Yalghaar (2017) Reviews

• Poor Editing / Lacking Originality

  zoomer-250152017-06-29

  So I went to the cinema to catch a glimpse of this hyped up movie which many of the cast actors were sharing on the TV interviews. I finally sat down and the movie started. Now I won't give out spoilers but I should say the crying of the actresses and the choppy editing where you can clearly see the scenes missing was a big turn off. It happens around 5 - 8 times during the whole movie where certain cuts were placed. Lack of proper editing. No doubt that the camera equipment used was good the production quality was at par with good movies out there but the scene deduction the fake (looking) ammunition scenes and stupidity of the actors were quite visible. And yes too much product placement from the Banks in the movie. I mean if your budget was 3 Million US$ still I think and a better movie can be put out. Some funny scenes/talk sequences were good enough to laugh about for a bit. On the other hand, the over-all army interaction (which by the way gained this review a 4-star rating) reminded me of a good ole' Alpha Bravo Charlie Days of PTV.

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• Its better to burn away your money

  tsmegadeth2017-06-29

  So the most anticipated Pakistani movie of 2017, a ray of hope for the slowly surviving cinema industry was no less than a disaster. I cannot even begin how awful the movie was. If there was any number less than 1 i would gladly give it that. So the movie is about a true story which begins with the Swat operations when the insurgents took over the peaceful region and enforced their barbaric laws over there. The movie begins with a glimpse of a rescue operation in which an MI operative, Col Jogezai (Ayub Khosso) is being taken by the Taliban (Bad guys) and is being tortured for information. The protagonist of the movie Col Asad (Shaan Shahid) and his team of brave SSG soldiers (frankly everyone else is captain and not a single major, Lt., 2nd Lt., or any soldier) among the team. Now the movie shifts towards the antagonist of the movie Torjan (inspired from the virus Trojan, played by Humayun Saeed) is shown as a psychotic, anarchist, sadist, probably the most villainous of villains in the entire history of villains i am yet to see in movies. He kidnaps one of the local girl Zarmina (Ayesha Omer) on her wedding day by slaughtering the entire family, showing his evil intentions. Now comes the second Colonel of the movie Col Imran (played by Adnan Siddique) who is from the infantry corps who nobody gives a damn about but he loves his wife very much who happens to be impregnated while he was on duty (RIIIGGHHHT). A joint operation with two Colonel and a Maj general and bunch of captains. So much logic, much confusion, wow (Doge reference) Anyways the final battle begins, the infantry leads the frontal assault while the SSG leads a more specified target, search and destroy Torjan, while the aviation leads with two night stalkers and one MI7 helicopters and gunships to provide air support. While our men are out there fighting on the battlefield, our ladies in arms are praying for safe returns of our brave laddies (women empowerment). And in all this battle and bloodshed, Mrs col Imran (who was pregnant) feels the needs to deliver. And during this delivery the most obvious stuff happens, Col Imran dies. He dies while saving his platoon Commander (PC Butt sahib) who was none other than a little comic character in the movie. Butt sahib went into the firing zone in order to cut out an IED line and gets shot in the kidney, and watching this horror, Col Imran dives into the battle chanting BUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT and while we as audience are in the middle of this battle, Zarmina, the poor little girl, is saved by Baran and they are on the loose, however, Baran met his demise by the guy who calls him "Khassi". Anyways back to the battle. Col Asad asks his team that one of us has to take up an RPG and fire at those machine guns to suppress the heavy attack so that they can lead the assault. Mind you that the three FREAKING gunships are in still in the air and THERE ARE NO ANTI-AIRCRAFT resistance from the ground. They could just ROAST THEM but No, Captain Bilal (played by Bilal Ashraf)takes up the RPG walks half a mile into this supposedly heavy firing and fires straight into the bunker. However he is being shot and his last will is to kill Torjan. Col Asad asks his men to stand down, goes into a Chakka (CS/COD reference) Knife fight and eventually killing him (FATALITY). So in the end we have two martyrs (Col Imran and Captain Bilal) who are given quite a stand off. Captain Bilal uniform is given to his girlfriend(Instead of his parents) and the movie ends with forcing us to appreciate the countless contribution of the Pak Army. THE END Major Chutype k moments that i would like to mention: 1. There is three Maj Generals, Three Colonels, seven Captains in the entire freaking movie. Mind you the hierarchy of Pakistan army in the ascending order is: 2nd Lt. > Lt. > Captain > Major > Lt Colonels/Full Colonels, Brig, Maj Gen 2. There are only two arms (Infantry and Aviation) and two services group (Military intelligence and medical services) neglecting over dozen of arms and services group. Bravo 3. When there is no ground or aerial resistance, why not invite our Air force lads to bomb them. Or better still, why not bombard them with our Artillery arms? 4. WHY ON EARTH IS A MAJOR GEN FLYING THE MOST WEAPONIZED MACHINE IN AVIATION? 5. How come MI sends a Colonel in hard areas for information every time? 6. Why drone (shown couple of times) were not send to get aerial vision during surveillance before the final attack 7. Why Torjan has absolutely no BACK UP PLAN!!!! 8. Why there was Just A SINGLE IED mine/trap as a defensive counter measure against army 9. WHY EVERY TALIBAN IS SHOWN EITHER A PATHAN OR A MOLVI? 10. WHY EVERY ARMY GUY IS RANTING ABOUT EITHER HIS SENIOR, HIS GF OR THE COURSES THAT AWAITS IN THE FUTURE. Nonetheless the movie had Pakistan's best actors from film, drama and GEO TV, showing us that host of reality programs are basically actors themselves. However, concluding the movie, it was one of the worst ISPR funded piece of art i have ever experienced and i am confident that nothing can be worse than this. I am glad that the movie managed to recover the cost spend on it, and i don't have to see some military court martial in response to the damage this movie has brought on this good earth. Gauge your eyes with a spoon and watch any Micheal Bay movie cause this movie is not the revival but the delusion of Pakistani Cinema

