Okay, this is not what we expected Inspector Jamshed to look like – and we mean that in the best possible way.
The trailer for Inspector Jamshed has finally dropped, and if there was any lingering doubt about whether Pakistan could pull off a proper big-screen spy adventure, this trailer is certainly trying to answer it. Based on the beloved Inspector Jamshed novels by Ishtiaq Ahmed, the film takes a character generations of readers grew up with and drops him into a world of secret societies, murders, dangerous missions, guns, cars, explosions and enough action to make it very clear that this is not a quiet detective story.
And honestly? The scale is what immediately catches your attention.
Directed by Fahd Nur, the film stars Omair Rana as Inspector Jamshed, with Ahad Raza Mir stepping into the role of Behzaad, who appears to be the central antagonist. And Ahad looks like he is having way too much fun playing the bad guy. There is something particularly interesting about seeing him on the other side of the moral line, especially when the trailer gives us just enough of Behzaad to make him feel dangerous without giving away everything about what he is actually planning.
Omair Rana, meanwhile, has a very different presence as Jamshed. He isn’t playing the character like some over-the-top action hero; there is a seriousness and restraint to him that makes the whole thing feel more grounded. And considering Inspector Jamshed is such a familiar character to readers of Ishtiaq Ahmed, that balance matters. This isn’t just a random new spy character — there is already a built-in legacy attached to that name.
The trailer itself is packed. Fast cars, shootouts, explosions, mysterious clues, secret organisations and some seriously slick-looking locations give IJ a scale that we don’t often get to see in Pakistani cinema. The film was shot in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and you can see that international ambition all over the trailer.
But what makes it more interesting is that beneath all that action, there seems to be an actual story holding it together.
At the centre is a mysterious parchment and a string of murders, while Jamshed’s investigation appears to pull his family into the danger as well. The trailer hints at the kind of family stakes that could give all those explosions a little more emotional weight. Anoushay Abbasi plays Shakeela Begum, while Asif Raza Mir appears as Jamshed’s trusted friend Khan Rehman.
And then there is the action.
We have been promised plenty of it, and the trailer certainly isn’t holding back. There are gunfights, car chases, explosions and the kind of dramatic set pieces that make you wonder just how much of the film is actually hiding behind those two-and-a-half minutes. It feels ambitious, and more importantly, it feels like the team actually knows what kind of movie it wants to make.
One thing I particularly loved, though? The accents.
There are no distracting, forced “foreign” accents being thrown around simply because the characters are in an international setting. Everyone sounds natural, which honestly makes such a difference. Instead of trying too hard to make the film look international by changing the way everyone speaks, the trailer lets the production, locations and story do that work. And that makes the whole thing feel much more believable.
So, is the trailer enough to convince us?
Honestly, yes — at least for now.
IJ: Inspector Jamshed – The Secret Parchment looks slick, ambitious and much bigger than we were expecting. Whether the actual film can match the scale of its trailer is obviously another question, but this first look has done exactly what a trailer is supposed to do: it has made us curious.
And now we need to know what the hell is on that parchment.
The rest of the ensemble cast includes Faran Tahir, Asif Raza Mir, Ravel Imran, Ahmad Harkous, Aline Harkous, Jad Hadid, Daria Zhabska, Mohamed Abdel Rahman Ibrahim Mohamed (Rik Aby), Casey Shannon, Pahal Samyani, Orli Shuka, Eri Shuka, Kevin Hutchinson, Wisaam Farhat, Farzana Palathingal, Keith Dallison.