Waar director Bilal Lashari’s ambitious magnum opus “The Legend of Maula Jatt” has finally dropped its long awaited trailer. The film enjoys the rare status of a cinematic outing that’s universally and anxiously awaited by film aficionados for multiple substantial reasons. The director of historical action flick Waar, offering his second directorial after a decade, with superstars like Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan coming together onscreen after their classic drama Humsafar, and the culturally iconic character of Maula Jatt being retold in a grand manner, are a few of the many credentials attached to the film. This brings an understandably immense hype to the film and attaches extremely high expectations to it.
Maula Jatt: The Trailer
The two-and-a-half minute promotional video and its captions point to a possible origin story of Maula Jatt, where he is depicted as a fierce prizefighter with a tortured past looking for vengeance against his arch nemesis, Noori Natt, the most feared warrior in the land of Punjab. The trailer is dark and gritty from start to finish, with its captivating visuals and sound design. There are loads of action sequences and it introduces the main characters in an intriguing manner. There is blood and gore, and, embedded amongst all this lies a hint of a romantic sequence between the two leads, Fawad and Mahira.
The trailer is not only a dark visual delight following the template of Lashari’s debut film, but it also features high-octane dialogue penned by the legendary Nasir Adeeb (he also wrote the original Maula Jatt). There are intense looks of a scar-faced Fawad Khan, the fiery eyed Hamza, and the intense Gohar Rasheed. The show seems to belong to the leading male characters as the ladies seem to have a hard time with their dialogue delivery from whatever is shown in the trailer. Humaima’s sensual snippets with Fawad Khan are extremely hot, though.
The visual effects, sound and set design, costumes, and action sequences keep you hooked and want to see the trailer multiple times. Jhelum city’s historical Rohtas fort is intelligently recreated and extensively utilized in the film. There is also, however, a feel of outdatedness to the trailer as it took 10 years for the film to complete and release and some keen viewers might be able to note it. This doesn’t mean that the trailer is not grand and full of adrenaline punches.
Cast And Crew
Directed by Bilal Lashari, The Legend of Maula Jatt also stars Humaima Malick, Mirza Gohar Rasheed, Faris Shafi, Ali Azmat, Nayyer Ejaz, Shafqat Cheema, Raheela Agha, Zia Khan and Saima Baloch. The Punjabi film is being produced by Ammara Hikmat’s Encyclomedia and Lashari Films. The distribution will be done by Nadeem Mandvivalla under Mandviwalla Entertainment who previously distributed blockbusters like Titanic, Avatar, and Teefa In Trouble. Bilal Lashari has also co-penned the story, dialogues, and screenplay, and has also taken care of photography and editing of the film. That’s a lot for one person, we must say.
The Legend of Maula Jatt will release on 13th October in cinemas and it might just be the film that Pakistani cinema has been waiting to give a much needed kick after the blows of pandemic.
