Did Ho Mann Jahaan live up to its expectations?

Asim Raza’s Ho Mann Jahaan has been one of the most anticipated movies of 2016 in Pakistani cinema. This New Year will hopefully boast of a massive-TV-audience influx at cinema halls in Pakistan. Ho Mann Jahaan features great talents like the gorgeous Mahira Khan, the talented Sheheryar Munawar, the brilliant actor from Jackson Heights, Adeel Hussain and Sonya Jehan. The movie was heavily promoted on all social media platforms and a great hype was built around it, but was it really all that? Let’s see what this movie had to offer to its viewers and whether it lives up to its hype.

Ho Mann Jahaan is a tale of three friends, Manizeh (Mahira Khan), Nadir (Adeel Hussain) and Arhaan (Sheheryar Munawar) and their respective journey’s in life. Their love and passion for music is intense and can clearly be seen throughout the movie, but unfortunately, this passion of theirs is suppressed by their respective families and society as well. What ensues in the pursuit of finding and achieving their dreams is what Ho Mann Jahaan is all about.

Photo: Ho Mann Jahaan official Facebook page

The performances, despite the star-studded cast, were mediocre and nothing really to write home about. In my opinion, no particular actor stood out; I must add though, Sheheryar Munawar’s talent is noteworthy. While I do feel that at certain points, especially pre-interval, he wasn’t completely comfortable in his role, his post-interval performance was fantastic and very relatable.

Adeel Hussain carries his character, Nadir, remarkably well but somehow seems to lack conviction in various parts of the movie. As for Mahira Khan, well… she’s beautiful and the camera loves her, but the role she played was so… Mahira that I could predict what was going to happen next.

Photo: Ho Mann Jahaan official Facebook page

In the music department, Ho Mann Jahaan has brought many great artists together, but still received a rather mixed reaction; while some you will leave the cinema hall humming to yourself, there are others that just fell flat (despite being heavily promoted).

Photo: Ho Mann Jahaan official Facebook page

The highlight of Ho Mann Jahaan is its cameo-gang. Asim Raza has interestingly and intelligently utilised multiple actors (read stars) as cameos in the script and this has been welcomed as a refreshing change.

Photo: Ho Mann Jahaan official Facebook page

Personally, I felt the biggest let down of Ho Mann Jahaan was in its editing. Towards the end of the film, you feel it beginning to drag on and had the required editing taken place, the film would have been much shorter, crisper and sweeter. Asim Raza has always been a director upon whom you can rely – we knew his debut movie was sure to entertain. Reasonably relatable and all your emotions will definitely be awakened. All in all, Asim Raza’s Ho Mann Jahan will amuse and possibly delight, but it will not knock you dead. But it is definitely worth a watch, especially with your families.

I would rate HMJ a three out of five.

from The Express Tribune Blog http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/31289/did-ho-mann-jahaan-live-up-to-its-expectations/