It is raining teasers and trailers in the Lollywood land, these days. A surely good sign for the industry after a rather uninspiring first quarter of the year for Pakistani movies at the cinema. The teasers and trailers for Baaji, Chhawala, and Wrong No.2 have already created excitement for the audience with the diverse content these films are promising. The latest offering for the audience comes in the shape of Ready Steady No, the trailer for which was dropped yesterday.
A glimpse into the trailer
The film has been described by the debutant director Hashim Bin Munawar as a “situational satirical comedy” that focuses more on the characters than the plot. And the trailer of the film surely reflects this basic description. It tells the story about a young couple who are in love and want to marry each other but they are facing the opposition from their respective families. So, they take matters in their own hands and with the help of a lawyer and a qazi, they plan to elope and get their own happy ending.
Creating troubles for this couple are multiple obstacles in the shape of controlling parents, a good-for-nothing detective who can’t read basic Urdu, an unhelpful police officer, and a whole lot of running around the narrow streets of Lahore.
Judging from the trailer, Ready Steady No looks like a simple enough film that takes the basic plot of a young couple in love fighting for their happiness and tries to present it a new way by inserting interesting side characters. There isn’t anything awe-inspiring in the trailer that would make us sit up and take notice. The genre of the film as per the director is “farce” and all the elements of that can be seen in the 2-minute-long trailer with how the characters talk, dress up, and behave.
The characters, an indie fest, and more
If there is anything that might make this film as a must-watch affair is the cast of the film that boasts of many veteran actors. Salman Shahid, Nayyar Ejaz, Ismail Tara, Nargis Rasheed, even Ashraf Khan in his small appearance make their mark. Personally, I was most excited by Marhoom Ahmad Bilal, who quickly became my favorite after his stint as Billu Butt in Teefa in Trouble. Amna Ilyas and the debutant Faisal Saif, who play the characters of the girl and guy wanting to elope, do what is required of them but don’t do anything worth specially mentioning.
The film looks more like an indie feature than a proper film. The visuals of the film, from the trailer at least, give more of a telefilm vibe than a cinematic feature. And considering the rather simple plot of the film, it doesn’t look the film will have the length of a proper film anyway.
Overall, the trailer for Ready Steady No doesn’t deliver anything special. But it also doesn’t try to be anything that the film isn’t. It is a simple trailer for a simple film that promises stress-free entertainment with its focus on comedy. It is too soon to decide what the fate of the film will be. Comedy is a genre that never gets old and maybe Ready Steady No will offer the kind of relatable humor that the audience would readily say yes to.
