KARACHI: The premiere of the film Na Maloom Afraad 2 on Thursday at a local multiplex began like a Test match between cricket’s minnows — slow, with spectators leisurely pouring in to witness proceedings. It was understandable: after all, it was raining cats and dogs. But as film junkies, the media and showbiz bigwigs swarmed the red carpet space (which happened in the blink of an eye and it became pretty crowded), it all turned into a One Day International, say, between Pakistan and India. No, not T20 — there was a method to the madness.

The cast of the film and its director Nabeel Qureshi arrived together at the venue, or so it seemed, which meant TV cameramen and print photographers could take pictures and record footage without a yawning break in their job. They were all smartly dressed and looked happy. After all, Qureshi’s previous two films (Na Maloom Afraad and Actor In Law) have enabled him to carve a niche for himself in the film industry.

Seasoned actor Javed Sheikh was part of the first instalment of Na Maloom Afraad and plays that same pivotal role one more time in the sequel. Talking to Dawn he said, “This is a good time for Pakistani films. And these two films — Na Maloom Afraad 2 and Punjab Nahi Jaungi — will change the course of our industry’s history.”

On the trend of making rom-coms, the actor commented, “A film should be good, be it a comedy or a war movie.” He was of the view that Pakistani films match international standards and are no less in quality than their counterparts in the rest of the world. He is a generous man.

Fahad Mustafa plays the lead role in Na Maloom Afraad 2. He said he was expecting favourable results from the film because ‘achhi film banai hai’ (we’ve made a good film). Since it’s a comedy, he hoped that families would enjoy it on Eidul Azha (the day when the film releases).

In response to the question whether the humour in the story was predictable, the actor retorted, “I feel we are a predictable people because in the last 50 years we’ve elected the same rulers.”

Actress Atiqa Odho too was there to watch the film, complying with her admirers’ requests for photographs and a casual chitchat with her trademark smile. She was satisfied with the way the film industry had been shaping up. “I think it’s very nice. It takes time to bring back an audience [into theatres] once the audience has given up. We need to keep encouraging them [film-makers].”

On the issue of the emphasis being on rom-coms, she remarked, “Pakistan has a very diverse range of subjects. We don’t have a certain type of films.

It is important to encourage film-makers because it’s not a very friendly environment, it’s very hard for them … it’s only now that we’ve started to get screens for them.”

Actor and singer Mohsin Abbas Haider, who forms the triangle of principal actors in Na Maloom Afraad 2 with Fahad Mustafa and Javed Sheikh, felt happy that now movies were being made in Pakistan that had started to compete with each other. But he claimed Na Maloom Afraad 2 and Punjab Nahi Jaungi belonged to two different genres; he called the former a comedy and the latter a romantic drama.

The cinema where the showbiz fraternity, including the cast and crew of Na Maloom Afraad 2, went in to see the film had seats taken on the upper half of the hall in no time. The first sequence in the story, in which a reference to a Karachi politician was made, elicited a guffaw from the audience. Then the story had some moments of seriousness, after which the title was rolled.

While the audience mostly laughed at the amusing lines uttered by the characters throughout, it was interesting to note that a relatively humourless scene, in which Moon (Mohsin Abbas) gets angry at Shakeel (Javed Sheikh) and Farhan (Fahad Mustafa),

was received with a round of applause. That’s how mature our audiences have become — they even applaud anger.

The rest of the cast of Na Maloom Afraad 2 is: Nayyar Ejaz, Hania Amir, Marina Khan, Nazrul Hasan, Saleem Meraj, Urwa Hocane and Sohail Javed.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2017