PUBLISHED
December 07, 2025
A good film is as vital to Pakistani cinema as a bad one, because one bad film spells doom for the upcoming good ones. Sadly, Neelofar was marketed as a great film that would save Pakistani cinema and bring families back to theatres, but instead ended up damaging the reputations of those associated with it. It could have been a brilliant film, but debut writer-director Ammar Rasool incorporated a checklist that hampered his film’s ascent and pushed it into the forgettable category, where Fawad Khan’s last outing, Abeer Gulaal, and Mahira Khan’s Verna reside.
The plot
Mansoor Ali Khan (Fawad Khan) is a world-renowned writer who falls in love with a visually impaired girl, Neelofar (Mahira Khan), on a trip to an eye clinic. Despite being warned by his assistant, Sarah (Madiha Imam), who believes this infatuation will lead to disaster, Mansoor befriends Neelofar and tries to understand her world and how it works. However, his past catches up with him when his detractors drag Neelofar’s name into their rants, damaging their relationship. Will MAK and Neelofar reunite, or will the world dictate how their story ends? That’s the big question.
The good
The film belongs to Fawad Khan, who is not just the producer but also the lead actor; he is present in nearly every frame of the movie and looks nothing short of Prince Charming. He shines as Mansoor Ali Khan, thanks to his striking good looks, and his delivery is reminiscent of the late Waheed Murad, who loved playing such characters. Mahira Khan’s beauty complements her frequent co-star’s charm, and the two look great together. Watching Mahira Khan play a ‘blind’ girl is refreshing, considering she has either portrayed a weak-woman-turned-strong or an outright diva in her films.
The city of Lahore invites viewers to fall in love, as the director has done his best to showcase it as a character. He succeeds with the help of Zeeshan Haider’s beautiful soundtrack, which will eventually make you fall in love. Madiha Imam makes her Pakistani film debut and represents a generation that knows how to do things better than its predecessors; veteran actor Behroze Sabzwari doesn’t disappoint, and neither does the indomitable Navid Shehzad as Neelofar’s grandmother and caretaker.
The bad
Sadly, there are more bad points than good in this latest Pakistani release, which tries too hard to be artsy but ends up being neither commercial nor an art film. The script is the main villain here because it presents the audience with more loopholes than expected. Why wasn’t Neelofar’s father around, despite her grandmother mentioning him earlier in the film? Was MAK a poet or a writer, and how did he become so famous after just one book? Why was he dressed in Mughal attire in one of the haveli scenes? What happened to his late wife, and why didn’t the TV show air the ink-throwing incident that was discussed but never shown?
Too many dialogues and too little happening make it seem that writer Ammar Rasool (who is also the director) didn’t bother to improve the first draft. Forget the blind girl slapping herself in front of the mirror, having regular flashbacks, or wearing a watch on her wrist; don’t worry about the visually impaired girl climbing the steps of a train or the Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge reference that follows. Had the director shown the script to anyone, they might have advised him to simplify his checklist—but that didn’t happen.
For a film that promotes Lahore’s beauty as well as its main characters, Neelofar seems to have been shot casually. Had it been filmed in updated 4K technology, the result would have been different. The lack of correlation between scenes didn’t help the grainy display, and the last nail in the coffin came from the editor, who placed reactionary tweets before a TV show rather than after it.
If you belong to the school of thought that believes cameos by good actors can save a film, think again. Not even appearances by Sarwat Gillani, Samiya Mumtaz, Atiqa Odho, Noor ul Hassan, Dananeer Mobeen, Rashid Farooqui, Faisal Qureshi, Adeel Hashmi, Hira Tareen, Seemi Raheal, and Gohar Rasheed could rescue this film that claims to promote Urdu, especially when two of them actually spoke pure Hindi words like shobha and anth.
Things weren’t helped when the director used the Tom & Jerry technique of hiding human characters’ faces and applied it to this flick; if he wanted to focus solely on Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan, he should have made a film like Raincoat and saved the producer’s money and the audience’s time. Adding the Humsafar touch in the climax may have been well received by fans of the drama, but trust me, after 14 years, only a few care about that reunion.
Verdict
If any power couple has the clout to attract audiences to cinemas in Pakistan, it’s Mahira–Fawad Khan. However, they need to choose their projects wisely; otherwise, they might not get another chance. Going with an untested director just because he had a story and was willing to direct was a blunder—especially since their last outing was with Bilal Lashari, a writer-director who left no stone unturned to make his film the best from Pakistan.
From its unreasonable release date to whatever fate awaits it, Neelofar needed to be made as well as it was marketed. It took six years to complete, and even then, it looked hastily produced. Yes, it’s an excellent film for those who live outside Pakistan, but they tend to love anything from Pakistan. The domestic audience that decides the film’s fate now has fewer than 110 screens, must pay more than Rs 1000 for a ticket, and deserves to be treated as intelligent. Half-baked attempts should be reserved for TV, if at all, but not during prime time. The audience has grown since Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan weaved their magic in Humsafar; it’s time these two realise it’s been 14 years since then.
Â
Omair Alavi is a freelance contributor who writes about film, television, and popular culture
All facts and information are the sole responsibility of the writer
