Lollywood's leading director Syed Noor and actor turned producer Saima's much-hyped film 'Majajan' is scoring big at the box office. Compared to recent releases, the movie seems to have captured the imagination of women. So the movie's charm for the entire family is likely to drive it towards being a mega-hit.
This is a tragic love story, and its star cast includes Shan, Saima, Madiha Shah, Shafqat Cheema, Rashid Mehmood, Saud, Iktikhar Thakur and Adeeb.
Syed Noor is essentially a romantic man. This romanticism finds expression in most of his work and 'Majajan' is no exception and to make it was Syed Noor's passion.
According to Noor, whose writer wife Rukhsana has done the script - the inspiration behind the theme comes from the famous mystic Baba Bulleh Shah's renditions on ishq (love). This is perhaps the first time that a Lollywood director has turned a mystic theme into a full-blown blockbuster.
The movie is also Saima's debut as a producer, though she continues to rule the roost as the leading lady as well. To turn it into a masterpiece, Saima has at no point cut corners. Good family entertainment is now rarely produced by Lollywood, and Reema's 'Koi Tujh Sa Kahan', Javed Sheikh's Yeh Dil Aap Ka Huwa' and Shehzad Rafique's 'Salahkein' are indeed exceptions. Majajan is up there with them in terms of its appeal. If it ends up inspiring others to make similar flicks, Lollywood may turn the corner yet again.
The entire movie is about Shan and Saima. In contrast with his image, Shan is a soft lead in this moive. Both Saima and Shan have worked together dozens of times, but because of its purely romantic theme this flick is different. An already married Syedzada, played by Shan, falls for the looks and voice of a poor village singer Tari. Tari has also loves Syedzada but conscious of her lower caste, she refrains from admitting it. Bulleh Shah's theme of ishq is a source of inspiration for Syedzada, and he dances like a malang. This melts Tari's heart.
Madiha Shah, making a comeback after a few years in the wilderness, plays the jilted wife excellently. There are 10 songs in this film, about four more than the norm, probably because a romantic movie required these many. Composer is Zulfikar Ali while the lyricists are Aqeel Ruby, Rukhsana Noor, Khursheed Kamal and Khawaja Pervaiz. The songs are mostly situational and pretty, reviving the memory of musical hits 'Pattan', 'Mukhrra', 'Naji', 'Ishq-e-Laila', 'Yakkey Wali' and 'Kartar Singh'.
On the technical side, breaking the trend, 'Majajan' is purely Pakistani - it involves no Indian singer, composer, choreographer, lyricist, cinematographer or artistes. Except the processing work completed in Bangkok (this is a DTS film), the rest has been done here and done well -
a tribute to the skills of the Pakistanis.
