Jawani Phir Nahi Aani- A Review

Director: Nadeem Baig
Producers: Salman Iqbal, Humayun Saeed, Shahzad Nasib, Jarjees Seja
Writer:  Vasay Chaudhry
Cast:  Hamza Ali Abbasi, Ahmad Ali Butt, Vasay Chaudhry, Humayun Saeed, Sohai Ali Abro, Mehwish Hayat, Sarwat Gilani, Ayesha Khan, Uzma Khan Javed Sheikh, Bushra Ansari, Ismail Tara

Release dates:  September 25, 2015(Pakistan) Oct 25 (Austin, TX,USA)

Language-Urdu

Country Pakistan- Lollywood

MovieGenre: Slapstick Comedy preferably for adult audiences

Rating: 2.5/5

Review: Birjis Adeni Rashed

(The aim and intention of my reviews is to critique and recommend while not revealing the whole story to enjoy the movie when seen. But minor details have been divulged for a proper review!)

 Simply said Jawani Phir Nahi Aani, like a McDonalds Burger (overly product placed in the movie) was out to reach the masses with its cheap slapstick laughs, not necessarily aiming to make the best burger! 

This movie is a mixed bag of laugh out loud moments, large star cast with good and bad performances, slapstick comedy with mix of witty and cheesy lines, clichéd adult double meaning jokes, weak plot line, story with many loose ends, majorly inspired from Bollywood movies, garish amount of product placements and lastly many average songs and lyrics.

Jawani Phir Nahi Aani –JPNA, was released in September and premiered in limited cities across USA.  It was exclusively brought to Austin for one show by the efforts of Austin Arts and Drama Initiative-AADI on Oct 25^th, 2015. The theater was houseful with familiar faces, and watching it amidst the laughter of friends made it an entertaining Sunday afternoon!

The story revolves around  Sherry (Humayun Saeed), A U.S returned lawyer who decides his friends Saif(Hamza Abbasi), Parvez/BB/PP( Ahmad Ali Butt) and Sheik( Vasay Chaudhry), who are going through marital strife can do with  boys-only holiday in Bangkok. While there, an underworld don’s daughter Marina(Mehwish Hayat) falls for him, and whilst they are still figuring out their escape plans, his friends wives catch up on their husbands lies, further breaking their marriages.  For a person who is not sure about relationships ‘Sherry’ strangely links up with a Pakistani Billionaire- Mehboob Khan’s( Javed Sheikh) daughter Zoya(Sohai Ali Abro). To complicate the silliness, ‘Marina’ also shows up at the wedding celebrations in Lahore, with her don turned Arab Sheikh father. The senseless end for happy ending leads to Sherry’s marriage.  

 You can see the plot is majorly inspired from a bunch of B-grade Bollywood movies like Houseful, Houseful2, No Entry, Masti and Hollywood movie Hangover etc. But taking this inspiration, it’s not even tied together very well and has a ridiculously lot of loose ends. The writer and actor Vasay Chaudhry needed to build the story and characters more than the comic relief he provides. Many scenes have references to Bollywood movies, ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’, ‘Dil Chahta Hai’, ‘Dilwale Dulhani ley Jayenge’, Sharukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, but also to local Pakistani pop culture, Pakistani movies, dramas, talk shows hosts, Television celebrities etc  adding to the funny moments.

The movie has a garish amount of product placements and obvious advertising sponsorships from brands like McDonalds, Levis jeans, BMW, Ray Ban, a bank, a juice brand etc and as if that was not enough, even songs have blatant inclusion of ‘Fair and Lovely’ beauty cream  and alcohol brand ‘Bacardi’ in their lyrics. 

The large star cast had some good acting and some over the top overacting. Actor Humayun Saeed plays his role well though the role itself needed more depth. Ahmad Ali Butt handles many hilarious situations well, though Hamza Ali Abbasi falls short with acting in many scenes. Vasay Chaudhry’s acting is sadly as bad as his writing.  While few of the actresses keep puckering their  botox lips as acting skills, Sohai Ali Abro with her selfie and hastag obsession and put-on California valley girl accent, pouting MA_MA for ‘mashallah’ is very irritating and does extreme overacting. Mehwish Hayat, the dons daughter and  Sarwat Gilani as the Pastho wife, carry their roles with mixed good and bad acting skills. Ayesha Khan and Uzma khan have smaller roles.  All the older actors like Javed Sheikh, speaking multiple languages, Bushra Ansari, OMG stuck with Punjabi, Ismail Tara, inventing new slangs of Persian-Urdu, over acted, unfortunately their roles were eccentric too.

 At times the script tries to spoof the cultural changes, two faced people, pretend society, and inflated weddings, but in order to parody or satirize anything if it’s done over the top it loses its impact and looks more ridiculous and nonsensical. Sadly it did with JPNA.

 People who came to the movie had mixed feelings of JPNA not reflecting the Pakistani culture and values and aping Bollywood.  But who said what is reflected in Bollywood is reflecting true culture of India! Movies are made for entertainment and film industries cater to the masses according to the trends. Though I haven’t seen the transformations of Pakistani cinema over the years, I have seen few old movies made of our celebrity relative across the border, veteran Pakistani actor Nadeem.  Hence I can understand that JPNA is a major deviation from the movies made once upon a time in Lollywood!

Unlike Pakistan Television soap operas which are very popular in South Asia, Lollywood film industry hasn’t churned out many blockbusters like the Bollywood film industry. This movie though has been making good money at box office catering to the masses!

JPNA was an acceptable watch, laughing at slapstick comedy, while ignoring the nonsensical and haywire shortcomings  in the company of friends. Thanks to AADI for bringing in Lollywood to Texas and their hospitality of a meetha pan( sweet candied beetle leaf), to the audience as our reward and happy ending;)