Director and Writer: Nida Manzoor
Starring: Priya Kansara and Ritu Arya
The Khan sisters. Lena Khan (Ritu Arya); a dropout art student, and Ria Khan (Priya Kansara); a future stunt woman, portray the multiple angles of sisterhood. Both the love and support for each other and the laugh-out-loud battles when they step on each other’s toes. Actresses Ritu and Priya connect with viewers through a sheer emotional performance that rivals, in realism, the cinematic fight scenes.
Every fight scene was part of a cinematic feat by director Nida Manzoor. Completely exaggerated, the slowed-down cutaways with bursts of expertise skills, that one can only imagine, kept viewers giggling throughout the film. The fights, specifically revolving around Ria the future stunt woman, can be interpreted as her inherent belief in her skills no matter how outrageous these fights may be. Yet, audiences know how dedicated Ria is to her future as a stunt woman because of the many emails she sends that depict her inner thoughts and frustrations on her journey to complete her ‘training.’
Besides the action-packed fight scenes, Manzoor takes on another, quite realistic, mode of cinematography that depicts the Khan family's struggles, and Lena’s impending marriage. After only knowing her fiance for one month, everyone in the family is excited for Lena, except for her sister, Ria. The storyline continues moving forward with quite a few twists and turns that feature the action and comedy genres well.
Starting with enough humor to make audiences laugh out loud, Ria’s sisterly antics lack just enough logic to make the audience cringe at her actions. Like Ria planting lotion-filled condoms in the bed of her sister’s fiance. The overall direction of the film moves fluidly, even including a mystery plotline that leaves audiences with mouths gaping.
The movement of the plotline is everything at once, funny, sad, cringy, mysterious, and action-packed, but the few main themes help the audiences keep track of all the changes. The overarching themes are the choices of the Khan sister’s future careers and Ria’s devotion to keeping her sister from jumping head-first into marriage with a man she barely knows.
The film provides a well-rounded ending that closes the plot and concludes the character arcs of the Khan sisters. While Ria was quite stubborn and viewers watched her fall more into place with her lot in life, on the opposite scale was Lena. Known for going to art school, dropping out, and not particularly knowing what she wants, there is an open, yet comforting solution waiting for viewers.
Of course, an action film wouldn’t be fully complete without the ‘bad guy.’ While most people are jokingly scared of their mother-in-law, disapproval would probably be easier than what Lena faces in this film.
Plot: ★★★☆☆ 3/5
Cinematography: ★★★☆☆ 3/5
Character Arc(s): ★★★☆☆ 3/5
