Parey Hut Love - Movie Review

By Hamza Shafique (Instagram / Facebook)

Since the revival of Pakistani Cinema , Dubai cinemas on Eid ul Adha are dominated by major releases from Lollywood. It almost feels like Pakistani movies have found their right time and space in Dubai movie scene. So for this Eid we are having two very interesting releases and I chose to go first with "Parey Hut Love", simply because I loved Ho Mann Jahan and was desperately waiting for Asim Raza's next movie. With this one I was expecting a simple story of complicated characters, visually pleasing and beautifully coordinated scenes, brilliant performances and entertaining music. And I am happy to say that Asim Raza's vision is a pleasant experience and the visual spectacular that he created made me forget all the flaws it has in its storytelling.

"Parey Hut Love" is about two flawed individuals who are so influenced by their circumstances that they become villains in their own love story. Narrative is interesting but incoherent and has tonal inconsistency throughout, which is very evident in the beginning but the middle act and climax gets better. It seems like Asim had few scenes in mind and then he built the narrative around them. Direction is brilliant for the most part and every frame is beautiful. Scenes are choreographed, directed and shot esthetically. So many directors have shot Kashmir and Northern Areas of Pakistan but I have never seen it before the way Asim has presented it. The status of this movie will drop many levels if you take out the creative eye and visual brilliance of Asim out of this movie.

This movie is a Shehryar Munawar show whose performance for the most part is brilliant and the scenes where it is not, I blame it on the tonal inconsistency. Maya Ali is also convincing. It was a delight to watch Nadeem Baig after a long time on screen in a role that matches his stature. There is a scene where he narrates a poem and that's the highlight of this whole show for me. Zara Noor Abbas is so good but this is the second film she is doing the same kind of Bushra Ansari inspired character and it's so evident that she has the screen presence and talent to do much more.

Music is also a big positive here and songs are placed appropriately throughout. Cameos by stars like Meera, Fawad Khan and Sonya Jahan are fun. Mahira Khan is refreshing and her song More Saiyan is beautiful.
Ho Mann Jahan had the same issues and had the same positives, that by the end you just remember the visuals, performances, music and complex characters that narrative flaws doesn’t seem to matter at the end. I really enjoyed my time at cinema and was engaged for the most part. Just like Fawad Khan says in the movie "Logon ko maza karao, jeena mat sikhao' (entertain people, don't teach them how to live)" , I believe this is exactly what Asim is trying to do here, I highly recommend "Parey Hut Love" this eid.