By Aayan Mirza
Wednesday, 25th March in Karachi hosted the upcoming film, Ho Mann Jahaan’s cast and crew meetup with the press and bloggers. The event was a beautiful late evening affair at Karachi’s iconic Frere Hall where, although, the historic building itself wasn’t the host, but this absolutely fascinating film set was set up, where a certain part of the film has also been shot, and it was just amazing, just the colossal scale of it, and plus the aesthetics, beautiful.
A Khalid Malik hosted event, the whole official film launch affair seemed pretty elegant. The director, Asim Raza, who at the very beginning confessed that he was a little nervous and for obvious reasons, later spoke some passionate words about his team and the project, and said, “the day definitely means a lot to us since we are today sharing with you a dream that has been close to our hearts for years and for various reasons,” but added that the public would still have to wait a few more month to see it come to life since there is a still a portion of camera work left.
He further also revealed that there are nine songs in the film, all composed by an intelligent mix of young and old of Pakistan music industry, such as, Zeb and Haniya, Atif Aslam, Tina Sani, Abu Mohammed and Fareed Ayaz, Jimmy Khan, Asrar and Fakhir. On a reply to a question, he also said that he would although call it a music film as music has a very large part to play in it, but it is certainly not a musical.
The film may not be ready yet to be screened, but the teaser was and it was shared exclusively on the screen for the first time – and many times after that (a few times on the demand from the sitting audience). Over a minute and half in its duration, the teaser really hits you like a cold, fresh spell of breeze on an otherwise scorching day. The video spells the film to be a very peppy, urban and light-hearted kind of a project, something that we really feel the dearth of right now.
Here, check it out for yourself.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=956245367754216&set=vb.145329538845807&type=2&theater
The film is about three college friends, Arhaan (Sheryar Munawar Siddiqui), Manizeh (Mahira Khan), and Nadir (Adeel Hussain), who all come from varied backgrounds along with their varied natures, but are all weaved in together closely by a common thread of their passion for music.
However, circumstances and family dynamics conspire to put many an obstacle in their path. But perseverance and a bit of luck help put them back on the right track – to musical success and lifelong friendship.
Mahira Khan, discussing her character with the audience said that the director, herself and the art director all had their respective ideas about it and they all tried to give it what they could, “and then Farieha [Altaf] (Mahira’s stylist for the film) came up with a lot of different things for Manizeh, we wanted to keep her modern but yet not so modern that we alienate the people who are coming to watch her in cinemas…she is this T-shirt-jeans girl but then she also wears her chooris, so yeah, we hope that all works.”
Shehryar Munawar Siddiqui while discussing his role and the film said, “When you are working with someone like Asim, you have to have hundred percent faith in what he says, so Arhaan was more of what was in Asim’s mind and the trick over here was to sort of mould myself into Arhaan rather than Arhaan becoming Shehryar.”
Adeel Hussain while answering a question said that, “There was a lot of originality that was part of this process right down from the story…a lot of people are coming with very new ideas and point of views, and some very different manners of executing your talent are coming into play as far as storytelling goes, so as actors and as people who are trying to be a part of the journey, I would suggest that you don’t take any pre conceived notions into the equation. We tried our best as actors that we don’t unnecessarily relate with something of the past and while working on it, we realised that it’s something being done on a really big scale and the originality is a very core part of it.
Mahira while replying a question that whether this one would release first or would Bin Roye be the first to star her this year, said that since Bin Roye is slated for Eid-ul-Fitr, and Ho Mann Jahaan is supposed to release on the Eid after that, so naturally Bin Roye would be the first to star her this year.
Apart from the lead three, the film also stars veterans like Bushra Ansari, Jamal Shah, Sonya Jehan, Nimra Bucha and Arashad Mahmood, who all, except Sonya and Jamal, were also present at the event.
