“Madaari” (Trailer Review): A Personal Story About How Karachi Has Suffered for Decades

The official trailer of feature film. “Madaari” is finally out. After 3 years of delays, it also has a release date.

The trailer carries a far different atmosphere than the teaser. While the teaser conveyed a more unsettling and somber tone, the trailer builds to a crescendo. You could say the teaser was like the eponymous Madaari just beginning his performance, and the trailer is the peak of that performance.

What is Madaari About?

The central plot is about a young man, played by Ibad Alam Sher, searching for his father’s murderer. This is a story so many in Karachi can relate to. We all know people whose fathers, mothers, friends, or family members have been the victims of target killing. In many cases, those people are us.

Madaari is About How Karachi Has Suffered for Decades

Madaari’s trailer is filled with scenes that any Karachiite is familiar with. Broken streets, slums, gunpoint robberies, poll rigging, and political rallies. The rallies are of a political party which has a red, black, and green flag. These are colours which could belong to any of the parties which have held power in Karachi in the last 30 years; perhaps they belong to some, more than others.

People keep telling the young man “Aam Aadmi Badla Nahin Le Sakta” or “Dekh Bhai, System Aisay Nahin Chalta”. He replies, “Tou Ham Badal Deinge System.” It’s a sentiment many young people have carried in their hearts throughout the last 30 years.

Director Seraj Us Salikin’s story seems like it’s about just one person, but it could easily be about any one of us. Bomb blasts, encounter killings, mobile snatchings, stray bullets; these are no longer alien to any Karachiite. In fact, they are familiar to every Pakistani.