Non-review Rant
For more than a month or so, YouTube has been prompting me to watch a telefilm starring Kinza Hashmi. I ain’t gonna lie. The poster intrigued me enough to click on the video and watch it for a few minutes. I saw a qawwali-like song filled with angst with even more angsty hero. The state of mind that I was in, it was not the right thing to watch, so instead I binged on several hundred clips of “Say Yes to the Dress”.
Until this Sunday February 20, 2022.
Telefilm Summary
Ruposh is a passionate and soul-stirring tale of romance that perfectly embodies the agonizing pain suffered in love. As the feeling of love slowly escalates into obsession, sorrow and grief are destined to follow. Salaar Shah is a handsome young man hailing from an upper-class family. Traumatic past family experiences have made him bitter as he refuses to believe in the mere concept of love. Despite being the most popular guy in college, Salaar keeps his guards up with an arrogant and proud demeanour. On the other hand, Zunaira is a young and simple-minded girl who hails from a middle-class family. Unlike other girls, she is focused and strives to become independent for her family. Zunaira and Salaar’s first encounter remains unpleasant but their opposing personalities draw them closer. However, just when the two begin to rediscover love and meaning in their lives, emerging secrets threaten their romance. In this world of glaring differences, does their broken but beautiful love stand a chance?
[Courtesy: IMDB]
Cast & Characters
Haroon Kadwani as Salaar Shah
The angsty slightly toxic hero with a heart of gold. I know, irony. He has problems, and you wouldn’t agree with all of his actions
Kinza Hashmi as Zunaira Ashfaq
Heroine, sweet and gorgeous, strong enough to stand up to a college goon, sort of.
Aadi Khan
Salaar’s close friend, jokingly adopted son, and his partner in crime
Mehmood Aslam as Mr Shah
Salaar’s father who has lot of money but no time for Salaar
Hina Khwaja Bayat
Salaar’s mother who left him alone when he was little
Saba Faisal as Mrs Ashfaq
Zunaira’s mother
Saifi Hassan as Ashfaq (he’s so good)
Zunaira’s father
Arshiya Khan
Zunaira’s younger sister
Shabeer Jan as Irfan
Ashfaq’s kind and helping friend
Raeed Mohammad Alum as Rohail
Irfan’s son, also Zunaira’s candidate
Plot Summary
Ruposh is an intense and yet sweet romance story set in college.
Salaar has a troubled past and he takes it out by living on the edge. He helps his friends but takes panga with everyone.
Until he runs into Zunaira who doesn’t bow to his looks or his monies.
Things change, they fall in love, and then they fall apart. You know the drift of a romance story. I don’t want to spoil the story for you. Let’s just get to the review.
Review
Oh, the angst, the toxic nature of both men(Salaar and Rohail) in this telefilm is off the charts. The telefilm has a movie like treatment to it. I liked the production quality, the acting, the songs, the music is superb.
It does have peoblems. It still some scenes didn’t make sense. I didn’t understand why someone would hit on Zunaira when she’s sorta kinda marked by Salaar? But if I let go of some inconsistencies, this telefilm was enjoyable, even the toxicity, because occasional dose of toxicity is good. Trust me on that.
The story is quite predictable but the execution was nice enough to keep me hooked. See, there’s nothing new under the sun. The way you take a regular romance story and execute it is what makes it to something like Ruposh.
I loved how the bike race was shot, or that riot scene in the college… Uff… It was so well shot. Haroon shone in all of those scenes.
The whole montage of them falling in love was superbly done. Haroon looked fabulous in all the scenes where he would walk away from people, of which there were plenty. Dude’s got presence.
Now let’s get to the best part of this telefilm–the title track which also becomes a song after mid point. Oh, just wow. In this song, Haroon also reminded me of Shah Rukh Khan. When he extends his hands and leans back slightly, I could imagine Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan’s Mitwa playing in the background.
Just wow!
Performances
Haroon looks like Feroze Khan, and in some scenes he even acts like Feroze Khan. I think this young man is a diehard fan of Feroze Khan, and it shows. I googled about him, as I usually do, and surely people have given him the same name that I had in mind–GhariboN ka Feroze Khan. Hey, I don’t mean to be offensive when I say that; I mean it as a compliment. He has a stark similarity to Feroze Khan. He is seen picking up fights, he’s seen working out, he’s seen drinking. Everything you would expect from a Feroze Khan character.
Apart from some scenes where he enunciated too much while delivering dialogues, I think Haroon can go a long way. He has the looks, he has the long mane, he has athletic physique to die for, and he has the swag. If he works a little bit on his dialogue delivery, he might feature in the next list of “Pakistani Heroes You Would Want To Date IRL” list. Haha.
PS: the first “Pakistani Heroes You Would Want To Date IRL” list is scheduled to be posted, so hang on tight.
Kinza Hashmi is so pretty, oh so pretty. In every frame, I felt like now she looks even more beautiful. And then the next scene would just prove me wrong. In some scenes where she was talking softly, her voice felt different, and a bit unnatural. It sounded as if someone else has dubbed a few lines.
Saba Faisal, Saifi Hassan and Shabeer Jan are good in their role. I can’t not like Saifi Hassan.
Rohail, I always forget this actor’s name, has done well for his little grey role as well. I better go and google his name. Raeed Mohammad Alam.
Verdict
I had zero expectations going in, and I immensely enjoyed the movie.
This telefilm was enjoyable and both the songs Ruposh and Humraazi are so catchy. I rewatched many scenes of the movie already. Yeah, telefilm… But it’s almost like a movie so…
If you want to see a sweet romance with a slightly troubled hero, this is it.
So long!
Shabana Mukhtar
