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Pakistani mega hit film ‘'Waar'’ | Reviews & Discussions.

'Waar' makes it way to global cinemas - DAWN.COM


KARACHI: 'Waar' has achieved one massive milestone after the other and created history in Pakistan, reaching nearly $2 million box office collections to date from Pakistan market. ARY Films now takes ‘Waar’ global as anticipation for this movie reaches its peak around the world.

Distributed by ARY Films, ‘Waar’ is written and produced by Dr. Hassan Waqas Rana while the young and talented Bilal Lashari has directed the movie. The star cast of ‘Waar’ includes a mix of industry veterans and newcomers: Superstar Shaan plays the lead role in the movie as he becomes the last hope for Pakistan’s security agencies to battle against the vicious opponent Shamoon Abbasi. Hamza Ali Abbasi, Aisha Khan, Ali Azmat, Misha Shafi, Kamran Lashari and Nadeem Abbas Rana make the rest of the cast of the movie.

“After the gigantic success of Waar in Pakistan, we are now going to take it to the global stage. I believe that Waar has started a new era where we will be making world class movies and our talent will be appreciated around the world!” said Salman Iqbal, President and Founder, ARY Digital Network.

“The cinema goers in Pakistan have given their verdict; they have made Waar the most successful movie in the history of the country. Now it’s time to show the world what we have made and what we are proud of. The countless queries from around the world which we are receiving about Waar tell us that it will do equally great in other markets as well”, said Mohammad Jerjees Seja, CEO, ARY Digital Network.

“It is heartening to receive such overwhelming response from the Pakistani audience and now I look forward to a positive response from other international box offices as well” said Dr. Hassan Waqas Rana while sharing his thoughts on his movie going to global markets.

“Waar is a movie made for the Pakistanis, by the Pakistanis and of the Pakistanis. It is great to see that people can see through that and are admiring the efforts put into this movie by the entire team. This is for the dawn of new Pakistani cinema! And it’s a dedication to all those brave men who sacrificed their lives to protect the sovereignty of Pakistan.”

Pleased with the success of his debut movie, Bilal Lashari, Director of the movie ‘Waar’ said, “I’m grateful to each and every person that made the effort to go to the cinema and appreciate my movie. I’m hoping for the same level of appreciation from the international market. ‘Waar’ will always remain close to my heart and it is motivating to see the kind of response that my first movie is receiving. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie making experience and will continue to make movies on issues that I believe should be brought to the fore.”

While showing his satisfaction with the movie the Pakistani superstar Shan Shahid said “After doing a movie like Waar, the biggest dream of my life has been fulfilled!” Shan pointed out that it was his dream that the best of the country collaborated to produce, direct, promote and distribute a movie to prove to the world that great films can be made in Pakistan as well. He appreciated the efforts made by ARY Films, the director, the producer and exhibitors to support Pakistani cinema.

With the phenomenal response that ‘Waar’ continues to receive from the audience in Pakistan, there remains no doubt that it will receive tremendous response globally as well and it will continue to enthral the audiences with its magic wherever it goes.
 
'Waar' on it's way to global cinemas

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KARACHI: 'Waar' has achieved one massive milestone after the other and created history in Pakistan, reaching nearly $2 million box office collections to date from Pakistan market. ARY Films now takes ‘Waar’ global as anticipation for this movie reaches its peak around the world.

Distributed by ARY Films, ‘Waar’ is written and produced by Dr. Hassan Waqas Rana while the young and talented Bilal Lashari has directed the movie. The star cast of ‘Waar’ includes a mix of industry veterans and newcomers: Superstar Shaan plays the lead role in the movie as he becomes the last hope for Pakistan’s security agencies to battle against the vicious opponent Shamoon Abbasi. Hamza Ali Abbasi, Aisha Khan, Ali Azmat, Misha Shafi, Kamran Lashari and Nadeem Abbas Rana make the rest of the cast of the movie.

“After the gigantic success of Waar in Pakistan, we are now going to take it to the global stage. I believe that Waar has started a new era where we will be making world class movies and our talent will be appreciated around the world!” said Salman Iqbal, President and Founder, ARY Digital Network.

