Movie Name: Sawal 700 Crore Dollar Ka
Release Date: July 6, 2016
Director: Jamshed Jan Muhammad
Review by: Momin Ali Munshi
When I first saw the trailer of SSCDK I was perplexed by the two extremes I saw in this ninety second footage. On one hand I could see this really well shot heist film with some great aerial shots, applaud worthy cinematography and the much desired cinematic feel, while on the other hand I could sense some shabby acting, bad VFX and the old school Lollywod-ness.
But when the second trailer( or was it the third) of the film came out which had edited out all the bad VFX and had reduced the Lollywood-ness ( that tacky Sawaal Saath So jingle at the end and more) and shed light on the story, well my expectations from the film increased quite a lot. Therefore when I walked into the cinema hall , I was anticipating a high budget Pakistani thriller which was shot in exotic locations and would be a cinematic experience. Sadly, it was the opposite!
The film narrates the story of two thieves Tiger ( Javaid Sheikh) and Commander who are known to be the best in the game. However due to an unfortunate accident Tiger looses his partner but he must pull of one last robbery as he owes money to the mafia. Walks in Rocky( Ali Mohiuddin) a young thief with a promising record and voila he collaborates with Tiger because Sawal 700 Crore Dollar ka hay! Oh, and there is Officer Khan ( Shamoon Abbasi) who has been assigned the duty of catching the thieves.
While the plot is decent the execution is bad! The VFX is so amateurish that you dont even need to be a film person to see through it. I get the argument that our nascent film industry cant afford the desired special effects but then why make a film when you know you cant do justice to the plot? Anyhow there was this one scene where Shamoon fires three shots at a local don and we see three paintball-esque splashes on his shirt! Now this does not need money, so I dont know what was going on in the directors mind.
Not only the VFX but the screenplay was a mess too, and whoever okay-ed the last fifteen minutes of the film should be banned from film-making. The twists and turns at the end were just added for the sake of it and so many questions were left unanswered! Yes, I get it that the director wants a sequel but the ending was a let down. I cant get into the details of it because of the spoilers but so many scenes were coming across as pointless because the continuity of the film was not even considered while editing I guess. The positioning of the song ‘Bin Tere’ was one of the many such incidents where you were left wondering what just happened!
And the reason Ive termed it as a senior citizen fiesta is because almost everyone in the film is old! You might go like hey the film has its hero and heroine while its just the supporting cast which includes the veterans. But trust me, once you see the film you will understand my point. In addition to the legendary actors Javaid Sheikh, Ghulam Mohiuddin, Ismail Tara, Nayyar Ejaz who by the way are the star attractions, even the other shorter roles have been assigned to seniors. Also the people behind the scenes, well no points for guessing!
For those who were fans of Javaid Sheikh and all back in the day, this film is like a trip down the memory lane as the veterans have been presented like stars and at times even overshadow the hero. Be it the super chic wardrobe of Javaid Sheikh, or the larger than life persona of Nayyar Ejaz, this film is heaven for all you 80’s and 90’s folks! And had it released a decade ago, we would have celebrated it for its technological advancements but in today’s age and time the film came across as a joke.
Its not just the technological parts but even the screenplay and the dialogues leave much to be desired. I believe that the old school dialogues penned by Nasir Adeeb would appeal to the ‘seniors’ but they did not click with the average cine-goer who expects much more crispy and relatable dialogues. Oh and there were these scenes which had Ifthikhar Thakhur and Ismail Tara doing their comedy bit, but which instead of leaving the viewer in splits made the viewers want to shoot themselves.
Coming to the acting bit well the veterans obviously put up a great show as expected. But the newbies need to learn some basics. The hero Ali may have the star like-persona but his acting skills need to be worked upon as his acting was very forced and unnatural, specially in the romantic bits. As for the leading lady well she does look like a filmy heroine in and does fill the vacuum in our industry but her acting skills are just as average as of the leading man. But it would not be wrong to say that we have two new additions in the film industry who with time will improve. Moreover there was Shamoon Abbassi as the police inspector and he was great as always. I just felt his acting was bit too over the top at times but then given the directors absurd vision it went along with it.
And coming to the songs, while the credits may have great singers such as Shaan and Alka Yagnik among others from India, the lyrics were a miss! Yes there was ‘Bin Tere’ and ‘Dhun Dhuna Dhun’ which I liked but the item numbers completely killed it for me. They were plain bad!Add to it the heavily inspired ( read lifted) background score from Bollywood films like Race and other it would not be wrong to say that the music gets a thumbs down!
