Ho Mann Jahan – Review

The first Pakistani release of 2016 by Asim Raza the man who’s given us amazing music videos and some memorable advertisements. He made his directional debut with Ho Mann Jahan – so the movie is something ‘big’ for him.

It’s a story about 3 college friends united in pursing their love for music. Only they all have different background stories, obviously with 3 pairs of parents they’ll all have 3 different sets of objections and obstacles. The story is a fresh, light comedy that you should enjoy without any doubt.

The only problem is that from among  the 3 lead actors namely Mahira Khan, Adeel Hussain and Shehryar Munnawar only one of them can act.
Mahira should actually be called Pakistan’s Kristen Stewart; she is undoubtedly just as pretty and exactly as expressionless as the latter. One should suggest her to go and learn some voice modulation tricks, coz thru the whole session she delivered just one tone along with a log’s expression. I as a viewer didn’t connect to her. I couldn’t feel any emotion that she was ‘trying’ to display.

Sheheryar and his character is a total teenager on the screen, so totally out touch with his own self that one moment I find him singing songs for Sonia and a while later he is telling Mahira he loves her! For a moment there I thought I might have dozed off and missed something really important somewhere in the middle and then I realized it’s not me but him. The differences between his father and him could have been resolved with a simple ‘chittar’ from his father; the way all the desi-fathers resolve issues but I wonder what kind of dad lets his only son fail his exams and then show the dad (read: financer) attitude and then allows him to walk out of the house. Damn if I was daddy there I’d have given him a kick or two in the butt. Though I still feel like doing it!

Adeel Hussain was the only actor that played his character really well; I could feel his pain and compromise. And see him frustrated and annoyed, I could understand what he was going through. so I would give him a 10/10 for his acting there.

Besides them I guess everyone was really good, they gelled well with their characters and each brought a complete persona to their character which is very enjoyable to watch. I just wish Asim Raza had watched the whole movie in a go before releasing it as well.

The music turned out to be really catchy,if you've heard only 'shakkar wadan' then that's ok, i did too, but lemme tell you, you're going to be waiting right till the end of the movie to see that song. A wide array of singers and different genres of music all there to capture the interest of someone or the other. I'm beginning to think, this movie was wrapped up in a hurry. The project started well, there seemed to be effort and then it got too "slacky" at the end!