“The cinema goers in Pakistan have given their verdict; they have made Waar the most successful movie in the history of the country. Now it’s time to show the world what we have made and what we are proud of. The countless queries from around the world which we are receiving about Waar tell us that it will do equally great in other markets as well”, said Mohammad Jerjees Seja, CEO, ARY Digital Network.

“It is heartening to receive such overwhelming response from the Pakistani audience and now I look forward to a positive response from other international box offices as well” said Dr. Hassan Waqas Rana while sharing his thoughts on his movie going to global markets.

“Waar is a movie made for the Pakistanis, by the Pakistanis and of the Pakistanis. It is great to see that people can see through that and are admiring the efforts put into this movie by the entire team. This is for the dawn of new Pakistani cinema! And it’s a dedication to all those brave men who sacrificed their lives to protect the sovereignty of Pakistan.”

Pleased with the success of his debut movie, Bilal Lashari, Director of the movie ‘Waar’ said, “I’m grateful to each and every person that made the effort to go to the cinema and appreciate my movie. I’m hoping for the same level of appreciation from the international market. ‘Waar’ will always remain close to my heart and it is motivating to see the kind of response that my first movie is receiving. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie making experience and will continue to make movies on issues that I believe should be brought to the fore.”

While showing his satisfaction with the movie the Pakistani superstar Shan Shahid said “After doing a movie like Waar, the biggest dream of my life has been fulfilled!” Shan pointed out that it was his dream that the best of the country collaborated to produce, direct, promote and distribute a movie to prove to the world that great films can be made in Pakistan as well. He appreciated the efforts made by ARY Films, the director, the producer and exhibitors to support Pakistani cinema.

With the phenomenal response that ‘Waar’ continues to receive from the audience in Pakistan, there remains no doubt that it will receive tremendous response globally as well and it will continue to enthral the audiences with its magic wherever it goes.

'Waar' on it's way to global cinemas - DAWN.COM
 
How did the movie perform locally? Is it profitable?
2 million USD in revenue which is next to nothing.
Break even which is not good in the industry. I reckon they were expecting more, I have to say given the amount of Pakistanis that went to see Bollywood crap like Chennai Express, more revenue would have been made. I am disappointed by the turnout.

And I know many people watched it online and pirated which is sad and it's killing our own industry.

It's up to us overseas Pakistanis to turn this into a success.
 
Dear Waar critics, why so serious?

Depicting a ‘balanced’ narrative isn’t a mainstream film’s responsibility

It seems as if most of Pakistan’s esteemed film critics – some sharing their insights via illustrious publications, others generous enough to do so on social media – have never seen a Pakistani movie, a war movie or in some cases any movie, in their lives. While reading the reviews of Waar, one feels as if Bilal Lashari has filmed a remake of Gadar for the Pakistani cinema aficionados. But here one does not get to see Shaan uprooting hand pumps or driving a truck like Sebastian Vettel drives his Red Bull.

Unfortunately.

A typical critique of the movie goes somewhat like this: Waar is a propaganda movie. The actors have fake English accents. Pakistanis easily believe conspiracy theories so propaganda is dangerous, especially when it is coupled with fake accents. There is propaganda against India and RAW because the bad guys in the movie are Indians. The Pakistani military and police are showed as good guys because Pakistan Army has funded this propaganda movie. Both the good guys and bad guys in the propaganda film have equally fake accents. The end.

All of the above in impeccably woven words and picturesque expression, of course.

But hang on, the military of one country depicted as the good guys, and the intelligence agency of the rival country as the bad guys in an action thriller? Shocking.

Maybe our knowledgeable film critics have been spoilt by the barrage of cinematic masterstrokes that Lollywood churns out on an annual basis. However, for average Joes like me Waar was a ‘slightly’ better cinematic experience than the Gujjar, Jutt and Goonda flicks that have symbolised Pakistani cinema in recent decades. But the latter, of course, never ever tried to portray Indians as bad guys. Ever.

‘Beggars can’t be choosers’ is an aphorism that one can use for Pakistan in most realms. But we’re easily the most high maintenance beggars the world has ever seen.

