Thora Jee Le (Review): A heartfelt effort goes amiss

Movie Name: Thora Jee Le

Release Date: Jan 20, 2017

Director:  Rafay Rashdi

Review by: Momin Ali Munshi

When the first trailer of ‘Thora Jee Le’ came out, I was excited. Excited, because the film would bring with itself a pool of new talent and honestly the trailer seemed promising enough for a film that featured all newbies. Furthermore, after having had a conversation with the cast and crew of the film, seeing their enthusiasm and learning of all the hard work put behind the film, let’s just say I was rooting for the film to do well.

The film premiered in Karachi a few days later and the internet was flooded with negative reviews. ‘It may crush your will to live’ was one of the review titles so you can imagine how bad things were. But being someone who forms an opinion only after having seen the film myself, I paid no heed to these reviews and went straight to the cinema to experience ‘Thora Jee Le’. So was the film as bad as the reviews?

The answer is both yes and no.

What I saw in the cinema as a final product was definitely way below my expectations or for that matter any cinemagoers expectations. There was a MAJOR issue with sound, acting was weak and the plot seemed to be all over the place. Had this film released a few years back, we would have celebrated it, but cinema in Pakistan is improving by leaps and bounds and hence a film with many loopholes can’t really get the audience’s appreciation.

However having said that it is also worth mentioning that the film was not all bad and definitely had its redeeming points. The film does tackle quite a few issues, albeit half-heartedly, which haven’t been seen on the silver screen before. So the director does deserve some credit for that. Also, the cinematography of the film deserves a mention, especially after having seen films in the past where color grading seemed like an alien concept, it was nice to see the beautifully shot sequences.

Basically, the film tells the story of six college friends who reunite when one of them has a serious drug overdose incident. The six then decide to take a road trip and go stay at the farmhouse of one of the friends. It’s there that ghosts from the past ( some actual ghosts too) show up and the story moves ahead.

While the main premise in itself seemed decent it was the poor execution that made the film lose its charm. First and foremost the biggest issue which I felt was that there was no background score. Yes, other than the dialogues on the screen there was no other sound to be heard. There were a few sequences where the choral pieces were there but for the most part, it was just silence and that was rather annoying.

As for the acting, well the less I say the better. Other than Ramsha Khan and Bilal Abbas every actor fails in one way or the other. While someone is too loud and over the top, the other is expressionless and let’s just say the acting department was not really a forte for the film.

Talking about the main premise, well I’m sure that on paper it was a great idea, but unfortunately, it couldn’t really translate well onto the screen. The pace of the film is questionable, the film is full of bantering between the friends which does nothing to move the story forward and generally it’s all over the place. The film was definitely an ambitious attempt by the makers to highlight the issues faced by the youth but somewhere along the way it got derailed and the heartfelt effort went amiss.