Romance is in the air in this Ready Steady No number that takes you back into the Golden era of Pakistani films. Unlike modern songs, those songs had a long life, were hummed and sung when necessary and above all, looked good on screen without any ‘effects’ or ‘fake’ additions. Let’s go through the song and find out what makes it more worthy of our attention that those that rely on gimmicks including being labeled an item!
Rahma Ali, Hisham Bin Munawar sound simple, yet effective.
When was the last time you listened to a Pakistani film duet twice in a row just to be sure that it was a Pakistani filmi duet? Way back in the 1990s when you had Amjad Bobby, M Arshad, and Wajid Ali Nashad as leading composers, Tehseen Javed, Mehnaz, Shazia Manzoor and others as playback singers and directors who knew how to film a song. This Hisham Bin Munawar and Rahma Ali song falls in the same category as they use their vocals sensibly instead of going all-modern with club setting where people dance their heart out for no reason. This soothing number keeps you engrossed because of its simplicity & effectiveness, at the same time.
The lead pair has proper chemistry!
They don’t run around in rain like crazy, they don’t hug each other unnecessarily, they don’t dance together to give the modern-day cinegoers a touch of ‘their’ reality. Instead, Faisal Saif and Amna Ilyas move around the city as a normal couple, just looking at each other and falling in love every passing second. When Faisal’s character looks into her beloved’s eyes, you can see the love for her is real; similarly, when they are on the roof trying to get away from the world, she uses her sexiness to calm him without being vulgar. That’s the kind of Pakistani film we have been waiting for, not the ones that are in the cinema for all the wrong reasons!
It looks more like a ’70s song than a modern one – in a good way!
Baqir Abbas’s direction is certainly at par with that of Shiraz Uppal because they both have the filmi touch, the one that is more in Bollywood these days and not in Pakistan. Although the song has been written and composed by the film’s director and song’s vocalist Hisham Bin Munawar, it has been mixed and mastered by Akash Pervaiz under Hassan Badshah’s supervision. You don’t get to see one violin creating the effect here but multiple ones just as they do in a small orchestra, something that used to be our specialty back in the day.
No dance, no problem!
What? No dance? Are they even real? For those who always wondered where the crowd went when Rishi Kapoor and Tina Munim were left alone in the room in Dard e Dil Dard e Jigar in Subhash Ghai’s Karz forty years back, here is the answer. When you are in love and roaming around the city with your beloved, then nothing else exists for the couple. The director has captured the ‘romance is in the air’ perfectly and if you don’t believe it, go out with your loved one and you will know what I mean.
Faisal Saif reminds of the other Faisal
Remember Faisal Rehman from Nahin Abhi Nahi, who strolled around the park, rode a bicycle in slow motion, travelled in a wagon and ventured into the city on foot because he was in love with someone other than himself? This new Faisal, Faisal Saif, reminds you of the other Faisal as he resembles him a lot, both physically and mentally. Yes, he might have a beard and a mustache but that doesn’t change the person he is emulating, unconsciously. One hopes that he gets to dance around in another song of the film, because that’s what Faisal 1.0 was more famous for in his later flicks.
Amna Ilyas weaves magic with unlimited charm
I could give you one million reasons to watch Ready Steady No but if you ask me to pick one, it would be Amna Ilyas, the kind of Pakistani heroine we need in films. She isn’t fair as per other directors’ standards but is lovely to be around because wherever she goes, she creates magic with her persona. As a supermodel, she has won hearts by walking the ramp but here, by just taking a simple stroll with her man, she has broken hearts in a good way. She has the charm that made yesteryear actresses desirable; in fact, her era might be beginning soon because before this film, she will have Baaji as a major release and we all are looking forward to that as well.
Dekho Dekho makes us wait for Ready, Steady, No!
The film is helmed by an unknown director, features a lesser known actor as the male lead, gives TV actress Nargis Rasheed a chance to act in films after 40 years on the smaller screen, presents handsome hunk Zain Afzal as a moulvi and uses Marhoom Ahmed Bilal as a lawyer after his crazy performance in Teefa In Trouble. Would you go and watch the film that has all that, and Dekho Dekho as a song with nostalgic value? Of course, I would and we all should because the more young blood we introduce in our films, the better. That’s how we will go for clean comedies and family entertainment than the ones that market themselves as family entertainment and end up ruining the family’s mood.
