Umro Ayyar - A New Beginning

What a treat to watch our very own fantasy sci-fi movie with our grand children. Based on the Harry Potter like series of our times, it happily connected with the child inside us.. A well blended concoction.of East and West cinema with a practical approach; as in its language that was clear and crisp with a casual mixture of English and urdu. I could feel the engrossment in the stillness and enjoyment in the loud laughes of the children of all ages watching the movie . That felt good and instilled pride in our emerging cinema as we need to reclaim the story telling embedded in our culture , smartly . It indeed pushed the boundarys of our very own cinematic ventures as world class technology use , creativity and hardwork reflected in every take.

What a revival of our blend of Harry Potter and Marvel, kudos for that. Definitely a lot of research has been done. Took us back to "Daastan Amir Hamza" and "Tilsam hoshruba" our childhood classics ( if not to 1896 persian/urdu version).

I like following areas: 1. Good story line 2. Visuals 3. Blending with modern time But un necessary comedy is tried to be injected. Fights also not to global standards.

Better if it is splitted into 24 min 11 episodes S#01, than a movie (with boring first hour). In start Amir Hamza darbar, ayyars army, afrasyab etc can be shown. Still excellent work and effort.

From the perspective of the Pakistani movie industry, it's a decent effort, but the film suffers from weak story and character development, tedious dialogues, and lackluster acting. The actors fail to do justice to their roles, making it hard to connect with the characters or the plot. It's worth watching once, though I hoped it would compare to Maula Jutt, but it fell short of those expectations. The pacing drags in many parts, with long, boring conversations that do not add much to the narrative.

Despite these flaws, the movie shows potential, and it's clear that the industry is making strides in the right direction. The visual and technical aspects are commendable and hint at what could be achieved with better scripts and performances. On the bright side, I enjoyed the Deadpool trailer and definitely plan to watch that. Hopefully, future projects will learn from these shortcomings and deliver more compelling content. It's a step forward, but there's still a long way to go for the Pakistani film industry to reach its full potential.

The smallest summary I can give for this movie is: "Marvel's Dr. Strange meets Assassin's Creed Brotherhood", though I don't know how many would get the reference.

Pros:

• Nice CGI.

• Good action scenes.

• Decent acting by all, especially Guru, Laqqa & Hamza.

• Good storyline.

• No stupid dance scenes or tedious romance triangles.

Cons:

• CGI, though good, can be improved, like allowing the demon to close his mouth.

• Too many talkative boring bits which can be trimmed.

• Majority of the humorous bits were horribly misplaced. This was my biggest concern. A serious scene completely ruined by a stupid joke!

Overall, a good movie suitable for the whole family.

Leisurely experience for me with a matinee at a huge cineplex with five other viewers. I'm sure I'd give it half this score if I'd seen The Matrix. For a Pakistani film, it held my interest quite well. As I was debating a bathroom run, the film helpfully announced a ten minute intermission, complete with a countdown clock on screen. More films should do this. Anything over two hours, given today's attention spans.

Amar (Usman Mukhtar) is an interesting character, a genius professor who also sees apparitions and is the last in a long line of UAs. It's cool to see him branch off into reluctant superhero mode. Guru (Manzar Sehbai) is like a Pakistani Morpheus or Yoda. This gentle and wise sould had a pretty cool vibe that I bought. I kept thinking there may be a romantic subplot with Amar and his fetching daughter, but that never came to pass. The modern portion of the film was like a free travel pass to an obscure country. Half the dialogue was conveniently English. It was nice not having to read subtitles for the entire time. The time was well spent, even though I had no idea what I was about to watch.