Main Hoon Shahid Afridi

Bearing in mind the bash of a premiere yesterday, think of the cameos as family-support for Mr. Saeedand Shahzad Nasib's sure fire blockbuster; And, in case anyone forgets about either their or ARY Films' – who distributes the movie along with Mandviwalla Entertainment – place in the industry, this is one extended family.

The love part from the industry is infectious, but it never seeps into the feature film; at least not directly. Mr. Saeed plays Akbar Deen, a pro-cricketer who's the pride-and-joy of his family that includes a mom, a pop (Mr. Baig), a wife (Mahnoor Baloch) and son. Akbar gets implicated with illegal drugs after he gets drunk by an orange juice drink and a (quite revealing) dance item by Mathira (the song is Masti Main Doobi by Neeti Wagh and Shani). It is – quite literally – a flash, which dumps Akbar in a jail cell and bats his career out of the cricket grounds.

Years later, Shahid (Noman Habib), an on-the-breadline prodigy youngster from Sialkot who works the cash register in a local restaurant, pushes the owner of his local cricket club (Ismail Tara, playing Malick Khalid) to try the team for a Pepsi-sponsored tournament. A few beats later, and rather vapidly, Akbar signs up as the team's coach.

Their rivals, silver spoons who reach the cricketing grounds by choppers, are employed by Mian Asif Qureishi (Mr. Sheikh senior), and includes Mikaal Qureishi (Shahzad Sheikh), Akbar's son.

For those of us who are still biased to put MHSA along Chak De India, I have one thing to say: please don't.

Mr. Saeed's film written by Vasay Chaudhary, working from a scarred- underdog/least bet-team that wins the cup formula,devises enough deviations in its revved up pace to make the distinctions obvious. A few unresolved angles (the husband-wife split-up; the rich father-in-law vs. the cricketer son-in-law) do dig ruts within MHSA's narrative. Nevertheless these are just minor botches that are easily swept under the rug by the speed of MHSA's execution.

As performances go, I have a sincere advice for Mr. Saeed: stop acting for the small-screen.

Mr. Saeed, who mostly equips his acting arsenal with scowls and growls and a tear drop or two, kicks in some class nuances in unexpected nooks and crannies. And with 70% (maybe more) screen-time to his Akbar, Mr. Saeed becomes a central point of weight for MSHA.

Noman Habib, as the engaging rural Shahid Afridi, piles on the innocence, but more often than not his naiveté and unsophistication (acting wise) becomes rather apparent.Ms. Baloch is plastic, and like the most expensive kind is (unblinkingly) fixed in place. Ainy Jaffri, the big city girl with big,big eyes, who falls for Shahid is flimsy, because of the way she's placed in the film – rather like Asym Mehmood, Ainan Arif and Gohar Rasheed, who are fairly good to average depending on the scale and cliché of their exposure.

Mr. Arif plays Michael Magnet, a Christian who makes way for some minor obligatory racial biasness.Like every conflict, the resolution is nippy if not shrewd (case in point: the estranged father-son dilemma between Mr. Baig and Mr. Saeed, which piles up, only to open a separate narrative track). Sometimes – for example, the climax and the cricket matches – the hastiness works against the anticipation.

Still, for a bulk of its entirety, MHSA swaps between characters one ends up rooting for: the roll-call includes Majeed Maulvi, the slightly racist, short-tempered Pathan played by Humza Ali Abbasi, Mr. Sheikh's stereotypical villain Asif Qureishi and Mr. Cheema's brilliantly played Bashir Bhatti, a worthless, gambling self-indulgent father to Shahid. The only other actor who stands up to Mr. Cheema's vivid charisma and dexterity is Mr. Tara, whose presence even dominates Mr. Saeed in some scenes.

MHSA isn't unblemished as far as technicality is concerned. A few issues with color grading (sometimes apparent within cuts in a continuous location), camera/resolution/sharpness issues in cricket matches (and no, we aren't fooled into thinking we're seeing a televised broadcast) pop up and fade away, oft times by the sheer aesthetic diligence of putting on the show. This aesthetic diligence includes three groovy songs by composers Shani & Kami – Jera Vee (Shafqat Amanat Ali, Shani), Angreja (Momin Durrani, Jabar Abbas) and Masti Mai Doobi; Malaal, the fourth song sung by Rahat Fateh Ali, is an adequate space filler.

Syed Ali Raza (aka Usama), coming from a television background, is proficient in setting up cinema-quality frames with a dastardly penchant to throw the BG out of focus in close-ups. He is also quite practiced in executing film-level performances from a bulk of his cast (of course, the expanded gamut and resolution of the RED camera helps here).

