As we had written about at length previously, the first half of the current year seemed suspiciously empty as far as new releases are concerned, with only one film, the art-house Zindagi Tamasha scheduled for release in late January. The teaser of Kahay Dil Jidhar which came out of the blue yesterday therefore came as a pleasant surprise, as it now seems that the film, having entered its post-production phase a few weeks back is very much on track for a release in the coming few months.

Crime, drugs, and music…

Starring Junaid Khan and Mansha Pasha as leads, the minute-long preview hints at a coming of age drama with a few twists. The initial shots of the teaser show a group of friends charting out their future destinies, and then we jump forward in time and are shown snippets of what their lives after graduation end up looking like. In walks Junaid Khan with his macho-cop gait, the voiceover narrating his idealistic ambitions. The same idealism also seems to rub on the now hard-hitting journalist played by Mansha Pasha.

From the glimpses of the film the clip provides, it seems the two leads meld rather well into their characters. The latter portions of the trailer offer more clues to the story arc of the film, which seems to encompass the war on drugs and the confluence of illicit narcotics, law enforcement, and the music scene.

Our verdict

Kahay Dil Jidhar is directed by Jalaluddin Rumi, who has some memorable music videos to his credit, and the production team seems to have done a fairly decent job with the project. While it’s still too early to say anything about the film’s technical aspects, from what we can tell, the photography and color-grading could use some improvement, especially in the preview’s initial campus shots. On the plus side, the dialogues hit the right notes and Junaid Khan and Mansha Pasha look pretty badass in their movie avatars of a cop and a journalist, respectively. With a rock act being part of the narrative, the film just might have something tuneful to offer on the music front too.

So is the film a potent mix of coming of age drama, crime thriller and musical genres? We are not getting our hopes too high, but the teaser stokes our curiosity enough to make us look forward to the trailer which we hope will offer more answers. For now, enjoy the minute-long preview of Kahay Dil Jidhar, and let us know what you think in the comments below.