Let’s get the obvious off the table first: Waar could have been better. The script could have had more continuity and originality and more focus on character development. Some of the actors could’ve done slightly better jobs and if the film had more realism and less clichés it would’ve been better for the overall product as well. Yup, Waar could definitely have been better.

But can anyone really disagree with the fact that how much better Waar already is from even the best that Pakistan cinema has had to offer, is prodigiously more than how much better it needed to be to earn the label of a genuinely world class film?

One fails to comprehend then, as to why the movie critics would prefer to dedicate 95 percent of their reviews (or tweets) deriding Waar for what they deemed were its criminal shortcomings, the most glaring of which was ‘propaganda’.

Castigating a war movie over propaganda is akin to criticising it for promoting violence or guns. Propaganda, like guns, is an integral tool of war. And while wars were fought when there weren’t any guns, not a single war has been fought in human history that was devoid of propaganda. This is precisely why the lion’s share of Hollywood, Bollywood or war films from any other neck of the woods, have skewed narratives. The same goes for a lot of political action-thrillers.

This year’s Olympus Has Fallen, that portrayed what looked like the ‘North Korean Taliban’ targeting the American president and taking over the White House all for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula, did not get mauled by the US critics for its propaganda. And yes Waar is easily better than Olympus Has Fallen, a Hollywood movie that had a $70 million budget and starred Morgan Freeman.

Top Gun, The Fall of Berlin, Propaganda, Bon Voyage, Jud Süß and Border are some of the biggest films from their respective countries and were all propaganda movies. Three of the biggest Hollywood successes of last year Argo, Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty were all pretty blatant propaganda films.

Again, most war movies propagate propaganda, and show only one side of the picture. Even Clint Eastwood needed to make two different movies to depict the Battle of Iwo Jima showcasing American and Japanese viewpoints separately. And this is because highlighting a ‘balanced’ viewpoint in a war film renders its creation futile, and its constancy with the war genre, questionable.

A ‘neutral’ war film would almost always go down the ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ route, basically becoming an anti-war film.

And it wasn’t as if Waar pretends to unearth any ‘hidden truths’. It depicts what most Pakistanis already believe, what the official stance of the Pakistani government is and puts forward ‘our side of the story’ for the world – hence, the use of the English language in the film.

All those who entered the cinemas believing that India orchestrates terrorism in Pakistan would have left the cinema with the same belief, without any additional ammunition, and those who don’t buy that assertion obviously left the cinemas with their ‘sanity’ intact. However, in the intervening 130 minutes, what both groups of people got was the opportunity to witness some of the best cinematography, action sequences, background score, visual and sound effects in the history of Pakistan cinema to go with the overall entertainment. And entertainment is precisely what the movie had promised and not the depiction of ‘truth’ – probably because it is a mainstream movie and not a documentary.

A question for all those apprehensive about the propaganda in the movie: how many people commenting on Waar in various forums are expressing their gratitude for the film for ‘enlightening them’ about the War on Terror? And how many sound overwhelmed by the cinematic experience conjured by a Pakistani movie? Seemingly, the only people actually affected by Waar’s propaganda are the movie critics clamouring about the aftereffects of the propaganda.

Irony.

Granted, biased narratives need to be replaced by balanced ones, but that is not the responsibility of a mainstream movie. It’s the duty of people in the media and the publications criticising Waar for being too pro-establishment when they have spent decades flying the flags of the military in dictatorial regimes. And who still can’t publish honest pieces about the Pakistan military’s role in the War on Terror, fearing a call from the you know who.

And yet they somehow expected Waar to do that on their behalf.

If you’re hell bent on solely focusing on the narrative presented in the movie, then how about a thumbs up for depicting the Taliban and tribal warlords as terrorists? And how about one for portraying madrassas, where Islam is preached and the Quran is taught, as their sanctuaries? Yes, it might have been too obvious an account for the esteemed critics, but one can’t undermine the importance of putting an anti-Taliban narrative in the mainstream. But while the anti-India propaganda was highlighted in all film critiques, the anti-Taliban ‘propaganda’ was ignored, probably because it goes with the personal viewpoints of the critics.

