London Nahi Jaunga – Worth a watch or not? Scroll down to read FUCHSIA’s in-depth review of the film.
Jahan per tumko rakha tha
Wahan per heart hota hai
Mohabbat science hotee hai
Bicherna art hota hai
The Story
Chaudhry Jameel wants to marry someone from outside Pakistan but his family is forcing him to get engaged to his cousin Arzoo. As he is about to get engaged (reluctantly), enters Sara from London who not only scores high on the hotness and sexy scale but is also very mysterious. Jameel bhai loses all his senses and madly falls for Sara unaware of the deadly secret behind Sara which will make it impossible for him to marry her. How are Sara and Jameel connected, what dark secrets are their families hiding? To seek a solution and win Sara’s heart, Jameel ends up going to London.
The Good
The narrative delivers romance, drama, dark secrets, family mysteries and a great and pertinent message about women and their rights.
The movie projects this message without making it preachy. Through interesting storytelling, London Nahi Jaunga will make you question societal perspectives that we are often conditioned to accept as norms and if they really give women equal rights.
London Nahi Jaunga is an original Pakistani story, which, by default, makes for an interesting watch. You kind of know what will happen, but you are not sure how it will happen and you keep watching to find out.
Romance-deprived audiences get a full-fledged love story – a true aashiq, and a zalim samaaj as well, making London Nahi Jaunga a love story to remember for many of us.
We get to see Bahalwapur in a different light. Some locations are breathtakingly picturesque which is a refreshing change from watching the same old locations in a majority of the productions. The production quality is also great.
We get to experience a few well-executed action scenes and enjoy watching Humayun Saeed, an out-and-out entertainer, playing the traditional hero and saving the damsel in distress in one of them.
The movie portrays both Sara and Arzoo, as strong, determined, and independent women with sound values and showing respect for their elders, which is great for creating role models for young girls. Neither of them compromises on their respect for the sake of love -again, a message that will go down well with young audiences.
What Could Have Been Improved?
Despite carrying an engaging and original story, the film failed to achieve a strong climax. Towards the end, the story fell flat and we knew what will happen next. So while the narrative kept us hooked throughout the movie, it lost us towards the end, with a weak and slightly unreasonable twist that didn’t seem to make sense?
The editing could have been smoother, the scenes sometimes jumped ever too abruptly from one shot to another.
Lip syncing in songs was a disappointment. A large part of the impact of the song was lost upon us because it just didn’t seem to go well with the actors performing them. They seemed to be mumbling the lyrics rather than singing them out loud clearly which at times, was also very frustrating.
Chaudhry Jameel played by Humayun Saeed is very pushy with Sara. He refuses to take a ‘no’ from her, telling her again and again that she loves him but just doesn’t want to accept it. With the conversations now changing towards what is consent and how respecting a woman’s refusal is important, this definitely did not sit well. We cannot show repeated persistence as romance any longer. We hope, going forward we can witness this change in our scripts.
Where Sara and Arzoo make you proud that the script depicted strong female characters, Chaudhry Jameel himself is a bit disappointing. Was the film trying to show a soft, accepting man as opposed to someone who is controlling and macho? Well, then somewhere amidst the characterization, you lost us because we felt Jameel lacked the strength we wanted to see in a hero. He ended up being obsessive without being aggressive, refusing to take a NO, very confused, and had zero plan of action. His character failed to touch our hearts and motivate us to root for him.
While we love our stars and love to watch them on the big screen, we now need to move to the next level (and purely for the sake of building Pakistani Cinema), to begin casting actors around characters and not the other way round. More appropriate casting is the foundation of good storytelling. Actors who work on their physical endurance and appearances, keeping the character in mind, who work to own the role, to slip into the skin of that character should be the foremost priority rather than taking it for granted that a big name will be able to fit all characters.
The wardrobe department needed to be upgraded. Wardrobe that compliments a character must be a priority which seems to be lacking in this film in several scenes, making some of the actors appear unflattering.
Not one, not two, but three slaps… wohoo… and we ask why, why, why?
All three situations could have easily replaced the slap with a strong rebuttal or reaction. But alas, even the best of the industry fall prey to the curse of ‘thappars’ sensationalism.
Given it was a Khalil Ur Rehman script, we anticipated thought-provoking dialogues and heart-winning phrases but unfortunately, we didn’t quite there in London Nahi Jaunga.
The Performances
Mehwish Hayat stands out in the film as the strong, beautiful, independent Sara. She is provocative at some places, at others, confused, trying to be indifferent, and then, mostly simply, a daughter consumed by a single-minded desire for revenge. She delivers dialogue with just the right mix of feeling and expression that evoke strong emotions as she confronts multiple characters in Sara’s life.
Sohail Ahmed Sahib deserves special mention. He is not your typical dominating father figure. He is humourous and has a very endearing relationship with his son. Sohail sahib makes you smile throughout the movie with his performance and dialogues.
If you are a fan of Humayun Saeed, look out for some great fight sequences. Jameel is not your typical aggressive and egoistic jageerdar, he is actually very mellow, quiet obedient, and very simple. And Humayun Saeed delivers all these characteristics.
Kubra Khan as Arzoo has a sad, poetic aura about her and Kubra portrays that with a fine subtlety that actually tugs at your heart strings. Kubra looks beautiful and her depiction of Arzoo’s silent strength was a win-win moment throughout the movie.
Gohar is a versatile actor and he delivers his character as Jameel’s sidekick with the right mix of humour, cheeky-smart comments, and a silly, nonserious attitude.
Verdict
London Nahi Jaunga is an original love story with a strong message and emotions. It deserves a one-time watch with your family, friends, and of course, a bag of popcorn.
