Film Review
Bin Roye: Weak Story, Powerful Performances
By Rafiq Ebrahim
Winfield, IL
The release of the much awaited movie Bin Roye in USA was a big surprise for us; even bigger surprise was that the auditorium of the AMC Theater which screened the movie was jam-packed – cine goers, finding no seat vacant, even sat on the steps of the isles to watch this Humayun Saeed – Mahira Khan flick.
It was a rare event, for so far only one movie – Bol – was screened here, and without proper promotional efforts and awareness, it got a very weak response in the cinema house.
The third big surprise was that Bin Roye, in spite of commendable performances of the lead players, could not maintain the grip, because of its script – an unusual love-triangle made complicated. The whole story rotates around Saba (Mahira Khan) and Irtiza (Humayun Saeed). In fact, it should not be called a story. Bin Roye is an emotional wrap around the shoulders of Saba and projects the feelings and thoughts of a girl who suffers rejection in love by someone so close to her. The whole movie projects aspects of her various states of mind. That’s it! Hence, the movie drags and becomes too small for the big cinematic canvas.
Mahira Khan, making her debut on the big screen has given an impressive performance. In fact, she dominates the screen. Much attention is given to her wardrobe and her ‘unnecessary’ layers of make-up. She doesn’t need all this. She is beautiful enough. The extra facial adoration just makes her look like a made-up doll.
Humayun Saeed has put on his best, trying to match the accomplishment of Mahira Khan. In parts he has succeeded, but now it is time for him to perform elderly roles.
Javed Shaikh and Zeba Bakhtiar are only in to attract the audience; they do not have much to do except utter a few lifeless dialogues and smile. Totally miscast! And so are the other cast members, performing their bits as guest artistes, though Adeel Hussain and Junaid Khan are quite popular TV artistes, and should have been given more footage.
Full marks to set designers and wardrobe experts who have made some of the scenes a treat to watch. The same cannot be said about the director, editor and screenplay writer. There are a number of flaws in their work which weaken the already weak script. The story is just a projection of deep emotions and feelings that could well be twenty plus episodes of a TV serial.
The best thing about the movie is that it has paved the way for other Pakistani movies to be screened in the USA and other countries, but before release due promotion, strategic marketing and awareness must be done. Good Pakistani movies, even Bin Roye, could easily match the popularity of Indian movies, most of which are just flops but make money because of a lot of advertising and simultaneous releases though out the world.
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