CAST: Fawad Khan, Hamza Ali Abbasi, Mahira Khan, Humaima Malick

DIRECTOR: Bilal Lashkari

The Punjabi film by Bilal Lashkari, which boasts one of the biggest budgets in the history of Pakistani cinema, is a reboot of Yunus Malik’s 1979 cult classic ‘Maula Jatt.’

The film focuses on the legendary rivalry between local hero Maula Jatt, played by Fawad Khan, and Noori Natt, played by Abbasi, the leader of a brutal gang. The film has been directed by Bilal Lashari, whose debut film ‘Waar’ broke box office records in Pakistan. The film also stars Mahira Khan and Humaima Malick.

After a flashback to a massacre, when a rival clan slaughters his parents, we meet Maula (Fawad Khan) as a young man. The size of a well-fed bear, he earns a living fighting in gladiatorial games, pummelling poor souls from neighbouring villages. But the discovery of his past sets him off on a path of revenge against the Natt family responsible for killing his parents.

That journey is quite predictable enough given the remake factor and the south asian revenge drama tropes but is made juicily watchable by a trio of palpable villains from the Natt clan. Meanest of them is eldest son Noori (Hamza Ali Abbasi), a man who speaks in a menacingly gentle undertone in a veil of threat. Noori has chosen to live in prison, having heard it’s where the fiercest men in the country are kept.

Noori’s little brother and rival is petulant pretty-boy Maakha (Gohar Rasheed) who is almost Nero-ish in his psychotic smirk. Last of the murderous siblings is sister Daaro (Humaima Malick). The movie ends, unsurprisingly, with a big fight between Maula and Noori – a fight in which Maula pauses to twiddle his fine moustache before bringing himself the justice.

Movie is in theaters Oct 13.