To Strike

On the way back from the cinema.. feeling proud and hopeful with the Pakistani Cinema taking its shape. Bilal Lashari has done tremendous job by producing this great movie Waar, which has every thing to keep the viewer glued. Great visuals, excellent acting and spectacular action makes "Waar" a must watch.

From beginning to an end its a complete entertainment. The background scores and sound effects are great. For me the movie which takes applause, laughter and screams is the movie for masses and Waar got it all. My experience in Cinema watching the movie was great.

Had it been a better video quality would make Waar fairly comparable to any Hollywood movie.

After years and years of wait, a recursive cycle of the typical local movies showing the badmaashs and gandasas depicting a shallow culture, its almost impossible for us to think that something else can be created. But then comes these new crop trying to defy the conventional wisdom and creating something with heart and soul.

year is 2013 and there is a list of movies starting with Mein hoon Shahid Afrdid, then Oscar selection from Pakistan Zinda Bhaag and now Waar. I must say things are not same.

Waar (to Strike) is the story of Pakistan and its people. Telling the events during the ongoing war on terror. Its the story of courage, loss and harsh realities that haunts all the Pakistanis day and night. Capturing the events based on real events is never easy but Director Bilal Lashari needs bravo marks here for finding the right balance of story by telling events in an authentic way but with simplicity.

Camera work is great (comparing to our own standards rather than the highs sets by masters from around the world).

Acting is good, shan (Major Mujtaba) is good so as Hamza Ali Abbasi as Ehtesham.

In my submission, I have not seen a Pakistani film before, but as the fame of Waar had reached my country as well, I decided to watch it, for another approach on terrorism matters (I have learned to avoid US films on the said topic). In spite of some clichés and Hollywood action influences (including Tarantino), I find Waar giftedly created and performed: directing, photography, music background and leading performances were all up to scratch, flashbacks were not annoying and were logical part of the script, religion did not dominate and was expressed in a decent manner, the apparently huge budget helped to create ungarbled thrill, etc.

The "problem" for me was to distinguish some actors at times (especially in dark/night environments), as well as to assess reliability-reality of the plot. Therefore, I followed the film as a distant outsider, enjoying the creation and obtaining additional information of this large and beautiful country.

Considering the limitations and trends in local cinema Waar is truly a masterpiece. It outclasses most of Bollywood's action movies and is even better than some Hollywood Movies (Mind you if you are a fan of Hollywood action movies like Expendables etc. than believe me Waar is way better than any such movies). Though the dialogues and script had some flaws and weak points especially in connecting scenes but overall its a must watch. One may argue that the story is not new but believe me its execution is something that is new for this part of the world. On the other hand it also had some scenes that were outstanding, exceptional, mind blowing and superb. The action, the cinematography, acting and direction were outstanding. Action, Thrill, Drama, Humor and a little romance.... name anything that a movie should have in it and you will find each n everything in this movie. For me it is 9/10 (-1 for some minor flaws in script, story and connecting scenes). I would highly recommend that it is a must watch movie but plzzz don't wait for torrents and pirated copies of this movie go and watch it in cinemas near you as I believe we all should support such projects by contributing our bit.

Waar comes to us after much anticipation that spreads over the course of almost 1.5 years and it certainly lived up to the anticipation...The movie's execution is immaculate and needless to say it is very well linked with the current situation of Pakistan. Also that it brings forth the contributions of armed forces of Pakistan, what most of common Pakistanis and foreign media is unaware of. The closing message which is remarkable as it says "As long as the history is being written by hunters...lions would never be known as heroes" speaks for the overall concept of the movie which certainly is a major leap in attempting to build the history right...Kudos