ZARRAR - JOHN WICK MEETS TIGER ZINDA HAI IN CHOPPY WORLD OF CINEMA

  • 03 Dec - 09 Dec, 2022
  • Mag The Weekly
  • Reviews

The Criticality of Zarrar for Shaan Shahid

Shaan Shahid is known for patriotic films. Shaan is one of the most decorated actors of Pakistani film industry. Zarrar, which is Shaan Shahid’s latest venture, was in news for quite some time and his fans were waiting for this film to release. Zarrar was in discussions for multiple reasons; production value and technical advancements were a few among those. The movie features Nadeem Baig, Nayyer Aijaz, Kiran Malick, Rasheed Naz and Adnan Butt in pivotal characters besides Shaan himself, who plays the titular character of Zarrar. It is written and directed by Shaan Shahid. Previously, Shaan was seen in Arth 2 which didn’t perform well at the box office, prior to that Yalghaar also didn’t do much at the box office – this time Shaan Shahid needed to bounce higher. The notable hit that Shaan gave was Waar (2013) unfortunately after that neither 021 (2014) nor Yalghaar (2017) impressed the audiences.

The Story:

The film revolves around – Zarrar (obviously). He is a dedicated and passionate soldier for whom nothing comes before his motherland and he will go to any and every extreme to safeguard Pakistan. It won’t be wrong to call him One-Man-Army as he needs no only besides him to shatter the confidence of ill-wishers of Pakistan and break their bones in a jiffy. Zarrar goes through a severe accident that changes his life and way of thinking. He becomes a totally different version of himself and his only accomplice is his mentor Major (Nadeem). Together they achieve their targets by eliminating the bad factors of the society that can potentially harm Pakistan. The story also revolves around how India and Afghanistan with the help of foreigners try to demolish Pakistan and how politicians, journalists, religious scholars, external threats and business men play integral part in selling Pakistan off and cause the internal damage. What happens next is all that Zarrar is about.

Shaan “John Wick” Shahid

Since Shaan is playing the titular character in Zarrar, the film is all about Shaan flaunting his heroism and swag. From close-ups to long shots, it is all about Shaan. There are some other characters in the film but they either have limited dialogues or they are featured with half-heartedness. Shaan is showcased as one tough cookie who breaks the bones, who moves like a flash and who can beat up everyone, irrespective of the number of opponents; exactly how Keanu Reeves did in John Wick; the only problem is, it doesn’t look believable. Zarrar’s punches and kicks are faster than bullets and knives. There are scenes where Shaan tries too hard to look the character but the days of Waar have gone and it is about time that he selects mature roles to play.

Rest of The Cast of Zarrar:

Kiran Malick looks good in a few scenes, she is gorgeous, naturally alluring and have strong screen presence. Kiran will be a good addition in Pakistani Film industry if she chooses the right kind of characters. She is an actor to look out for. Nadeem Baig looks a little fatigued; he is a legendary actor and needs no direction that’s why his delivery is decent besides very clichéd dialogues. Nayyer Ejaz is loud and not believable, besides being a fabulous actor. Shafqat Cheema impresses in a short lived character. Adnan Butt looks mammoth, and delivers his dialogues decently.

Narrative and Pace

The narrative of Zarrar is hard to believe. It lacks luster. There are dialogues which reminds of films like Waar, Tere Pyaar Mein and 021 but they aren’t half impactful. It is about time that filmmakers should work on scripts with strong narratives and depictions should be realistic. The pace of the film is very slow. Flashbacks are lengthy and unnecessarily increase the run-time of the movie. The logic is still a question mark, when I recall the scenes from Zarrar. The film fails to engage audiences and they lose interest very quickly.

Direction and Cinematography:

Besides the poor lip-sync and dubbing, the direction of Zarrar is super sloppy. Scenes must have been sounded great when narrated but what audiences watch on screen is a mess and very rushed. There are jerks in camera-work that kill the chase and action sequences. They could have looked amazingly great, only if the camera had captured those scenes decently. Direction is amateurish and editing is poor. The connection between the scenes is totally abrupt. At places, cinematography looks impressive but those are farfetched.

Final Word:

Zarrar is a good opportunity that is missed. The film could have been better if the direction, editing and performances were better – unfortunately Zarrar is a yawnful affair that is slow-paced, dragged, uninteresting and looks like a hurriedly shot movie that offers no take-home memories. In fact, right after 15 to 20 minutes audiences crave for something of excitement to watch onscreen but drastically fail to keep them interested and invested in the film. •

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