He came, he saw and he disappointed heavily … that’s film-maker Jawad Bashir who has been around for two decades making us laugh through his sitcoms, Dr Aur Billa songs and TV commercials. But luck fails him when it comes to films and after last year’s disappointing Maya, he again serves up a lack-lustre Teri Meri Love Story (TMLS).

There is no story in TMLS. Esha (Ushna Shah in her debut) is shown making a documentary with her friends Sherry (Mohsin Abbas) and Danish (Ahmed Abdur Rehman) as the film opens. She meets Ramis (Omar Shehzad in his debut), gets to know that her parents (Salman Shahid, Laila Zuberi) have fixed her marriage with Nael (Mohib Mirza) and her cousin Mona (Uzma Khan) has already arrived for the wedding. Sherry and Danish fall for Mona while Nael and Ramis try to win Esha’s heart.

The plot of Teri Meri Love Story is confusing to say the least and the film is replete with stale jokes, bad acting and the old style film-making. In addition to out-of-focus scenes and a host of other technical issues, the camera is often fixed at an angle and the actors are asked to deliver their dialogues sans movement.

Teri Meri Love Story nullifies all the good work Mohsin Abbas Haider did in Na Maloom Afraad

Mohib Mirza is one of the best actors on TV and he has proved his mettle in much better films but to accept roles like that of Nael will do his career no good. He is still the saving grace of TMLS because the script is weak, the dialogues don’t have any punch and direction is minimal. Omer Shahzad is mere eye-candy and Ushna Shah is a disappointment since she comes across as quite bland for a film heroine. She can dance but her kind of dance will only appeal to the front-benchers in rural areas. Urban cinemagoers have grown out of that kind of cinema.

The film nullifies all the good work Mohsin Abbas Haider did in NMA three years back. He must get out of the DJ mode and choose roles that give him a margin to perform rather than become a mere sidekick.

Sadly, Jawad Bashir hasn’t learnt anything from last year’s Maya debacle and again fails as a director. He and co-writer Ahmed Abdur Rehman need to understand that writing a sitcom is different from writing a film.

There is also an unnecessary scene where the heroines are shown talking to each other in front of a fire in warm clothes in winter whereas the rest of the film has Esha in sleeveless dresses. Then there are the dialogues. I’m still wondering what many of the dialogues are meant to convey in the movie. Above all, who puts an engagement ring in a glass of lassi

If films such as TMLS kept getting produced where the songs remind you of the red light area, where colour grading and dubbing is avoided to complete the film ahead of schedule, where product placement becomes the raison d’etre of a scene, then the battle to save Pakistan’s film industry is already lost.

Those talking about banning Indian films in Pakistan should first make better local films or set up a quality control department where films can be judged before sending them on to the censor board.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, September 11th, 2016