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• A good story not presented well

  ahmadbilal-958082017-06-27

  Undoubtedly the stories of men from Pakistan army fighting against terrorism are at the same time thrilling, sad, courageous and of sacrifice for a true cause. The hard part is to show the same emotions and situations that they went through, on the screen. Unfortunately, in my opinion the movie couldn't grab the audience's attention and there were only 2-3 moments in the 2.5 hours where i felt involved in the story. Lets start with the acting first, only good acting and expressions can give power to your dialogues and with a movie like this where you want to get emotionally attached to the amazing story acting needs to be real good but sadly many actors and actresses seemed to be lacking expressions and emotions. Similarly, choosing the right person for a specific character needs to be focused now days. Looking at Holly wood auditions one can learn how they find such good actors that fit the role perfectly but in the movie especially the role of Humayun Saeed was i thought a big misfit along with some others which showed it wasn't under consideration of the makers. At last, how to carry the story is the most important challenge for such a movie and it felt that the makers failed at it big time, the linking of scenes to reach a climax and then ending the story was really poor. I felt lost during the movie except those 2-3 scenes so, it was a good story that was not shared effectively.

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• Great Movie. Captures the true spirit of Sacrifice, Jazba, Junoon and above all, the Emaan (belief) of Officers and Jawans of Pakistan Army. WELL DONE !

  ahson-tariq2017-06-26

  Had high expectations about YALGHAAR and wan't disappointed watching a movie which reflects the improving standards of our local cinema productions. In all fairness, cinema-goers should not be comparing our improving local productions with Hollywood's action flicks yet, instead should appreciate the fact that the quality of our local productions is improving and improving fast. The movie successfully achieves it's aim of highlighting the spirit of Sacrifice, Jazba, Junoon and above all, the Emaan (belief) of Officers and Jawans of Pakistan Army. It successfully brings forth the experiences that the family members of a soldier go through on a every day basis. The movie started appropriately right from the word go standing true to it's nature and keeping the audience glued for the first ten to fifteen minutes with the opening action scene. The quality of action scene shooting was much better and improved than Waar (for comparison sake) and on several occasions comparable with any top of the line Hollywood production. Aerial photography tools (drones) were very effectively used and added depth to the canvas. Almost each scene and dialogue seemed to have a purpose and didn't seemed like force-fitted in the movie. Comic relief was sprinkled around in the movie very appropriately and the humour seemed true to the culture in army. Reminded me of Alpha, Bravo, Charlie. Waqar Rana seems to fit the General's role well and does a good job on screen, as do most of the other actors and actresses (exceptions mentioned below). If you're a patriotic Pakistani or like action movies, you must go and watch this movie. On the "Things that could be improved" front, following are my observations: CGI - While the CGI was top notch in most areas, small firearms shooting is something which looks great only when done in "real" and not through computer graphics. EDITING - still requires major improvement. Some scenes were cut and/or joined with next scenes, too abruptly. ACTING - should be kept as close to being natural as possible. There were times when one felt that the acting was overdone. ADVERTISEMENT / PRODUCT PLACEMENT: Too much right-in-the-face. Should be avoided in future. HUMAYOU SAEED: Just doesn't fit the "Villain" role, especially the kind of negative role which this movie's script demanded. SHAAN: While he's a legend and has a great screen presence, it is high time that producers and directors start relying on fresh(er) blood. There's great talent around and should be used. TOO MANY MESSAGES/ACTORS/STORIES: There were too many Stories with too many Characters giving so many messages within this single movie. This movie will be watched by all types of cinema-goers and not everyone would be able to keep track of it all and might seem lost, like the gentleman sitting on my left (at Nueplex) felt yesterday night whilst the gentleman on my right was totally comfortable with the plethora of messages being thrown at him. FINAL VERDICT: This movie is another step by our local cinema in the right direction and based on what I watched last night, I am anticipating it to be a bigger success than WAAR. Kudos to the team which produced this movie. WELL DONE !

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• Just tarnishing the word revival of cinema

  hadi-rehman2017-08-13

  If this is revival of cinema then it was better not to revive let it be dead . Manto and Moor were one of finest works of Pakistani cinema . And this comes . I am not against action films but there was no plot and in fact it wasn't a film . It looked like footage gathered and edited with dialogues . There was no technicalities it was just show off mess look we can do this hey look we also have this look OH MY GOD SLOW MOTIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON.....!!!! .Made army look stupid. There are better stories to tell . Just a freaking mafia in industry making us audience look stupid . We are no Hollywood , no Indian industry we can have our identity in film industry

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