Yalghaar

I am a fan of the progressive nature that the Pakistani Film industry displays. The movies are now being released more frequently than ever. Although, like this movie very heavily reliant on advertising/product placement, I did not want a certain banks products shoved in my face Choppy editing seems to be the norm for Pakistani movies now, it's almost like they do not have enough budget to do things properly making scenes look incomplete.

The film itself was a tribute to the nation of Pakistan's army, and it did a good job of showing patriotism and giving an insight (if not a very loose insight) into what the young men & women do.

The movie did begin boring, as from the trailers a full on action movie was expected, it did get better and the action increased, also new actors need to be cast, as it's the same bunch of actors that are in every movie; there seemed to be an unnecessary amount of male lead characters, mostly whom are just models jumping on the project to make some extra money!

It is good action movie, but very superficial on account of the story line. The terrorists leader looked like a goon or some local thug rather than any organized terror group like Taliban, etc. He did not appear to have any broader internal or external connections. The family lives of army officers were shows only and then mostly their heroic stories. The women of the officers shown were very upper class and appeared to be phony. Almost no mention of soldiers and their families.

Im a big supporter of Pakistani cinema and always put an effort to watch Lollywood films that release in North America. I would have to say that I liked this film better than Waar because it had a good mix of romantic comedy, drama, action and emotions. I thought it would just be all about war, fighting and violence but it had much more to the story, which really pleased me.

Generally, I enjoyed the film, but it could have been better. I thought it was decently presented and had an appeal for all ages. However, I do agree with other viewers that the scenes were a bit choppy at parts and could have transitioned better (though I didn't think it was as bad as Bin Roye). Also, I didn't notice the Bank Alfala marketing until a bit later when they kept on showing their VISA cards, but I didn't mind that too much either. For a while I was a tad bit lost in the film because the sense of direction was a bit weak, but it slowly got back on track.

I particularly liked the ending and the way they made a tribute to all of those who lost their lives in the Peshawar tragedy. May they all rest in peace.

Pakistan Zindabad <3

Good things first; Cinematography, Graphics/Sounds, Action, Thrill, Gadgetry/Weapons, Costumes/Uniforms, Acting, Humour

Bad things; A bit compromised story, Didn't show true pic of army family lives back at home, Sequence of events, Excessive military operations throughout the film

Undoubtedly the stories of men from Pakistan army fighting against terrorism are at the same time thrilling, sad, courageous and of sacrifice for a true cause. The hard part is to show the same emotions and situations that they went through, on the screen. Unfortunately, in my opinion the movie couldn't grab the audience's attention and there were only 2-3 moments in the 2.5 hours where i felt involved in the story. Lets start with the acting first, only good acting and expressions can give power to your dialogues and with a movie like this where you want to get emotionally attached to the amazing story acting needs to be real good but sadly many actors and actresses seemed to be lacking expressions and emotions. Similarly, choosing the right person for a specific character needs to be focused now days. Looking at Holly wood auditions one can learn how they find such good actors that fit the role perfectly but in the movie especially the role of Humayun Saeed was i thought a big misfit along with some others which showed it wasn't under consideration of the makers. At last, how to carry the story is the most important challenge for such a movie and it felt that the makers failed at it big time, the linking of scenes to reach a climax and then ending the story was really poor. I felt lost during the movie except those 2-3 scenes so, it was a good story that was not shared effectively.