Laal Kabootar Trailer Review: Gritty, Raw and Powerful

After watching the Laal Kabootar teaser, released a few months back, one could almost smell the dirt and diesel exhaust fumes emanating from the screens with the powerful imagery the film makers had conjured, it left us craving for more, and needless to say, we are equally thrilled to have a first look at this minute trailer which is claimed as Pakistan’s first red band trailer (for mature audience only)

The trailer opens with a shot with Ahmad Ali Akbar facing the urban-streetscape of Karachi, having a lot on his mind, including plans to head off to Dubai. In between shots of his daily drudgery, we see him dealing with the street thugs and baddies. And then there is Mansha Pasha, who is clearly not from Ahmed’s side of the town and who seems to be involved in some issue that requires her to seek help from police, which doesn’t yield much results. She turns to Ahmed to track something or someone down, what that is, the trailer doesn’t define. Thrown amidst all of this is the chaos and madness of modern Karachi which the film makers mainly translate to gangsters, violence and tons of expletives. And bad cops, lots of them.

Ahmed Ali Akbar comes off strongly in the trailer. He seems to perfectly fit his character, giving it the street thuggish body language and speaking in the local dialect. This is clearly a departure from the chocolate hero or boy next door roles we have seen him in so far. Mansha Pasha too seems to get into the soul of her role, displaying the right amount of seriousness. Supporting performances are looking effective too.

One thing you can be sure of is the trailer does not view Karachi through rose tinted glasses. The movie paints the imagery of violent ghettoes, with gangsters, bad cops and all, and Urdu rap music is used to amplify the insanity. The imagery (by Mo Azmi) is dark and gritty and very unsettling, reminiscent of “City of God”. The trailer also provides glimpses of strong performances by the cast and an engaging but very gory narrative.

The question however is, will this pull an audience to cinemas which is blasted with urban madness through 24/7 news cycle? We will find out very soon as “Laal Kabootar” is all set to release.