Review of Janaan (2016) by Boleyn W — 22 Sep 2016

Janaan is a decent attempt and seems to have been made for a small budget. Cinematography was very good, but they should have shown more of the region rather than focus on the shots on set. I don't think they utilised the northern areas as much as they could have.

Armeena was the wrong casting. I think they made her stand on a stool for her shots with bilal. There was zero chemistry between the actors. Bilal looks good as the hero but definitely very wooden and needs to work very hard training to be an actor but the sidekick Ali rehman stole the film from under his nose.

The script was clichéd and too many OTT pathan stereotypes. Inaccurate cultural references. For example, girls driving alone at night with no dupatta even. That would never happen. I have to wear a chaddor and would never be allowed to drive a car in my village, let alone at night. So, no pashtun family is that modern in swat.

They didn't explore the characters enough. Why was mishi Khan unmarried, why was the chachi evil one second and then not the next. The absurd notion that armeena came back to Pakistan after ten odd years and didn't recognise any of her family... Erm... They didn't Skype or see photos of each other in that period? Also, Ali who suddenly went from a mega chichora to having serious feelings for meena was unauthentic.

Basically lots of goofs that could have been avoided. Songs were very bad, especially shor sharaaba was tragic and cringe. Only Reid-e-gul was worth a mention.

The evil guy ikramullah could have been developed much more but they didn't do that and just left it very superficial. Often it felt like a glossy long play from HUM TV and not a feature film.

Marketing has been its strongest point hence I am glad people went out to watch this film and many more to come from Pakistan.