Lollywood beyond Bol, Bhai Log and Love Mein Ghum

The success of films like Bol, Bhai Log and Love Mein Ghum at the local box office have surely given a start to the much talked about revival, but this head start does not mean that all has been done. The efforts to bring this derailed industry back on track must go on, now more than ever. These months of fruitful results can best be called as just the tip of Ice berg and there is obviously much more needed to be done if one truly wants to see the industry’s heydays back.

Speaking on plain professional ground, Pakistan film industry today needs at least seven to ten back to back quality films a year. The films must not only match the ‘Quality standards’ that other international film making industries are following but also be solid in their content (reference to Love Mein Ghum, excellent quality but not much content to boast about). This is now necessary as the average person going to a cinema to watch a movie is now far more conscious of the film and its technicalities.

However this year can safely be called as the “lucky one” with respect to not only the films that have already released but also because of the many amazing products that are coming soon to blow your minds away. Surprisingly the target market of each of the movies released this year responded unexpectedly well, not only this, people furthermore have high excitement levels and are eagerly awaiting all the other forthcoming offerings of Pakistan film Industry for this year too.

If we are to compile a list of all these upcoming films, scheduled to release this year, an unexpected result comes out. We had previously considered or speculated “Bol” and “Love Mein Ghum” to be the biggest releases of year 2011, though they did manage to land on our expectations but actually the biggest films are yet to hit the cinemas. Why? We can make this assumption on the basis of the potential that each of these films have. These movies are not only far richer in the entertainment quotient but their overall production value along with their market value is also something that makes them bigger than those released earlier this year.

Let’s start with the movie named The Dusk, as it is expected to be one of the first films to release in coming times here in Pakistan. If we try to summarise the movie in one line; we can say, The Dusk is a movie by a new team with a very much new story, having a very fresh cast and in a nutshell is an experimental project by its makers.

The Dusk basically is a social/drama film centred on a newly-wed couple who face a tragedy after some days of marriage and their life turns in a great misery. Pakistani model Salman Khan has played the male lead in the film whereas his real life model wife Uzma Khan is playing the female lead in it. The movie is directed by a new director Z-Shan Kazmi, who although is directing his very first movie project but has been in the industry for quite a long time now. He has played some important roles in many of the big TV productions such as by Sarmad Khoosat. The movie is produced by “Wajahat Kazmi films” head by Italy returned Pakistani film student and producer Wajahat Abbas Kazmi.

Talking about social/drama films, let’s come to an another movie with the same genre named Price of Honour and this one is by renowned Pakistani director Syed Noor who has directed and produced some of the biggest super-hits in the history of Pakistan film industry.

Unlike most of the past film projects of Syed Noor where Shaan, Moammar Rana and Saima seemed to be his only choice for making films; this time he has picked some very fresh faces mainly because of the film’s genre and hopefully this movie will give all the débutantes a great break for their better future in industry.

Movie as suggested by its name (Price of honour) is based on the topic of Rape, torture and honour killings whereas according to some reports, the story is said to be based on the real life case of Pakistani village living rape victim Mukhtara Mai.

Seasoned director Syed Jarrar Rizvi’s much awaited and much delayed forthcoming patriotism based drama flick Son of Pakistan is also part of the list of films having an expected release date lying in coming few months.

Son of Pakistan is a mega cast film based on the topic of terrorism with little flavours of drama and romance in it. Having actors like Babar Ali, Meera, Shafqat Cheema, Babrik Shah, Sillah Hussain, Shamil Khan, Ghulam Moiuddin, Sana Nawaz and many other big names, SOP is a movie based on a very overused topic of terrorism but as we said earlier it also has romantic and drama flavours in it, so all in all one can expect a blast from the movie.

It’s relevant to mention here that all these movies have their expected release dates lying somewhere near to Eid-ul-Adha, however their exact release dates cannot be confirmed at the moment.

Apart from these three movies, Gidh by Shamoon Abbasi and Waar by Bilal Lashari are also the two mega films highly anticipated in the industry circuit having Galaxy Lollywood collected ‘public interest ratios’ of 93.55% and 91.3% respectively, making them two of the highly anticipated movies of the year.

Gidh is said to be a complete entertainment film having everything from action to drama and adventure to romance with a sizzling cast that includes Humayun Saeed and Mona Lizza in lead roles while Ayesha Khan, Syed Jibran Ali, Imran Patel and Shamoon Abbasi himself will be seen doing some prominent roles in the film.

Although story wise there isn’t much disclosed except the fact that it is penned by seasoned writer Zubair Abbasi but the project being directed by Shamoon Abbasi means we can expect some good action sequences along with a full Masala story. Two of the songs, one featuring Mona Lizza and the other one featuring Humayun Saeed are also released on internet and have been receiving quite positive remarks.

Just like Shamoon Abbasi, famous Pakistani music video director Bilal Lashari is also on his film directorial debut but as always he is again with something bigger and better. Bilal is directing upcoming Pakistani film Waar that has already created a big buzz in the industry with the news of its mega budget of almost 17 crore and its distributional association with American film and TV making and distribution giant Warner Brothers.

The highest budgeted movie in the history of Pakistan film industry, Waar stars some of the finest actors of the industry including Shaan Shahid in lead and Shamoon Abbasi in negative lead role, whereas Pakistani singers Ali Azmat and Misha Shaafi are also said to have prominent acting roles in the movie.

Waar being one of the few mainstream Pakistani English language films will not only be distributed worldwide by Warner Brothers as we mentioned earlier but will also be screened at some of top film festivals worldwide. Based on the topic of ongoing war against terrorism and its consequences, Waar can play a vital role in not only revitalising the local film industry but will also help the foreign community to understand the ground realities of the deadly war. Having an experience of being the assistant director of Shoaib Mansoor’s 2007 directed super-hit film Khuda Kay Liye and giving some of the finest music videos to the industry, a lot is expected from Bilal this time as well.

Besides these five mega films, there are movies like Fatima, Idraak, and Syed Faisal Bukhari’s second directorial venture Saltanat; in pipeline to soon hit countrywide cinemas, however there aren’t any confirmed reports regarding their expected release dates and thus we would prefer not to go into further details of these movies.

Galaxy Lollywood at the end wishes all these movies a very best of luck for their future and we’ll keep you updated on all the latest developments regarding them. We sincerely hope these movies will help the revival process and help the industry toward its goal.

Final Editing By:

Momin Ali