KARACHI: Vin Die­sel’s Fast & Furious 8 premiered at a local cinema on Thursday evening, as local celebrities made a beeline to watch the latest instalment of the action franchise.

There was a glittering red carpet ceremony before the movie at Nueplex Cinemas, and many TV and film celebrities, notably Tapu Javeri, Faysal Qureshi, Ayaz Samoo, Nadia Hussain, Asad ul Haq, Wajahat Rauf and Adil Murad, showed up. The wait for the movie was more than an hour long but when the gates were declared ‘open’, all thronged the theatre for the F. Gary Gray flick.

The whole 9pm slot at the multiplex was booked for Vin Diesel and Co and fans loved the way the film progressed. Local celebrities hooted, shouted and even clapped at the spectacular action scenes that took everyone’s breath away. A few even whispered as to which scene will be replicated in Bollywood and which Khan or Kapoor would be trying out the stunts himself.

After the film, fans of the franchise were all smiles and declared it a ‘super hit’, claiming it might be the best flick of the series. 

Film and TV actor Adil Murad, whose comeback vehicle Chain Aaye Na will be hitting cinemas in July this year, was all praise for the movie, declaring the New York chase sequence as one of the best he has seen. “Never before has anyone tried what was executed perfectly in the scene. There were cars running on their own as well as many falling down from the sky — just unbelievable. And then there was Vin Diesel against his own team who thought they were ready for him when in fact, they weren’t.”

Director Wajahat Rauf also turned out to be a big fan of the franchise and loved the way the film progressed. “Simple plots, cool one-liners and a whole lotta crazy action that not many have been able to achieve. Throw in a little human emotion and you’ve got yourself a winner.” When asked when our film-makers will make such a film, the director of Lahore Se Aagay thought before answering. “Here at home, we don’t have too many trained action choreographers at this time. So it will take some time but we’ll get there. Even F&F took the first few films and 10 years to get to the really cool stuff.”

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2017