Rolling out red carpet: Bond(s) skyfall into the garrison town

Two premiers of the 007’s latest adventure held.

ISLAMABAD:

Cinema wars and cola wars converged as the two leading cinemas of Rawalpindi held their premieres of Skyfall, the latest instalment of the long-running James Bond series.

At The Arena in Bahria Town, a host of luxury vehicles including a Nissan 350Z, a Mercedes C180 and a Harley Davidson bike welcomed guests, who keenly took pictures in front of a tunnel designed to resemble the iconic gun barrel from the opening title sequence of any Bond movie.

The Coca Cola-sponsored event had models Natasha Hussain wearing leather pants and burgundy jacket, and Xoya Abbasi in a gold gown. Soon after the invitees assembled, a group of boys on heavy bikes raced through the parking lot, before a chauffeur-driven Bond, played by model Nikki Larson, arrived in a convertible Merc with the Bond girls by his side.

After the chief guest, Ali Riaz, arrived, the audience started walking in to The Arena. Haider Khan, who is a marketing manager at a private company, said, “I have high hopes, Daniel Craig is a good Bond and I hope he keeps it up,” while Asim, an army officer and self-proclaimed Bond fan, simply hoped the movie would be “awesome”.

However, a few people did have their reservations, with Dina Arham, a lawyer, commenting that the last movie “was disappointing, so I hope this one is better”.

Meanwhile, a couple of hours later at Cinepax, it was Pepsi that had sponsored another premier of the same movie. The entire back entrance area of the cinema was converted into lounges with an overhanging chandelier, closely resembling a social event infiltrated by Mr Bond.

Also, one cannot forget the classic Jaguar parked outside, most likely on account of Bond’s similarly shaped, iconic Aston Martin DB5, which made a comeback in the film.

Multiple ‘James Bonds’ and Bond girls were interacting with guests in the lounge area, with models from Lahore and Karachi joining local ones to play the roles.

Sitting at one of the lounges, Ali Saigol said it has great reviews, “so hopefully it will be one of the best Bond movies”, while Rezz Aly Shah of Rezz events saw good signs in the fact that “cinemas in Pakistan keep bringing the latest movies”.

Meanwhile, after the movie, Bond-fan Ali Syed said with a smile on his face, “The movie was thrilling throughout and brought to the screen features from the old Bond while coming up with a more modern plot and a realistic context.”

In short, as Asim the army officer had hoped, it was an awesome cinematic experience.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2012.