One character is out to avenge his father’s death, two others want to pay back the local don, a politician wants to be the prime minister of the country, a professional dancer wants to run away with her lover — that’s Jalaibee for you which, on paper, seems like quite an interesting story. But that’s where it ends: the story wasn’t executed the way it was supposed to be resulting in another film that ‘could have been a contender’.

Suspense, what suspense?

Anyone who has seen Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla will know what is going to happen in Jalaibee because that’s how similar the two films are. There is a scene in the former where the Russian beat a person on the golf course with a golf club; it was replicated here in an innovative way. The story was narrated by a character in the Guy Ritchie movie, and same was the case here besides multiple storylines, crazy camera movements, eccentric characters (Tony Navaid Rashid’s guest appearance) and gangsters — it was as if RocknRolla had been remade in Pakistan with a tight budget. Those who hadn’t seen the Guy Ritchie movie were left wondering what was happening on screen because they had paid to watch a Pakistani film and were treated to a ‘Made as Hollywood’ film with Pakistani TV actors.

Mind your language

Yasir Jaswal’s big screen directorial debut is not the first time we have been treated to a Pakistani film that’s in English. Just as Sholay wasn’t in Punjabi and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly wasn’t in Urdu, Jalaibee shouldn’t have been in half-English, half-Urdu. The same mistake was committed by the makers of Waar, 021 and Good Morning Karachi, and that is where the revival falters. The only flick not to fall into the category is Asad Shan’s Welcome to London in which English dialogues are used only when he converses with Englishmen.

The Na Maloom Afraad factor

I take Na Maloom Afraad as the reason why people won’t like Jalaibee as much as they would have even if they do praise it on social media. NMA’s director Nabeel Qureshi shouldn’t have raised the audience’s expectations and standards so high. Now every film by a Pakistani film maker is expected to be at par with the comedy caper which, according to its director, has become the longest-running film in theatres across Pakistan in the new millennia. By the way, NMA was shot on ARRI Alexa HD Camera therefore Jalaibee isn’t the first film to be shot on the state-of-the-art equipment, according to a certain claim made by the filmmakers.

Zhalay Sarhadi

Jalaibee has done wonderful business largely due to the audience’s curiosity rather than its storyline and direction. We try to find out where it went wrong and where the makers hit the bull’s eye

Five reasons to watch Jalaibee

Ali Safina’s comic timings: Before Jalaibee, I wasn’t a big fan of Ali Safina. But after the movie he has a fan in me. The guy manages to carry the film on his shoulders and he is outstanding in every frame no matter who he shares it with — be it his dialogues regarding Malik Riaz, his one-liners during the planning of the heist, in the rickshaw to the driver or even while quoting Devdas. One hopes he doesn’t lose the plot because many actors have faltered after their debut success.

Adnan Jaffar as the baddie: A villain is supposed to be vile with profound dialogues, meaty threats and a towering presence that can make others virtually look small. Adnan Jaffar has all that and more here. As Dara, he oozes confidence as a man who knows that no matter what he does, he will go unpunished. The way he abruptly cuts the ransom call or the welcome he extends to the clueless heroes in his den is stuff one could have expected from the late Aslam Pervez in the ’70s, but not from a former English news anchor making his film debut. Credit must go to the writer as well (the director wrote the screenplay) but he could have gone easy with the ‘Archy effect’; the character borrowed a lot from Mark Strong’s role in RocknRolla — both Dara and Archy carried their firearms at the exact same spot.

Zhalay Sarhadi, bombshell. Yes, she can’t dance but when it comes to acting Zhalay has nailed it. She has the best lines in the script after Ali Safina and Adnan Jaffer but sadly, they are the ‘only’ best lines. When she speaks, she does so with conviction; she knows how to get her man and talks in street language which seems to be missing from our pseudo English films. Zhalay will make you fall in love with her character.

Background score to the rescue. Rarely in Pakistan has background music been given this much importance. Abbas Ali Khan must be commended for his effort because had it not been for his outstanding ‘Original Motion Picture Score’ many would have left Jalaibee even before the interval. Yes, there was the touch of RocknRolla here as well but mostly the score reminded you of Hans Zimmer, the Hollywood guru who nearly every film buff idolises. Even reminding people of Hans is an achievement, so well done, Abbas!

Cinematography and set design. At times you wondered whether Jalaibee is of Pakistani or foreign origin. Mo Azmi is the man behind the brilliant cinematography that keeps you glued to your seat and is its saving grace. The scenes in which the Ford Mustang ’73 is shown cruising away (especially at night) reminds you of Hollywood flicks from the ’80s. Now that’s Hollywood mimickry done right!

Adnan Jaffar

Production Designers Nida Khan and Khurram Syed are responsible for the amazing sets, and they were helped in their quest by set designer Aqeel ur Rehman. Be it the Khan ka adda or the place where Bano works, they all looked modern rather than Lollywood-ish.

The film has everything a producer wants; there are some animated slides that have never been tried before in Pakistan; some of the locations are breathtakingly beautiful and nearly every actor in the film is either strikingly good looking or devilishly handsome.

Five reasons not to watch Jalaibee

The director. Yasir Jaswal has scripted and directed Jalaibee and if one can become a director by watching Hollywood fare, the audience can become mature by doing the same. The first and last frame was shot exactly the same way, but what was between those two shots wasn’t enticing enough for the audience to come back or recommend the movie to others.

Danish Taimoor’s loudness. The only person who was convinced of his superstardom before the film’s release was Danish Taimoor, and it shows on screen. He is loud most of the time even when he is supposed to be discreet, he is always angry, stays in ‘TV actor mode’ throughout the film and comes across as the weakest link. He also doesn’t share any chemistry with his co-star Ali Safina although the two are supposed to be childhood friends.

Zhalay can’t dance ... It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the item number on which Zhalay Sarhadi tries to dance is a mistake to begin with. The song was no doubt been included in the movie to cash on the success of Mehvish Hayat’s Billi in NMA. Only, here we want Jawaani to be over as soon as it begins. To quote Deepika’s character in Happy New Year, ‘dance is an art’ and Zhalay fails at this. The jump cuts, flashy editing, slow motion and the camera switching come across as a deliberate attempt to hide her (lack of) dancing skills.

Clueless casting. Wiqar Ali Khan was a very smart VJ and model; Sabeeka Imam is by far the most beautiful actress to grace the screen in recent years; but that doesn’t mean that they should be given pivotal roles in films. Wiqar’s Urdu dialogue delivery is so bad that the director had to cut the camera on the other person every time he spoke or not show the actor’s face.

As for Sabeeka, she is hotness personified but must improve her acting skills so that she looks involved in the film rather than merely reading lines from a script. The super-duper Sajid Hasan was wasted in the Tom Wilkinson-inspired role from RocknRolla. And if Uzair Jaswal has any acting talent, it fails to show on screen.

The sound of music. The interval and climax are supposed to be the most important parts of any film. So what would you say if the background score drowns the dialogues in these crucial moments? Also, the film could have been delayed by a week considering the Cricket World Cup was in full swing — the first day-first show was half empty at the Atrium Cinemas in Karachi.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, March 29th, 2015

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