Credits Director: Syed Faisal Bukhari

Producer: Chaudhry Ijaz Kamran

Writer: Pervaiz Kaleem

Cast: Moammar Rana, Saima Noor, Babar Ali, Noor, Meera, Nadeem Baig, Javed Sheikh, Shamoon Abbasi, Aslam Sheikh, Shafqat Cheema, Babrak Shah and Nayyer Ejaz

Music: Arshad Mehmood

It’s been a while since Pakistan’s film industry came forth with a big-budget action film. Now, the credit goes to Syed Faisal Bukhari’s Bhai Log, made with a staggering budget of Rs3.5 crores.

Javed Shiekh and Nadeem have teamed up in the main lead to hammer out a romance/action thriller playing since Eid-ul-Fitr at all major cinemas throughout Pakistan. The plot of Bhai Log revolves around Karachi’s two mafia groups fighting it out to gain hold of the city’s underbelly, while also focusing on how the city administration is influenced by these gangs.

In a recent interview, Javed Sheikh, who plays the godfather of one such gang, said that Bhai Log will ultimately prove film critics wrong. “Faisal has shown Karachi in a way that has never been explored before in Pakistani cinema. The film shots are difficult to capture and that is why there has been a tremendous response,” he said.

“People will fall in love with the climatic end through which we’re sending out a message that is relevant to the nation today,” said Bukhari. “Producing the film was by no means a smooth ride. Due to the difficulty of shooting in key areas of Karachi, the production crew required security clearance and that meant that many shots had personnel of the Karachi police force in them,” he added.

The post-production of the film was done abroad to ensure that sound and video quality was to the mark and comparable to most Bollywood action films.

Apart from all these pluses, Bhai Log has not been commended for its dance choreography as a result of which the sequences are typical of Lollywood. Being a musical film-based industry, our choreographers need to work much harder at their craft as their mechanical dance steps sans any real emotions lay to waste all the hard work by the production team.

As for the script, it is heavy on anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. Israr David, the antagonist in the film, claims to be one such criminal working to disable Pakistan internally by creating chaos and turmoil, while the mafia bosses are portrayed as true zealots and patriots.

Simultaneously released with Bhai Log was Reema Khan’s much-hyped Love Mein Ghum, and while BL did not receive as much pre-release hype as LMG did, it still managed to earn Rs9.8 million within the first three days of its release — a record for any Pakistani film within a decade. The film also did not create the hype that Shoaib Mansoor’s Bol did, but it is still showing to packed cinema houses at many places, including Bambino Cinema in Karachi.

The film has been largely successful in bringing the public back to the cinemas and hopefully encourage and revive the trend of local films being patronised by local theatres. Overall, cinema owners seem pleased by the success of Bhai Log as it has infused finances into this cash-strapped business.