The problem with the industry is that no one wants to appreciate a good mainstream family movie – especially from people within the film fraternity. I could hear murmurs about art and intelligence, as soon as I ventured outside the screening. For these self-made connoisseurs of the medium, I only point to the deafening applause the film collected two or three times.

A film that looks good, keeps you engaged, lets you unwind and then coerces (some if not all) to wild-cheering is a product well-made – and as the tickets will tell – well-sold.

Going into the theater at a high-end multiplex, I had high expectations from the movie. Apart from having a 9.5 IMDb rating, the movie had garnered much critical acclaim, which given the high level of cynicism among Pakistani critics is a rare feat. I am happy to say that this movie sets the tone for Pakistani cinema that (hopefully) will follow it. While it attempts social commentary, this movie is not a polemic diatribe against the system like "Bol" or to a certain extent, "Khuda Ke Liye." It's goal is to entertain and the movie does just that.

The story revolves around a small-town team aspiring to make it big and a player who aspires to reach the level of the legend that's Shahid Afridi. They find their coach in a framed and banished former cricket hero played by Humayun Saeed. No prizes for guessing where the story heads from here -- there are the usual love interests, the villainous rival team, a broken-family subplot and so forth, but all of this is executed with panache and the acting and script writing is decent. However what really works in the film's favor is some solid supporting performances from Nadeem Baig, who shows what acting greats are made of, and from Hamza Ali, who infuses some verve into the proceedings. The music score ably supports the production. Special mention to the the song-and-dance sequence at the start, which is nothing short of sensational.

The script does have a predilection for resorting to character stereotypes (which are incorrect), however given that MHSA is a first time effort by majority of the production team, this can be forgiven. Syed Noor, Shoaib Mansoor and the rest of the Lollywood old-school gang should take a lesson or two from the movie and start infusing some energy and verve in their cinema, because the audience generally pays to be entertained and not lectured.

Rating: ***** (1 additional * for being the first and getting so many things right)

Being huge fan of sports films i was waiting for this one and when finally it hits the theater, i watched it immediately and boy it was awesome.The film is basically sports drama,based on dream of a teenage to become cricket legend Shahid Afrid and how he struggles through lot of hurdles in order to achieve his dream that is,to become Shahid Afridi.Although the film is almost 3 hours long but you wont get bored throughout the movie which is huge plus for the film.The only drawback of the film is its average music its not that good but only OK.I think every sports lover should have to watch it and believe me you wont get bored.Final verdict 9/10....Its Awesome.

Like the trailer the film was awesome enjoyed every bit of it . The songs were good movie was funny and fun and really kept you engaged the whole time its a bit long but not at any time boring . I urge all cricket fans and in particular Shahid Afridi fans too come forth visit your local cinema and support this film .I want too see more of Mahnoor Baloch in the future . The Item song was too good. What i liked was how beautifully it portrayed the dreams of a young man who wants too embed his hero, It shows how a team should not rely on one player but the entire team. It truly is a work of art and a sign of the revival of the Pakistan Film industry. All i have too say in the end is Peace out and keep them coming.

Finally in the third week of its release in Pakistan me and my friends managed to catch this much hyped and anticipated film. We were not expecting so much from it but it is actually way better than a lot of good films we have seen in Bollywood, but comparing it to any Bollywood or Hollywood film will be unfair.please go and watch it with your friends it is really entertaining, it is a mass oriented, comedy ,Sports Drama and will make you to laugh and shout in the cinema. Vasay Chaudhry have done great job with the writing the story was good and the dialogs were really really good. The Directors work was fine but there was some dis-continuity in some scenes and I think they had to cut some parts during editing to reduce the runtime of the film. The Music was good especially the song 'Malal' which was sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. As for the performances are concerned we saw some great performances from the Actors Like Shafqat Cheema and Ismail Tara, I always loved Tara on the TV shows and now I am a big fan of Shafqat Cheema His performance was even better than his role in 'BOL'. Hamza Abbasi who played the religious Pakhtoon was very impressive and really stole the show, His dialogs and performance forced us to shout and clap especially the dialogs like 'Pathan ko bewakoof samajh rakha Ha kya' and 'Ye Tamara Papa k lye Ha, Jao ball leke aao'.. Noman Habib the lead actor who played Shahid was very good and so was Humayun Saeed.Nadeem Baig Saab was Good as Akbar's father, Javed and Shahzad Sheikh were average in their roles Mahnoor Bloch was kind of good and the Aini was also okay and Mathira's Item song was a bit of the Bad stunt.All the supporting and junior actors were really good and This was a very good watch we really enjoyed ourselves and I would highly recommend this film to all cinema goers, Hats off to the Producers and filmmakers and Best of luck for their future projects, I can Proudly say that I am a Sialkoti and that Pakistani film industry is moving towards the good days..