The trailer for “Mera Lyari” is finally here. Abu Aleeha’s latest film is about a girl’s football club in Lyari.
The trailer shows a conservative family living within Lyari. The father is stern and restrictive towards his daughter, played by Dananeer Mobeen, but she breaks convention by enlisting in a girl’s football team. Along for the ride is the football coach played by Ayesha Omar, who faces abuse at the hands of her husband. The trailer shows how patriarchal structures continue to keep women down in Pakistan’s society.
Nayyer Ejaz and Samiya Mumtaz star as the parents; the former is a Rickshaw driver and tied down by the conventions of society that want to see women meek and silent.
Director Abu Aleeha’s filmography includes several films about social issues and minorities. He’s worked with Ayesha Omar and Nayyer Ejaz on films like “Javed Iqbal/Kukri” and “Taxali Gate”. However, this is his first film about a sport.
This is not the first women centric sports film in Pakistan’s history. It’s also not the first film about Lyari and sports. However, Lyari has hardly been represented on the silver screen for its sporting talent.
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Boxers (Syed Hussain Shah, Aliya Soomro), footballers (Abdul Ghafoor, Murad Bakhsh, Qadir Bakhsh), and marathon runners(Mohammad Eesa) who have become national and international champions have hailed from Lyari. This is why Mera Lyari is a welcome addition to Pakistan’s film history.
The film is going to be screened at the UK Asian Film Festival on the 2nd of May. A week after, it will find its way to Pakistani theaters.
The success of “Mera Lyari” will depend on not just the story, but the strength of the football sequences. Football matches are among the hardest to shoot in practice. There is far more movement and speed involved than say, cricket, or boxing.
Previously titled “Behnaz”, the film has been funded by the Government of Sindh. It has been promoted as a counterpoint to the “Dhurandhar” films from Bollywood that have portrayed Lyari as well as Pakistan as nothing but a den of violence and villainy.
The film stars Dananeer Mobeen, Ayesha Omar, Samiya Mumtaz, Nayyar Ejaz, and Adnan Shah Tipu. You can watch Mera Lyari in cinemas on 8th of May, 2026.
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