Janaan Film Review and Premier in London

Janaan Review: Janaan (meaning beloved) is a 2016 Pakistani romantic comedy film directed by Azfar Jafri, written by Osman Khalid Butt, and co-produced by Hareem Farooq, Reham Khan, Munir Hussain and Imran Raza Kazmi under production banners of IRK Films and Munir Hussain Films – UK. The film stars Armeena Khan, Bilal Ashraf, and Ali Rehman Khan in lead roles.

The film was released in Pakistan by ARY Films on 12th September 2016 (Eid al-Adha). B4U Films distributed the film Internationally.

About a month ago I interviewed the main Janaan cast here in London on the lovely Carnaby Street.

Premier in London

Janaan had its superstar European premier here in London on 13th September 2016. It was an extravagant red carpet event attended by guests like Aini Jafri, Asad Shan, Waqar Ali Khan and Haroon Rashid (Awaz).

Amongst the cast, Osman Khalid Butt, Hareem Farooq, Bilal Ashraf, Ali Rehman Khan, Armeena Khan, Hania Amir and Usman Mukhtar graced the red carpet. Interviews were then conducted and the cast was seen giving all their time to fan photography and selfies.

Myself With Hareem Farooq (the co-producer)

‘They were all very friendly’ said one of the attenders.

I had a long chat with Osman Khalid Butt, the writer of the movie.

“This movie has been made with a lot of heart”, he said. This was yet to be witnessed by myself as the screening was later on.

I then met up with Hareem Farooq, no we did not talk about the film as Hareem is a fiend of my sister’s and all we did was exchange numbers. She looked beautiful in white shalwar kameez, keeping intact, the Pakistani culture and tradition.

Myself With Osman Khalid Butt (the writer)

I then had a chat with Asad Shan, who is a british born actor and is a great advocate of Pakistani movies.

‘I grew up watching Pakistani movies as my dad loves Sultan Rahi” he said.

Juice drinks were served as pop corns awaited us at the Super Screen of Cineworld O2 Centre, Greenwich.

Watch live Periscope broadcast Of the premier below by The London Tree.

Adnan Kundi of The London Tree with Haroon (lead singer Awaz)

Adnan Kundi of The London Tree with Waqar Ali Khan

Janaan Review: What Are My Thoughts?

Although I had the worst seat in house and ended up having the worst headache and a sore neck, I still loved the movie! I’m planning to go again with my family and watch it, properly. Rant over :p

Janaan is about Meena, a girl who returns to her native city of Swat from Canada after 11 years. Its a beautiful, mountainous, hilly, green part of Pakistan, often referred to as the Switzerland of Pakistan ( I do not agree as its much more beautiful). Upon her return she’s faced with a mixture of love, problems, family issues and many other things. Janaan is a very simple yet a beautiful love story. Rest, you must go to your nearest cinema and watch it yourself.

10 Things I Loved About Janaan

1- One of the main things the world knows about Pakistan is that it has beautiful Northern Areas. But little do they know what people belonging to these areas are like. Although many may disagree, its a movie and its not perfect, but to a great extent, it puts the pashtoon culture out in the open. It shows that people up north are also educated and it puts aside the misconceptions many people may have.

2- It puts the Pashto language in a prominent spotlight, which is again, not widely known by the world. The poetry in the songs and dialogues are just mesmerising.

3- It was lovely to see Swat again after so many years. I visited Swat in the year 1991 with my mum, dad and siblings. Although its been such a long time but I still remember it. It brought back many lovely memories. The picturesque views of Swat valley have been beautifully captured by the camera.

4- The humour. You know when its a script by Osman Khalid Butt, it has to be full of unique humour. That’s what he’s known for. (Watch the Humsafar parody on youtube and you’ll know what I mean hehe).

5 – Janaan songs. Although at first I was skeptical as to why they have not used Pakistani singers for this film. But I realised that to bring the 2 countries closer, it is important to work together and collaborate. Also, we can’t deny, there are some things like playback singing, that they do a bit better than us so why not?

The songs are actually amazing. They’ve been composed by Salim-Sulaiman, Ahmed Ali & Taha Malik.

The title song has been sung none other than Shreya Ghoshal and Armaan Malik. They’veve done great justice to the song.

Although my favourite one was the Pashto song, Reid e Gul sung by Yusra Iqbal and Awais Niazi. What a beautiful piece of poetry.

6- Its a very simple movie, without any item songs or raunchy scenes/dialogues. Its a complete family movie.

7- It also very softly touches the subject of child abuse.

8- It was amazing to see people from my school in the film. My Karate teacher, Sir Jalaal Khan (plays Daniyal’s father). There are also other people from my school like Hareem Farooq (producer) and Fahad Panni (played Meena’s father). The few mentions of Islamabad brought back beautiful memories. Gosh, time flies!

9- It was also great to see some actors from the yesteryears, the 90s, particularly Ajab Gul and Mishi Khan.

10- The entire cast. I don’t think anyone else could have done a better job. They were all just perfect for their respective roles. And yes! The movie has been edited by Mitesh Soni, another great Indo-Pak collaboration.

As we speak, Janaan has hit Number 8 on Box Office. Its the 1st Pakistani movie ever to do so. So its breaking some records.

In the end, take your family and go watch this movie, its a total family oriented movie highly recommended even for kids. Do all that you can for the revival of Pakistani cinema. We are less than no one.

I hope you liked this Janaan Review.

Read Here One To One InterView With Armeena Khan, Ali Rehman Khan and Bilal Ashraf

Some photos from the one to one interview last month