Dobara Phir Se is a good-looking film and it has a good-looking cast. New York (where most of the film is shot) looks green and leafy and beautiful. Karachi looks pristine – even its non-Defence and Clifton parts (unlike Nabeel Qureshi’s Na Maloom Afraad and Actor-In-Law where the city’s character truly came through, both warts and beauty spots intact)
ThefinalCUT
Dobara Phir Se doesn’t have enough in it to make you watch it phir se.
*ing: Adeel Hussain, Hareem Farooq, Sanam Saeed, Ali Kazmi, Tooba Siddiqui
Directed by Mehreen Jabbar
Dobara Phir Se is a good-looking film and it has a good-looking cast. New York (where most of the film is shot) looks green and leafy and beautiful. Karachi looks pristine – even its non-Defence and Clifton parts (unlike Nabeel Qureshi’s Na Maloom Afraad and Actor-In-Law where the city’s character truly came through, both warts and beauty spots intact). The acting is fine all around, the music is hummable, and it just might hit the mark for the white-collar, English-medium non-resident Pakistani set (this is clearly not meant for the Pakistani day labourer in Dubai or the cab-driver in New York) if they are looking for a reflection of themselves on the big screen or if they are in a nostalgic mood. The movie even comes complete with a wedding song-and-dance sequence that should be familiar to the NRPs who often descend en masse to the fabled homeland at the height of the winter wedding season and return before the day-to-day realities of life in Pakistan can sink in.
But there isn’t enough meat on the bones here. The characters are relatable (at least for the more affluent amongst us) – even the minor characters are well-etched - and there are no melodramatic unrealistic scenarios but you can’t help but feel that the problems of our might-be/wannabe lovers are largely self-inflicted and don’t amount to a hill of beans in this modern-day crazy world of ours. Then the whole will-they-won’t-they scenario just drags on too long and almost to the point of past caring (there is no real suspense how the whole thing is going to play out in any case). Chopping 30 minutes off would have given the movie a much sharper edge. There is also nothing in the story itself which merits it being set in New York. The snigger-inducing in-your-face product placements don’t help either.
From the movie’s promos I had hopes for Dobara Phir Se to be a generation-defining moment - for at least a certain segment of Pakistani society - a la Dil Chahta Hai. Unfortunately, the movie falls well short of that mark. I may be coming across harsher than I intend to because the movie, ultimately, is an okay watch but it also won’t make anybody rush to see it again.
Cut to chase: Glossy sheen aside this is not much more than a minor tele-drama.
– Kmumtaz1@hotmail.com; Twitter: @KhusroMumtaz
Rating system: *Not on your life ** Hardly worth the bother ** ½ Okay for a slow afternoon only *** Good enough for a look see
*** ½ Recommended viewing **** Don’t miss it **** ½ Almost perfect ***** Perfection
