​’The Legend Of Maula Jatt’: Review

Dir: Bilal Lashari. Pakistan. 2022. 153mins

The second feature from Pakistani filmmaker Bilal Lashari (Waar), The Legend of Maula Jatt  might be about the making of the folk hero Maula Jatt (Fawad Khan) but it’s the origin story of his arch nemesis Noori Natt (Hamza Ali Abbasi) with its unexpected feminist undertones that is far more compelling in the light of the preponderance of crimes against women, not just in Pakistan but South Asia at large. Despite the cliched visual mode of cloaking all the evil characters in pitch-black costumes and the good ones in pristine white, it’s this knotty anomaly in the DNA of the antagonist that makes Lashari’s fresh take on the influential Pakistani classic Maula Jat  (1979) stand apart. 

It’s easy to lose count of the beheadings

While well-made Pakistani TV dramas have enjoyed a strong popular appeal, Lollywood (as the commercial Pakistani film industry is called) has been floundering, apart from a few exceptions like Lashari’s own Waar  and  Nabeel Qureshi’s Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad. The Legend Of Maula Jatt  is worth a view for being a possible gamechanger, particularly given its worldwide theatrical release (with some notable exceptions like India), the biggest ever for a Pakistani film, hopefully moving it towards a healthier future for Lollywood. Rumoured to be one of the most expensive Pakistani films to date, this is reflected in lavish frames, elaborate sets, detailed production design and the camera’s play with light and shadow. The fight sequences, duels, swordplay and chases are as sumptuously choreographed as a song dance set piece. Lashari takes on most of the key roles behind the camera, including co-writing, cinematography and editing. He retains the primal force intrinsic to the rural tale but mounts it anew like a sprawling epic fantasy, in tune with the post-pandemic blueprint of success in cinema, be it Bollywood or Hollywood, wherein big is beautiful.

The Legend…  is a familiar family revenge saga. A young Maula sees his parents slain by the members of the rival clan. Despite being lovingly brought up by a foster mother who gives him precedence over her own biological son, Maula can’t shake off the nightmares of that bloody night. Eventually, the prize-fighter must get out of his everyday arena, harness his simmering anger and wreak havoc on the tyrants with his legendary gandasa (a huge axe-like weapon). The driving force of personal vengeance must transform into a righteous, human quest for justice. 

Fawad Khan, bulked up and hair covering most of his face, is far from his usual, much-loved sophisticated persona. There is a gladiatorial touch to his very first scene — called “entry” in the Lollywood-Bollywood parlance — as he gets beastly with elan. Mahira Khan, his ladylove from the popular series Humsafar, plays childhood sweetheart Mukkho. Other than a moment under the stars, where they sing together on top of a ramshackle ferris wheel, the famed on-screen romance doesn’t sparkle as much as it should. It’s Hamza Ali Abbasi as Noori, and his devilish siblings Daaro Nattni (Humaima Malik) and Maakha Natt (Gohar Rasheed) who entertain the most with their perverse ways.

What’s interesting is how the story’s conventional campness also lingers on despite the visual splendour. The dialogue has an oratorical flourish, humour is homespun, and the conversations and confrontations stylised. The kohl-eyed, sinister Noori, has an ironic catchphrase — ‘Soniye’ (‘Dear’) — that he throws menacingly at his foes. Then there is the relentless bloodshed that would do any slasher film proud; it’s easy to lose count of the beheadings. It all means that, despite its obvious flaws, the inordinate length and a protracted finale, The Legend…  remains steadily absorbing and entertaining.