Imagine the typical music of an action film’s trailer, ramping up as the deep, gravelly voice of a narrator punctuatingly reads the following paragraph:

‘Ishrat (Muhib Mirza) is a man on a mission. A man misunderstood by those around him. A man with a ‘very particular’ skill set. A skill set, you get to have no idea of… until you see the film… many… many… many months from now’.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what we have of Ishrat Made in China for the time being. Ishrat has been a long time in the making — perhaps too long, if you ask its director and lead actor Muhib Mirza — and its journey may seem arduous, exhausting, and even demoralising at times … but that’s just one side of the picture. On the other side, there’s extreme, near-giddy, happiness, teeming and almost frothing with hope and camaraderie.

The people associated in making Ishrat are a happy bunch indeed … and it’s a hard job not getting carried away by their enthusiasm.

Ishrat Made in China is an action comedy set in China, that’s shot in Thailand (it’s cheaper there, I’m told), whose plot is, understandably, being kept under wraps at this time.

With its shooting taking place while the Covid-19 pandemic started sweeping over the world, the film itself will eventually hit cinemas only sometime in 2021. Until then, the group policy is to keep strictly mum about the project.

Muhib Mirza’s directorial debut Ishrat Made In China has all of its cast members singing the actor-director’s praises even while they remain collectively mum about its story. The release of the film is still a long way off, but the thriller has had more than its share of behind-the-scenes action-adventure already

Ishrat’s skill set remains a mystery. The curiosity triggered by this mystery is stimulating, because the undisclosed talent of the leading man is the backbone of the narrative.

As it happened, Icon and Mirza began talking about the group’s plight which made headlines weeks ago (the story of them getting stranded in Thailand when flights were shut down), and the resulting conversation quickly led to a new revelation: the revelation of the film’s cast.

Icon, therefore, has exclusive dibs in officially revealing Ishrat’s actors, with the first batch of official posters to hit presses.

The film stars Mirza, his co-star from Bachaana, Sanam Saeed, Shamoon Abbasi, Sara Loren, Ali Kazmi, Mani, Mustafa Chaudhary, Shabbir Jan, Imam Syed, Nayyer Ejaz and Hassan Sheheryar Yasin (better known as HSY) in his acting debut.

But don’t get fooled by their looks in the posters. Their actual get-ups in the film, and the revelation of their roles, are reserved for a future exposé.

A torrent of messages from Ishrat’s cast explains why everyone is in love with Mirza’s craftmanship and professionalism.

“I don’t work that much in movies, but Muhib and I share such a relationship where, if he asks me to just pass from the front of a frame and do nothing else, I’d gladly do it for him,” Shabbir Jan tells Icon in a video message.

HSY, a celebrated fashion designer, is blown away by what he saw on the set. “This has perhaps been one of the most thrilling experiences of my life,” he writes in a message. “When Muhib told me that he had written a movie role especially for me, I couldn’t say no. I was excited for the new experience, but I was even more impressed by the incredible professionalism on set, the mind-blowing creativity, the jaw-dropping locations, and the electrifying, gripping action sequences.”

HSY can be seen riding a chariot in one scene… which is both unusual and intriguing. “There was just so much going on,” he tells me over the phone a day after the message. “The shoot was always professional, and never compromised, even when the coronavirus broke into Thailand,” he tells me.

“Mirza has proved his mettle in the heat of the battle,” messages Imam Syed, endorsing HSY’s sentiment. “This film has already set a lot of trends in production quality, equality and prestige.”

Case in point: while it is the norm to see films going over their shooting schedule, Ishrat wrapped production a day earlier than planned.

“Facing the Covid-19 pandemic, producing this film [in dire circumstances] and bringing the entire team back home safe from Thailand was a hard undertaking,” Syed adds.

Ali Kazmi, who plays part of a trio with Mani and Mustafa Chaudhary (I’m guessing), writes that the film is “a sacrifice of the mind, body and soul. It’s such a unique passion project — I know everyone says this but it’s true — from a childhood ‘chaddi’ buddy, brilliant actor, and a brother from another mother, Muhib Mirza, whom I’m proud to call a pain in the... ahem… a super captain of the ship!” he quips.

“Chhoti chhoti khushiyaan chhotay chhotay ghum hain, jo bhi karlo yeh Ishrat barra naak mein dum hai... lekin kya karein larrka atom bomb hai!!” [There are small moments of happiness and small moments of sadness, do what you may this Ishrat can be a real pain…but what to do, the guy is an atom bomb!!) he adds, which, Icon has confirmed, is not a dialogue from the film.

Kazmi was passionately venting about the stress of the film’s journey in a lighter vein, I guess.

Sanam Saeed is happy for another reason altogether.

“It is my first big-budget commercial film to date, and the first time I auditioned for a role outside my comfort zone,” she messages. “[The role, that of the leading lady, obviously] is far and away from the kinds of roles I’m usually expected to play. And what a challenge it was, to shed years of stereotypes and self-created limitations,” she writes further, expressing her happiness, surprise and thrill to have been given an opportunity to prove her diversity as an actress.