When you’re critiquing a movie, you’re not supposed to judge it in accordance with your own viewpoint, no matter how well qualified it might be. I might be as patriotic as a cactus plant, and Waar might have instilled as much Pakistani nationalism as Captain America generated American nationalism with me, but I can’t deny that Waar would strike a chord with the Pakistani nationalist.

Waar vied to propagate nationalism and patriotism, which in itself is an inherent part of propaganda. Please don’t put the burden of righting the wrongs of our founding fathers, our government or the military on the young shoulders of Bilal Lashari. All he was supposed to do was make a good film. And he ended up making what without a shadow of a doubt is a landmark for Pakistani cinema.

Anyone disagreeing with that is either incredibly prejudiced or suspiciously fond of watching heroines obliterate farmlands with their heavyweight dancing. -

See more at: Dear Waar critics, why so serious? | Pakistan Today | Latest news | Breaking news | Pakistan News | World news | Business | Sport and Multimedia
 
In this interview they are saying both "main hoo shahid afridi and waar" were financial loses...
But i thought waar was a successs....
The film has crossed 20 cror in its first 5 weeks as of now and Budget was of 23 cror. This would have been possible if the film was no more screened in the cinemas as it would have failed to attract audiences. U still cant get its ticket if u dont have a prior show bookings. So this shows that the film is still long way to be taken out from screens in cinemas. Also the film has been approved by UK board to launch its uncensored version in their country as its just gearing up for int. release in more then 25 countries worldwide. So as of now a fool will only say its a financial loss.

Try using ur brain first then believing everything the media tells. 
2 million USD in revenue which is next to nothing.
Break even which is not good in the industry. I reckon they were expecting more, I have to say given the amount of Pakistanis that went to see Bollywood crap like Chennai Express, more revenue would have been made. I am disappointed by the turnout.

And I know many people watched it online and pirated which is sad and it's killing our own industry.

It's up to us overseas Pakistanis to turn this into a success.
i still havnt found its pirated version and i run an advertisement agency. Even if u search internet u wont be able to find a single credible link for its pirated version. I have tried that from every search engine known to me and even have visited some weird named sites like kickass.com for it. But all has been failed.

U may also try it but im confident u wont find it. There maybe some limited pirated copies send to india maybe from where Ram Gopal verma has watched it but i still doubt if the general public can watch it like we used to watch indian movies in CD and VCR when we were young.
 
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The film has crossed 20 cror in its first 5 weeks as of now and Budget was of 23 cror. This would have been possible if the film was no more screened in the cinemas as it would have failed to attract audiences. U still can get its ticket if u dont have a prior show bookings. So this shows that the film is still long way to be taken out from screens in cinemas. Also the film has been approved by UK board to launch its uncensored version in their country as its just gearing up for int. release in more then 25 countries worldwide. So as of now a fool will only say its a financial loss.

Try using ur brain first then believing everything the media tells. 

i still havnt found its pirated version and i run an advertisement agency. Even if u find search internet u wont be able to find a single credible link for its pirated version. I have tried that from every search engine known to me and even have visited some weird named sites like kickass.com for it. But all has been failed.

U may also try it but im confident u wont find it. There maybe some limited pirated copies send to india maybe from where Ram Gopal verma has watched it but i still doubt if the general public can watch it like we used to watch indian movies in CD and VCR when we were young.
It still has to be released in many countries including UK
 
i still havnt found its pirated version and i run an advertisement agency. Even if u find search internet u wont be able to find a single credible link for its pirated version. I have tried that from every search engine known to me and even have visited some weird named sites like kickass.com for it. But all has been failed.

U may also try it but im confident u wont find it. There maybe some limited pirated copies send to india maybe from where Ram Gopal verma has watched it but i still doubt if the general public can watch it like we used to watch indian movies in CD and VCR when we were young.

That's good news for sure, but still I had some people telling me they watched it on dvd which as you know has to be pirated. 
It still has to be released in many countries including UK

Any word on the release date? I'm going to watch it and forcing many people to go with me.
 
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