Khuda Haafiz Movie Review | Khuda Haafiz Disney+ Hotstar Movie Review
Rating: 1.75/5
Skin and Swear: None, Except for a Fleeting Intimate Scene. Lots of Violence and Gore
| Platform: Disney Plus Hotstar | Genre: Action Thriller |
What Is the Story About?
Sameer (Vidyut Jammwal) and Nargis (Shivaleeka Oberoi) are a newly married couple, living in Lucknow. It is 2008, the year of the global financial crisis, and the country is reeling under severe recession. Even before the couple has settled down completely into marital bliss, both lose their jobs due to the recession.
A fraudulent job offer takes Nargis to the Sultanate of Noman (a fictional Middle Eastern country created for the plot of Khuda Haafiz). The shady job broker, Nadeem Bhai (Vipin Sharma), promises Sameer that his job placement in the same country will come through within seven days. But before they can reunite in Noman, Nargis is kidnapped by flesh trader Itzak Regeni (Nawab Shah). Will Sameer be able to rescue Nargis? Or will she be lost to him forever?
Performances?
Vidyut Jammwal efficiently carries the weight of the entire movie on his tough, capable shoulders. With Vidyut in a movie, it’s quite obvious that the narrative will centre on him bludgeoning goons to a messy pulp, knocking the living daylights out of baddies, and generally throwing his weight around. That he bolsters the unbridled action with a fine, measured performance otherwise, is icing on the cake.
Annu Kapoor gives credible support as the Arab taxi driver Usman Bhai, who helps Sameer in Noman. Newcomer Shivaleeka Oberoi doesn’t have much to do in the movie except alternately looking pretty or bewildered, as per the demands of the scene.
Aahana Kumra has a small but impactful role as National Security Officer Tamena Hamid, and she does justice to the part. Shiv Pandit is passable in the role of her male counterpart, National Security Officer Faiz Abu Malik. Nawab Shah has a minuscule role as the dangerous flesh trader, and he’s strictly average in it.
Rio Kapadia as the head of the National Security Agency of the Sultanate, and Ikhlaque Khan as Indian Consul General I K Mishra are good in their limited parts.
While the performances are good enough, the accent of all the actors that play Middle Eastern characters is curiously disjointed. The suspect accent does nothing to enhance the parts of any of the characters, reducing them to caricatures instead. Intense training in getting the Middle Eastern intonation right would have gone a long way in lending credence to the characters.
Khuda Haafiz is at best an average movie with a run-of-the-mill plot. There’s nothing new in the storyline to make it a talking point. The setting may be called novel by some, but the plot is old as the hills. Of course, it is a narrative plucked out of real life. Countless incidents as the one depicted in Khuda Haafiz have occurred in actuality, with women of different strata and nationalities.
What writer – director Faruk Kabir does in Khuda Haafiz is ensure that our attention doesn’t waver from the narrative for long. The beginning, when he sets up the premise, is a bit of a drag. But that is only because the first action sequence takes place an hour into the 2 hour 15 minute movie. Once things pick up pace, the narrative moves at a fast clip. The action sequences are well structured and shot, though not as brilliant as one would expect them to be.
All said and done, Khuda Haafiz is a fairly average movie, made watchable solely because of Vidyut Jammwal’s earnest performance.
The music by Mithoon is average. Despite roping in distinguished voices such as Vishal Dadlani, Arman Malik, Sonu Nigam and Asees Kaur, the numbers are far from memorable.
The cinematography by Jitan Harmeet Singh is unexceptional. He had a blank canvas to play with, in the vast tracts of open desert and quaint villages of the shoot locales. But he fails to leverage them to his advantage.
Highlights?
Drawbacks?
Did I Enjoy It?
Not as much as I hoped to
Will You Recommend It?
Only as a one-time watch
Khuda Haafiz Review by Binged Bureau