Umro Ayyar - A New Beginning

I went to watch this movie on the first of Eid which gets quite busy. Also convinced my friends to go along with me hoping that the movie would be good enough.

I won't say I had hopes of watching something of "maula jatt" level as I had already noticed some shortcomings in the trailer but the movie was a complete flop. There was no proper character development, the acting was so bad by most of the cast ( had some exceptions like GURU, LAQQA and hamza ali abbasi) and there was no point to it.

The fight sequences ughhh... the first fight scene in the park was so badly choreographed that even small youtubers make better sequences than that.

I am student at NUST university where some of the scenes were shot and that added to my excitement but it left me very disappointed.

I am giving it a 4 because of the vfx effects and the effort they put on for visuals, but i hope they focus more on the story if there are any plans of a sequel.

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.

An exiciting movie to watch. Good storyline with engaging twist s. Storyline is not a no brainer rather links up well with world beyond time and space something that is believable to absorb.

Vfx work is superb. Pakistan cinema needs more on this genre to expand the horizons. All actors performed well. Special mention of Versatile Sanam Saeed, Genuis of Manzar Sebai sb and Farhan Tahir's believable performance. Hamza Ali Abbasi was brilliant too and wish we could have seen him more in the movie.

I would really want that this series should expand further as Umro Ayyar has a rich history and he's a super hero who has been untapped on this massive scale. Kudos to the director and producer of this movie.

A solid 8/10.

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.