many claimed would be a copy of Bollywood films Delhi Belly (2011) and/or Hera Pheri (2000) is nothing like these two. The only resemblance it has to Hera Pheri is in the fact that both films have three main lead characters who are in dire need of financial help. That’s where the similarities end.

Depicting Karachi in its many shapes and forms are Na Maloom Afraad and O21, two major films that have been released in cinemas this weekend

The film appears somewhat slow-paced at in the first half but one gets used to it by the second half. It revolves around three men desperate for the situation in Karachi to go bad enough to lead to a strike, resulting in unnamed hooligans vandalising different establishments in the city. They’re hoping the bank they’ve planned to target for an investment fraud gets burned down.

One of the two actors who made his mark in the film is Javed Sheikh as the ‘Allah Mian ki Gai’ upstanding citizen of Karachi, Shakeel Bahi who’s rented the upper portion of his house off to Farhan (played by Fahad Mustafa) and Moon (played by Mohsin Abbas Haider). Mohsin Abbas haider is the other star of the movie whose adopted Punjabi accent is uncannily realistic and his comic timing is impeccable.

Urwa Hocain plays the rather expressionless Naina, younger sister of Shakeel Bhai and love-interest of Farhan. Kubra Khan plays the character of Hina Merchant, a bank employee, and comes across as being heavily influenced by Bollywood’s Katrina Kaif — she seems to have gotten the latter’s acting style down to a T.

Viral marketing: Na Maloom Afraad’s meme

The jokes in the film are very ‘Karachi’ but can be relatable to pretty much everyone in the country. The much-hyped ‘item number’ by Mehwish Hayat is nothing much to write home about. It ‘looks’ pretty standard, but the choreography is deplorable. Despite being one of the main key elements of any song that plays heavily on dance, the choreography seems almost non-existent. The cinematography and production design is visually stunning. It is one of the better films to come out of Pakistan and definitely worth going and seeing for a fun night out.

In an 11minute preview given to members of the press, 021 (directed by Jami and Summer Nicks, produced by Zeba Bakhtiar and Azan Sami Khan) opens with stock news footage of precious minerals being discovered in Afghanistan sometime in the 1970s. It is the exploitation of this precious resource (especially lithium) by the ‘invading’ country 30-odd years later, and Afghanistan’s resistance in giving them up, that forms the main crux of the issue the film is based on. Pakistan, as a neighbouring country, comes into play because it is used to transport these exploited goods out of Afghanistan and into the rest of the world. The fallout of whatever happens in Afghanistan can be felt in Pakistan.

The production is slick, the photography is beautiful, some of the overhead shots lack proper resolution but the bird’s eye view of the city of Karachi more than makes up for it. There is lots and lots of Dari that is spoken as the opening sequence is set in Afghanistan during the 2014 elections with no subtitles to aid us in understanding what is being spoken. Given the content of the video, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what the conversation might revolve around. Hopefully, subtitles will be included once the film hits the screens across the country this weekend.

We’re adrenaline junkies — we’re used to viewing constant ‘breaking news’ on our news channels and short but relatively fast-paced storylines in our television dramas. Pakistan has a lot of stories for an action flick and 021 may be the second of its kind but judging by the increasing popularity of this genre, it definitely won’t be the last.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, October 5th, 2014