Reach for the Light

Entertainment

Featured: A Review of the Pakistani Film “Ghabrana Nahi hai”

About the film

The film “Ghabrana Nahi hai” was released in Cinemas on Eid 2022, its title is a pun upon former Prime minister Imran Khan’s statement about heretofore unseen high inflation in Pakistan, ‘Aap Ne Ghabrana Nahi hai’ for which the politician is infamous. The movie takes the ironic statement and uses it as a running joke throughout. The film is directed and co-written by Saqib Khan with Mohsin Ali. It is the story of a Pakistani Tik Tok Star trying to set right a wrong done to her family. Featuring renowned actors Saba Qamar, Zahid Ahmed, and Syed Jibran among others, it used comedic timing and charm to set a hilarious and sometimes cringy tableau.

Trailer

Synopsis

The story follows Zubaida aka Zuby (Saba Qamar) and her fight and journey as a headstrong Faisalabadi daughter to a blue-collar lower-middle class father who loses his all life’s hard earned property to a rogue, powerful land-grabber Bhai Miyaan (Nayyar Ijaz) who is assisted by his strong network that includes a corrupt, yet charming cop (Zahid Ahmad). Zubaida is joined by her amicable cousin Vicky (Syed Jibran) on this journey. Zubaida’s confidence and charm make her the attention of almost every eye. Our heroine, however, is fixated on her goal and everything else is secondary.

(Taken from Galaxylollywood.)

Overall Thoughts

“Ghabrana nahi hai” was fun. It was funny, charming and kind of really cringy at times, but it was ultimately a good time. I watched it on Eid Day with my family and the whole theatre was laughing and hollering at some parts. It has the uniquely good feature of not taking running joke too far, bringing it up tastefully and judiciously.

However, the plot sucked, the character development was bungled and nothing in the film was worth taking seriously. The film tried to send a message of female empowerment but it failed; miserably.

The Best Parts of the film

These were some of the things I enjoyed the most while watching it: it’s humour, comedic timing, charming actors, running jokes and relatability.

Acting

The acting from the main cast members was superb (apart from a bit of hamming up from the villain). They fit their roles perfectly and Saba Qamar, and Zahid Ahmed’s romantic chemistry was totally believable.

Comedic timing

This was amazing, spot on, had me in fits of laughter throughout. The actors knew exactly when to deliver the punchline and that made a difference. The other thing I enjoyed about the timing was the coordination of the actors, they were well in synch with one another and did well to deliver dialogues accurately to maximize funniness.

The Setting

The costumes, make and overall atmosphere of the film was vibrant and gorgeous, lending a very authentic Pakistani feel to it, while also glamming it up t the point where it felt like we were going on an adventure.

Things That Were Not good

While some people will call me stuck up for criticizing exaggeration and embellishment in a comedy; I firmly believe that there is such a thing as too much. It exists and if you cross it; it’ll get you – meaning; films should not stretch their audience’s suspension of disbelief to point where it hangs by a thread, otherwise it becomes completely cringy. This is the third time I’ve used that word: cringy, and that’s precisely because there is no other sentiment that quite so totally encompasses my feelings for a part of this film: it was sooo cringe.

The Script

While the plot was kinda meh, it was the needless exaggeration in the script that caused this film to be not quite as awesome as it rightfully should have been. Some people might say that I’m holding it to too high of a standard when I compare it to films such as Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Groundhog Day, or Pretty Woman, but I really believe that Pakistani cinema can reach that gold standard and that we should not only strive for it, but expect it.

The thing was that even the parts of the script that should take themselves seriously, like the menacing villain, did not. And, in trying to ham it up, the film lost that depth of profoundness, that thematic quality that makes a great film what it is.

Themes and Values

Oh, what they attempted to show was great; who doesn’t love a good story of female empowerment and sticking it to the man? But what it ended up being was a female moping about and crying on the shoulders of various guys as they went about fixing her mess. Not cool, not independent and definitely not the symbol of female empowerment the film was aiming for.

Unecessary Crudeness

I don’t mind a spot of nudity, or inappropriate attire, dancing etc. etc. if it serves the plot. In fact, I’m cool with it, but I hate it when a film adds gratuitous indecency for no reason, and it feels freaking out of place in the rest of the family friendly film. Both the beginning and the ending of the film are with a sort of club scene, and while I didn’t enjoy the camerawork in the first one (which focused way too much on the dancing and not on the actual main character introduction it was for) it served a purpose, I got it. The last one didn’t… it didn’t mean anything, wasn’t fun and was just about as many synonyms of stupid as I can’t be bothered to write and you can think of.

My Final Thoughts

The film is “Funny for a bit, but too cringy.”

My rating for this film is 6/10.                                           

DISCLAIMER:

This review is the Author’s opinion, the author does not claim anything stated here as fact. If you disagree with anything written in this article please do not hesitate to sound of in the comments down below. However, please keep in mind that the author is not liable for any information stated in this post. It is purely opinion.

The Drama “Ghabrana nahi hai” and all of its materials are owned by JB Films under Mastermind Production, and its various producers and Entertainment companies. We are merely using some of them in this post to illustrate a point (fair use). If you wish for your materials to be taken down please contact us and we will remove them immediately.

Please follow and like us:

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.