‘Doctor Strange still better than Rishtay’

Amidst the tussle between ‘Doctor Strange’ and five latest Pakistani movies, a trailer for another upcoming local film has been released, which has inclined many to give a second thought to their stance that Hollywood films should not make it at all to Pakistani cinemas.

With the trailer of Rishtay, as the film is named, having been officially released, a lot of people who were initially protesting against Hollywood films have now started saying that if this was the kind of content which filmmakers were producing for the Pakistani audience, then Doctor Strange would be a much better film for them.

The poster for ‘Rishtay’ rather funnily takes its inspiration from the Bollywood family drama ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’, and also promises a story of three generations incompatible with each other. From its trailer, ‘Rishtay’ is suggestive of a melodrama with not even a single recognizable young face to look forward to, which seems to be quite a big risk taken by the director. Other than that, cheap music mostly making it to disco numbers in posh areas’ underground clubs is also a big low, adding to the many reasons why more and more people would choose not to watch it.

Directed and produced by Malik M. Nawaz Khan, ‘Rishtay’ may not be a low-budgeted film as can be observed from the lavish houses and luxury cars which are there in its trailer, but the amount of money spent on it also does not seem to suffice for the poor content which it is bringing for the Pakistani audience. The very title is something which Pakistanis are not ready to buy after what they are being provided on platforms like Amazon and Netflix.

While the storyline may seem relevant to what still happens in some Pakistani families, the StarPlus sound effects and glaring lighting together steal the little originality left in the film.

Some notable people from the industry coupled with new, emerging, and educated filmmakers of Pakistan also re-shared the trailer of the film on their respective social media accounts, saying that Pakistani producers really needed to up their game if they were hell-bent upon getting Hollywood films banned.