“The best thing is that it is an original idea. No inspiration is taken from any Bollywood movie. This is pure Pakistani humour,” writes Mustafa Chaudhary. “People who are usually inspired by Bollywood movies, end up making a local version of the same. They may learn a thing or two from Ishrat.”

Sara Loren has opened up as an actor. She says, “I feel this role is going to create a different buzz for me. I’m doing action for the first time,” she says in a voice note. “[In fact], each one of us on set was thinking [hard] about our scenes. No [actor on the set] has done roles like these.”

Elaborating this further in another voice note, Nayyer Ejaz says that he is always on the lookout for roles that push one’s acting capability. “It would be difficult to answer about what exactly is different in the film. When one experiences it, the differences will manifest themselves — specifically distinctions in characters which are not only written differently, but played differently as well,” he says, particularly about his own role.

One of the key characters in the film is played by Shamoon Abbasi. He tells me in a phone interview that his is not the type of role people expect him to play. It’s different and totally unexpected, I’m told time and again by both Abbasi and Mirza.

Those who read credits at the end of shows will very well know that both Abbasi and Mirza share a strong bond from before.

“Shamoon and I did a lot of telefilms,” says Mirza. “As an actor, I did nine feature films, 95-plus telefilms, out of which 18 or 19 were directed by Shamoon. The only difference is that, this time, I’m the director and he’s the actor.

“Shamoon was the first one to be cast, and the role was designed specifically for him,” he adds.

Through reliable sources, Icon has learned that Abbasi is playing a sort of guru to Muhib’s character — a role really atypical for Abbasi, who is often type-cast as a growling bad guy. Recent examples hard to erase from history or memory are WAAR, O21, Gumm: In the Middle of Nowhere — and, in a strange but welcome twist where the character could have been better explored — Durj, Abbasi’s own film.

Abbasi, along with Sanam Saeed and Sara Loren, was also one of the 21 individuals stuck in Thailand when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. In a detailed conversation with both Abbasi and Mirza, Icon learns of exactly what happened to the cast and the crew there.

Their story goes like this: The film’s last spell in Thailand began on March 2, before the coronavirus pandemic reached the country. Had everything gone according to plan, the crew would have completed their shooting schedule by March 25, and returned home.

The news of the lockdown in Pakistan hit them hard on March 21. Thankfully, some actors had already left for Pakistan by March 18, but the rest were told to wait until April 4 … which turned into the 8th, then the 10th, 11th and, finally, April 14. Stranded in their hotel rooms, eating the same quality of meals the crew was accustomed to during the shoot, the production budget began going up in smoke.

Moving heaven and earth, with support from Pakistan’s Ambassador in Thailand, Asim Iftekhar Ahmad, and on the home front, Rashid Khwaja, Atiqa Odho and the media, the crew were finally able to board a special PIA flight back to Pakistan … at a cost.

At more than twice the price of a normal ticket, the crew of 21 was told that the 100,000 rupees ticket per person would ensure that the flight had undertaken every necessary precaution for the journey.

It didn’t.

Littered, hardly sanitised and over-stuffed, the flight back carried 218 people, including the 58 stranded in Japan.

Things weren’t any easier back home either.

Packed in a single queue with tons of weight in equipment by their side, the cast and crew waited hours before reaching the thermal screening booth at the Islamabad airport. Thankfully, the test results later showed that no one had contracted the deadly coronavirus.

Their happiness was short-lived, however, when Mirza and the crew found out that a new decree of quarantining any incoming passenger — whether they had the virus or not — had come into effect by the time they landed in Pakistan.

The crew members were shuffled off to the Ramada Hotel at a ‘discounted’ 10,000 rupees-per-day cost, excluding meals, for seven days. The government had only paid for one day of their stay (the Covid-19 tests were conducted free of charge).

Already traumatised and depressed, the crew members were literally bolted in, until their phone calls pleading some leniency bore some fruit. Units of four people followed a strict protocol so that they could, at least, get some fresh air on the rooftop.

By the end of the seventh day, Mirza was told to find a way back to Karachi from Islamabad with due haste. Travelling rules imposed by the government were amended after more head-butting; a caravan of 14 cars, with two people at the most in one car, wasn’t affordable for an already over-spent production. Special permission was granted to take a bus to Karachi (only Sara Loren was from Lahore).

Contending with the motorway police at every opportunity, the crew finally reached Karachi.

Till date, Mirza has no idea of how over-budget the film has gone because of Covid-19… and he’s not thinking about it either.

Experiencing the hardships firsthand, Abbasi became a diligent member of the Overseas Pakistanis Rescue Management, which helps bring home Pakistanis stranded in other countries because of the coronavirus pandemic. He has also become a goodwill ambassador for HANDS (Humanitarian Association for National Development Support), an NGO that provides daily provisions for people afflicted by Covid-19 in remote areas.

Mirza, on the other hand, is taking care of his own crew who are still under contract. With the ordeal everyone went through, it’s easy to see why the cast and the crew are singing praises for Mirza’s resoluteness.

Safely back home, he’s now working on Ishrat’s post-production. With no definite idea of the film’s release, there’s ample time to calmly, quietly, finish the film whose conception — from approaching financiers, to auditioning actors, to ignoring naysayers — is another intriguing story of hardships, best left for another day.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2020