Review: Mohib Mirza's 'Ishrat Made in China' is all abs and no jabs

Underdeveloped characters, cinematic leaps and wasting of precious time makes sitting through the entertainer a chore.

KARACHI:

Mohib Miraz’s Ishrat is a character with cult nostalgic value, adored by television viewers of the good ol’ sitcom days. Now, revived with Ishrat Made in China, the action-packed comedy flick that plays on our perception of everything ‘Made in China’ being tacky but workable would have been better off made in Pakistan. Provided it could have done with a transitory introduction, rebranding to go with today’s apexes, and further fleshing out of the story and characters, all issues that form the canon of Pakistani cinema’s struggle with storytelling.

Mirza’s production and directorial debut spends its first 40 minutes reintroducing Ishrat, with a plot nowhere in sight. Ishrat’s humour, his financial incompetence and unmatchable charm are the driving forces of a film that doesn’t seem to be headed anywhere, until it’s finally headed to a donkey race in China. It’s raining eggs five minutes into the film as women fall left, right and centre in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the troublemaker with a golden heart, great abs, a hole in his pocket and a foot in his mouth. Ishrat Made in China has all the ingredients of an all-out entertainer featuring an uphill battle of a broke donkey racer and a mishmash of romantic Bollywood moments featuring the stunning Sanam Saeed, but no recipe for success.

Yes, the look and feel is as vibrant as you see it in the trailer but the execution is of no service to its rather unique premise. Ishrat’s uphill battle is first hauled, then rushed and eventually overlapped with a budding romance that only manages to tease the audience. His much-awaited transformation is also reduced to a rehashed Karate Kid routine under the mentorship of a Chinese master played by Shamoon Abbasi. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with a Karate-Kid-esque montage of sorts but it does bother the viewer when the entire film is centered around a transformation that barely gets any screentime.

Ishrat’s purpose is sidetracked with that of the film’s side characters’, as he goes from struggling to prove his mettle in a donkey race that should help renew his faith in himself and reward him millions of Yuans, to focusing on vengeance. The subplot enhances his ability to fight a fight he never signed up for but doesn’t really offer his character with new motivations to change, leaving his arc, rather unchecked.

Saeed’s character Akhtar, on the other hand, allows her ample room to shine as a glamourous performer – a first for her catalogue of characters. She looks breathtaking in the dance numbers too. But the film does not see enough of her. It also provides her no backstory or ambitions to boast, aside from her obvious interest in Ishrat and making him stand on his two feet. She is significant to his development and everything that keeps him afloat, but a side character for her audience, despite nailing the act and being presented as a lead.

Surprisingly, Sara Loren’s Jia is relatively impressive. She participates in training Ishrat and frankly, appears very much capable of fighting her own battles, poking another loophole in the film’s plot. She is also charming, mysterious and presented as a potential threat to Ishrat and Akhtar’s existing love story. But the fact that she is led on does not do her justice.

Aside from the lazily conceived characters, there are several other factors to consider when dissecting Ishrat Made in China’s impaired assemblage. With the exception of blatant continuity and editing jumps that are not part of the plan, the decision to persistently break the fourth wall is distracting for a film begging to maintain its suspension of disbelief. Mirza constantly addressing the audience in the middle of scenes makes the film look like an assortment of ads meant to sell a narrative instead of presenting one.

There are also scenes set in China that appear to have been shot in the outskirts of Karachi while a Pakistani truck is in sight. Pakistani-looking, Urdu-speaking Chinese characters do not make falling for the guise any easier. If it was all done overtly, so the audience can laugh at the superficiality of the China world as well, then it needed to be emphasized again and again, almost like a motif and a pattern. It didn’t come off as that, albeit, it just came off as a low budget improvised version of China on set. The antagonist, Hassan Sheheryar Yasin’s, is perhaps the most convincing of the Chinese characters essayed. He is also a convincing villain for a debutant performer, striking a gaze in his dark, oversized coats, appearing rather intimidating.

But instead of edifying layers, the film has moments juxtaposed against one another. A few decent one-liners that do not weave together a wholesome plot and you can hardly blame the actors when the script doesn’t offer much of a skeleton to hang on to.

There are some rib-tickling jokes and exaggerated action sequences, as well as a Bajrangi Bhaijaan moment, there is even Nayyar Ejaz doing what he does best in his short presence on screen. But even with the best of performances, the film lacks substance. It is not devoid of a story but spends too much time running away from it.

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