As Pakistan passes through an era of unprecedented unrest in North Waziristan, filmmaker Dr Hasan Waqas Rana taps into a personal story from the region to make the country’s most expensive film yet.
With Yalghaar, audiences will witness actors Shaan Shahid and Humayun Saeed come face to face on screen for the first time ever. The film promises to be an action-packed war saga that Pakistanis may relate to for years to come.
For long cinema has taken inspiration from the fears and aspirations of our culture, its pacifism with some and growing conflict with others. Pakistan’s new-age cinema, still in its nascent stages, too walks a similar pathway with Dr Hasan Waqas Rana’s directorial debut Yalghaar.
Based on a true story over 76 hours of a successful military operation conducted in the Parichar region of Swat district, Yalghaar – at face value – appears to be yet another movie that relies on extremism to establish its central plot. However, Bilal Ashraf – who is not only performing in the film but also multi-tasks as Visual Effects Director and COO of Mindworks Media (Mindworks also produced the record breaking Waar) – asserts that Yalghaar isn’t your ‘done and dusted’ action film bit by the militancy bug but rather a riveting yet emotional war epic.
“Amidst the action, Yalghaar goes up close to follow the lives of the young, passionate officers and soldiers whose patriotism is throbbing with every heartbeat for their country,” Bilal spoke to Instep about the upcoming film that is already exciting cinema-goers. “It is not just another war film, it explores what happens in the lives of those involved, including the militants and how all of them are affected at a personal level because of the ongoing operation. The film is very comprehensive in the sense that it touches upon the human element apart from bringing the whole war-based action to life on screen. Living in the cities we are exposed to the side effects that ripple all the way here and we may openly discuss it but we really don’t know what war is and what it does to people,” he added.
Like most other films that promise to be the vehicles of cinematic prosperity, Yalghaar too attracted the initial limelight for its exuberant expenses and mega budget, which is rumoured to have crossed 50 crores.
“There are not only vast numbers of choppers and guns and ammunition being used but a huge man-made cave system was also built in Karachi, replicating that of North Waziristan. It looked so real that it managed to fool nature – bats started living in it out of nowhere,” shared Bilal. “Apart from logistics, there are over 150 written characters in the film, played by an extensive cast. Hence, one can only imagine the magnitude of costs involved.”
The star-studded cast includes established names from the industry as well as film debutantes like Ayesha Omar, Umair Jaswal, Bilal Ashraf and Sana Bucha.
– The News On Sunday
 – asserts that Yalghaar isn’t your ‘done and dusted’ action film bit by the militancy bug but rather a riveting yet emotional war epic. “Amidst the action, Yalghaar goes up close to follow the lives of the young, passionate officers and soldiers whose patriotism is throbbing with every heartbeat for their country,” Bilal spoke to Instep about the upcoming film that is already exciting cinema-goers. “It is not just another war film, it explores what happens in the lives of those involved, including the militants and how all of them are affected at a personal level because of the ongoing operation. The film is very comprehensive in the sense that it touches upon the human element apart from bringing the whole war-based action to life on screen. Living in the cities we are exposed to the side effects that ripple all the way here and we may openly discuss it but we really don’t know what war is and what it does to people,” he added. Like most other films that promise to be the vehicles of cinematic prosperity, Yalghaar too attracted the initial limelight for its exuberant expenses and mega budget, which is rumoured to have crossed 50 crores. “There are not only vast numbers of choppers and guns and ammunition being used but a huge man-made cave system was also built in Karachi, replicating that of North Waziristan. It looked so real that it managed to fool nature – bats started living in it out of nowhere,” shared Bilal. “Apart from logistics, there are over 150 written characters in the film, played by an extensive cast. Hence, one can only imagine the magnitude of costs involved.” The star-studded cast includes established names from the industry as well as film debutantes like Ayesha Omar, Umair Jaswal, Bilal Ashraf and Sana Bucha. - The News On Sunday){kind=link}