Na Maloom Afraad all set to do some damage at the box office

The movie is set for an Eidul-Azha release along with Operation 021, Bang Bang and Haider.

KARACHI:

Much like the infamous ‘Na Maloom Afraad’ who wreak havoc in the country, producers of the film, Na Maloom Afraad will follow suit by entering the Eidul-Azha box office race as potential party spoilers.

Given that Shaan’s Operation 021, Shahid Kapoor’s Haider and Hritik Rohsan’s Bang Bang had already earmarked the Eidul-Azha week for their respective releases, the nature of the announcement of the release date of the film comes as a surprise.

The film marks the directorial debut of renowned ad-filmmaker, Nabeel Qureshi, and would be distributed by Eveready Pictures and Hum Films.



The decision to release the film was made public in a curtain raiser arranged for the movie at a local hotel in Karachi. Apart from the principal cast and crew of the film the event was graced by the presence of several members of the Pakistani film fraternity.

“We are confident that we have made a quality product, as we believe NMA is a completely original film with a great storyline. The rest is up to you (the audience) to ensure that Pakistani films such as NMA and Operation 021 do well at the box office and ensure that Eidul-Azha becomes a Pakistani film weekend,” stated the producer of the film, Fizza Ali Meerza.

The cast of the film comprises of veteran actors Javed Sheikh, Salman Shahid, renowned TV actor Fahad Mustafa along with newcomers Mohsin Abbas Haider and VJ Urwa Hocane.

NMA tells the story of Karachi and the chaos and madness that encircles the lives of the main characters played by Javed Sheikh, Fahad Mustafa and Mohsin Abbas Haider. The director was all praise for the cast and crew of the film and further stated that, “the unique selling point of the film is that it is a completely made in Pakistan film.”

To questions about how the film seems similar to several Indian films such as Hera Pheri and Delhi Belly, Nabeel Qureshi confidently answered, “Pakistani audiences are not used to seeing quality products when it comes to Pakistani films and whenever they see a film that is visually brilliant they tend to assume that it has either been made by or in India. We can assure you that it is  completely made in Pakistan.”



The event primarily served the purpose of a music launch for the movie but no song generated as much interest like that of the item song, ‘Billi’. The movie had already generated a lot of buzz when the news had broken that it would be featuring an item song performed by television actress, Mehwish Hayat.

The soundtrack of the film comprises of nine songs of which seven have been composed by the famed duo of Shani-Kami.

Javed Sheikh was of the opinion that this film would be a game changer in the Pakistani film industry commenting, “The film has a different story and is 100% original. If our dramas can be better than Indian TV serials then so can our films.”

The movie has already garnered a tremendous amount of exhibitor interest but cinema owners seem to be in a dilemma about which film to screen. The announcement to release the film on Eidul-Azha has not only taken cinemagoers by surprise but cinema owners as well.

An official of Capri cinema stated that they have signed a priority contract when it comes to the release of Pakistani films but they have already entered into a similar agreement with the producer of Operation 021 and due to a shortage of screens in Capri they might have problems accommodating NMA.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2014.

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