Khel Khel Mein

Plot

Khel Khel Mein revolves around the myths, mysteries, and mistrust after East Pakistan became Bangladesh. The film is a projection of the existing mindset and curiosity around the subject, which is interestingly knit into a journey of students exploring the history and making history by doing not the so obvious and expected, but instead following the path of mutual respect, love and peace for all.

Cast

Sajal Aly as Zara

Bilal Abbas Khan as Saad

Javed Sheikh as Sikandar Salman

Marina Khan as Mrs. Haque

Nazr Ul Hasan as Babu

Manzar Sehbai as Karamullah

Samina Ahmed as Zaib

Sheheryar Munawar as Wajih

Naveed Raza as Vikram

Irfan Motiwala as Masdodi (administrator)

Hani Taha as Maria Yazdani

Zehra Nawab as Rukhsar

Farhan Ally Agha as Waji

Laila Wasti as Zara's mother

Reham Rafiq as Noorie

Mojiz Hasan as Pervaiz

Hina Rizvi as Hostel's warden

Hammad Sheikh as Umang Brohi

Hira Umer as Brohi's sister

Hussain Mohsin as Peter

Ali Rehman as Ali

Qudsia Ali as Aisha

Aneesha Altaf as Sara

Hassan Bin Javed as Saif

Fayed Ali as Zafar

Release

The teaser of the film was released on 30 October 2021. The teaser received mixed responses, particularly due to the resemblance of the storyline to Bollywood's 2006 coming-of-age drama Rang De Basanti. The official trailer was released on 8 November 2021. The film was theatrically released nationwide on 19 November 2021 and was the first film to be released in the country after the COVID-19 lockdown.

Production

Development

On 26 February 2021, Sajal Aly and Bilal Abbas Khan shared on their social media handles that they were leading actors in the film. Besides Aly and Khan, Sheheryar Munawar joined the cast for an extended cameo appearance. The cast also includes veterans such as Samina Ahmed, Manzar Sehbai (who played the older version of Munawar), Marina Khan, Javed Sheikh and Farhan Ally Agha. Qureshi revealed about the genre of the film that it will be a historical/ drama, much different to his previous films. On 11 July 2021, Qureshi shared on his social media handle that the shooting of the film has been completed and it took 50 days to complete.

Promotion

For the sake of promotion of the film, Aly and Khan made appearances in various TV shows including Jeeto Pakistan and Waseem Badami's Har Lamha Purjosh.

Reception

Box office

The film collected a total of PKR 25 million worldwide in its first week of release and a total of PKR 60 million in its entire theatrical run.

It was the first film to push open the local cinema market after COVID-19 lockdown.

Critical reception

Mohammad Kamran Jawaid of Dawn praised the film for its well-executed and emotional portrayal of the 1971 war and its consequences, with notable performances from Sajal Aly and Bilal Abbas Khan, cinematography, and the performances of the supporting cast but criticized the film's rushed narrative and editing, particularly in the pre-intermission segment, and lack of conviction and satisfaction in the conclusion. Maheen Sabeeh of The News International praised the cast performances, particularly Aly, Sheheryar Munawar, and Manzar Sehbai,

but critiqued the film's execution, logic, character development, and the film's narrative, calling it a "jingoistic mess" that distorts history and promotes hate, and further found it as "confusing, historically inaccurate" that "sells the idea of breeding hate." Madiha Arsalan of The Friday Times found it as a "well scripted and executed film" with notable performances from Sajal Aly and Bilal Abbas, and lauded the set design, costumes, makeup, choreography, cinematography, dialogues, and songs but critiqued its unclear and confused narrative.