I got the DVD of the said movie last friday and watched it promptly. Here’s my take on it.
First the bad stuff:
The movie is kinda choppy in the storytelling. Character development is weaker compared to the novel. The book does not intend to shock but does so just the way the story is told. The movie, on the other hand, seems to try too hard to shock the audience (an example is the club scenes). The acting is a bit sketchy at times too.
The movie is so thoroughly Pakistani that the movie uses Pakistani English spellings where possible. An example is looser for loser - that just made my day, how could they miss that.
The good stuff:
Excellent production, creative direction and camera shooting. The actor who plays Daru grows and changes throughtout the movie. Ayesha Alam is perhaps the best actor in the whole movie. Also, it was a nice surprise to see veterans like Usman Peerzada etc drop by. The soundtrack was also wicked - very, very good choices.
All in all, the movie is not as good as the book but compared to Lollywood movies, it at least a thousand times better but it still has to go some way before matching some of our past drama standards. If some more people follow the trend and do more work like this, we will be seeing some real gems soon.
Lastly, a plug for desistore. I ordered the DVD off Desistore - my order was lost in the mail. I called up the lady, she was extremely pleasant and offered to send me a replacement copy without any fuss whatsoever. The DVD only costs like 12-13 dollars. So, I would strongly recommend to everyone (those who can afford to) that they buy the DVD - to enourage the guys behind the innovation if for nothing else. If we don’t support our industry, other people won’t be doing that. It is imperative for the health of our film and TV industry that we support and encourage such initiatives.