Daghabaaz Dil, one of the two Urdu movies to release this Eid, had more people coming into cinema halls than Junaid Khan’s starrer comedy number, Hum Tum Aur Wo. The director seemed to have messed up with the final product in order to please all stake holders: mixing a family wedding with brothers fighting for property, a conniving phupoo (father’s sister) with her equally poisonous daughter, an over confident leading lady, a pinch of Lahore’s theatre comedy, fake friends, death of a beloved and a djinn who eventually becomes the villain.
The film stars Mehwish Hayat and Ali Rehman Khan in pivotal roles; a successful leading pair of Lollywood. Ali plays Faris; a clear-headed UK returned gentle Karachi boy whose priority is family. When asked to marry his uncle’s daughter whom he met 20 years ago, he agrees. But Mehwish Hayat does an ‘already been enacted in Bollywood’ role as Zoya, with shades of Kareena Kapoor’s Geet from Jab We Met (2007), she comes to know about her own marriage at the eleventh hour and for her bringing peace among long-feuding families seems secondary. Faris also has a mysterious friend called Moon whom he occasionally consults; played by Momin Saqib, the character turns out to be a djinn and the role evolves over time.
Daghabaaz Dil also features former film heroes Babar Ali and Saleem Shaikh both playing Beo Raana Zafar’s sons who are at each other’s throats constantly. To repair the damaged relationship of her two sons Babar Ali and Saleem Shaikh, Beo Raana Zafar comes up with idea of marriage between her grandchildren which seemed like masterstroke until Momin Saqib shifted gears.
Babar Ali has been appearing regularly in supporting roles since The Legend of Maula Jatt but Saleem Shaikh is coming back to the big screen. Tazeen Hussain, daughter of veteran film and television actor Talat Hussain, makes her film debut as sister of the fighting duo and herself a leading lady of late 90s and early 2000s she recently made comeback on television in 2022 and shines in role written for her; her acting compliments Michelle Mumtaz’s character who also wants to marry Faris.
It seemed from the trailer of the film that Mehwish Hayat’s character Zoya is in hurry to get married to Faris due to ominous shadow cast by the djinn however the movie seemed like routine Eid film of songs dances and happiness until the plot gets complicated.
Kareem has mortgaged his house to gangsters Pappi and Chummi (a cameo appearance by comedians Iftikhar Thakur and Qaisar Piya) while the spell to scare away the djinn also backfires. The fighting duo’s sister who played central role in first half disappears in second half and seemed like she was kept out of storyline to give Moon some space. The lad did manage to show his devilish charm eccentricity as well as helplessness as a djinn eventually losing out to his friend for good. The djinn angle may seem awkward for an Eid film but more awkward was introduction of Pappi and Chummi which ended even before they were properly introduced.
Where the wedding is concerned, the cinematography was good. The film showed Karachi beautifully; the director of Karachi se Lahore, made sure that Lahore got its due share. When the camera revolves around the lead pair and Moon is shown talking to Zoya as Faris, it could have been a brave attempt to redo the classic climax scene from Veer Zara where camera shows aging of SRK and Priety Zinta but editing and camera placing is done badly. They could not recreate a scene which was done by Yash Chopra some twenty years ago.
Music of the film by Aashir Wajahat (the kid from Karachi se Lahore, John) and Hassan Ali, is pretty average, except from the dance number Gori Tera Jhumka. The soundtrack was actually short of a few songs, as it could have strengthened the narrative with a couple more.
Co-written by Wajahat Rauf and Mohsin Ali, the film reminded us of many wedding movies from recent past. Punjab Nahi Jaaongi, Load wedding and London Nahi Jaonga all featuring Mehwish Hayat she has most screen time to herself but Momin Saqib -host turned youtuber turned actor did complete justice to a role which seemed forced into a romcom.Ali Rehman Khan managed to engage audience in some scenes, like Wajahat Rauf’s Pardey me Rehnay do he was good in bringing few tears to viewers.
Overall Daghabaaz Dil is only viable option available till Baqr-Eid so won’t do much harm watching it once or twice. We have seen some badly produced films by Pakistani filmmakers since The Legend of Maula Jatt and Daghabaaz Dil definitely isn’t one of those.
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