Hira Khan Moor. Was the hype deserved? . The movie started well. The place was beautiful, camera angles were refreshing and different from those I have seen in previous Pakistani movies. Individual scenes were shot beautifully and care was taken of the little details. It was a poetic depiction of a story.Editing was loose at some places and some scenes were patched on very abruptly. Casting and acting was OK, better than previous Pakistani movies. Some actors did fit in their roles. Shaz Khan was OK in his role of Ehsaan but he did not leave any lasting impression. It was his father Hameed Sheikh playing the role of the station master, who did a good job. Samiya Mumtaz as usual, did justice to her role. Sara, the sister spoke beautifully in a voice coated with honey, though her accent was way off for a Baloch girl. Amber, his girlfriend was convincing in her small role. Ehsan's friend was good too. Another important role was Baggoo, whose character I did not find adorable, at all. Dialogues were average, nothing I would feel compelled to quote. But coming to the most important ingredient of a good film: the story, It was not gripping. At all. It was as boring as the trailer made it seem. I failed to develop any concern for any character, let alone an emotional connection. It was a third party viewing and analyzing. It also appeared as if director was trying to complicate a very simple thing. This is modern story telling but I personally think it is appropriate when the story has more to reveal. You can shoot a cat drinking milk from three angles but in the end if the cat is only drinking milk, it's boring. There's no twist to it. People are going to lose interest. I also don't know how the conscience of people suddenly wakes up from its deep slumber by one or two emotional situations. It is the director's responsibility to bridge the gap between the good and bad by a convincing turn of events. Character development was not as bad as in previous lollywood films but still. disappointing. Predictable. Utopian. Nothing new. Possibly the only thing I actually enjoyed about the movie was the background music with the beautiful shots of Balochistan. I wanted that to go on and on. (Admittedly, towards the end it was also because i wanted to avoid the movie) Some nuances: In one scene Ehsaan says after reading her mother lab reports that she was diagnosed with Broken heart syndrome. Seriously? One cannot read different interesting conditions on internet and diagnose the characters in his movie with it. No one is diagnosed with 'broken heart syndrome' on a lab report,as such. It's a retrospective diagnosis made on 'speculation'. It is a term coined for the very rare occasions when someone experiences severe heart conditions and there is no physical abnormality that explains it, and if the only explanation could be psychological stress or trauma . No one diagnoses it on 'lab reports'. What a piece of fiction! . In retrospect, would i want to watch this movie if i knew what it was like? No. I wouldn't. It is just another movie which made me feel that i sat through it to encourage local cinema. Was the hype deserved? No. If this was Pakistan cinema at its finest then they sure have a long way to go.

Amir Haleem Syed Its difficult to do reviews about movies for me as most directors are either acquaintances or friends. So I generally watch the movies but avoid writing about them. The last few local films have also left me disappointed... it almost seems as if the editing was done by amateurs and the script was dreamt up by an 11 year old. Pakistani cinema is going through an evolution/ revolution so I prefer to be patient and supportive.With that disposition I quietly ventured into Moor. Before I even stepped into the cinema I grabbed a large bag of popcorn as in the recent past it has proved to be the only source of nourishment during local movies... but then the film started. The opening shot I think was 3 to 5 seconds long. That single shot was so rich in cinematography... the camera angle, framing and the monochrome light play that it literally blew my mind away. If it was a stand alone still shot it would win some photography award somewhere.Cinematography: What should I say? Jami displays amazing skills to establish his story through his choice of lens, light and color. Added to this his sense of establishing time and space, in the barren yet gorgeous Baluchistan terrain, is absolutely brilliant. He uses the emptiness of the environment so well to amplify the emptiness in the lives of his characters and the helplessness they sometimes feel. But the best thing about his cinematography is that it allows him to immerse the viewer into the world of Moor, thereby making it redundant to have unnecessary talkies that most other film makers use to establish their scenes.Narrative: By Pakistani standards an absolute feat in itself. For the first time I have scene a movie which has the absolutely right balance of story telling and leaving just enough space to pull the viewer in, forcing him to think and evolve with the story using his own imagination. The barometer for the narrative's success is how quickly we were able to empathize with each character. I mean, forget the main characters, even the smallest roles like the stepmother who was responsible for so much misery,... you felt the loathing for her and her antics. Which director in this country works so hard on his screenplay to establish side stories and tertiary characters to that level?Sound Design: Possibly one of the best listening experiences since Khuda Kay Liye. While to some directors sound design basically means an 'item number', Jami has roped in the huge talents of the Strings to weave a rich tapestry of sound that perfectly helps drive the right emotion at the right moment in the film. Rather then try to hijack the story, the sound compliments the narrative, perfectly amplifying and strengthening it. At moments it seems your own heart is beating to the chords and the rhythm from the percussions... the right catalyst to escape my daily reality and enter the world of Moor.Editing: So I saved my favorite part of the movie for the last. The biggest bone I have to pick with Pakistani producers and directors is the absolute third class editing skills they have displayed recently. The jumps in the storyline sometimes are so absurd that it seems that a first semester film student was putting together a weekend project for his class assignment. Jami outdoes all his peers by displaying some near fantastic cutting skills with his scissors. His mastery of time and continuity by piecing together his shots is what brings the entire narrative alive, immerses you in his world, helps drive empathy for the characters and keeps your brain constantly engaged in anticipation of what happens next.The film is being considered as one of the best works in cinematography, editing, sound design and screenplay coming out of Pakistan.

MP Thank you Jami for reviving Pakistani Cinema. Moor was an absolute stunner - beautiful shots and amazing storyline. Characterization was immense. The dialogues are simple yet gripping. My most favourite dialogue from the film is when Ehsan screams and cries and says, "Moorgi ko bula dou, mujhey woh samjha dein gi (Please call my mother, she will make me understand)" - this dialogue perfectly sums up the relationship. Wahid's character was so powerful that you forget the heartthrob Ehsan at times and want Wahid to speak up. Though have a very conventional ending but were driven to the conclusion in a smooth way. Must watch.

Hamza Ashraf After watching Jami's O21, I had high hopes for MOOR because he doesn't follow the usual ingredients of a Lollywood or Bollywood movie. Surely, MOOR wasn't your typical Indian musical or a romcom. The basic story line is powerful, it deals with corruption in railways, neglect of government for Balochistan, moral degradation of society (particularly Karachi), lust of man for money and bonding within the family. What Jami failed to do this time was to create a steady momentum of the story. Movie seems to be a product of bad editing where haphazard scenes collide. The first 50 minutes seemed like a psychological thriller where a man is marred with the guilt of not saving his mother in his childhood. Also those 50 minutes could have been shown in a total of 15 minutes span. Scenes are shot in detail from an artistic point of view not from storytelling perspective. The emotional scenes are so long that they affect the whole feeling in it. The director failed to project the characters emotions. Dialogues seemed to be a rip off of an old moral story that mothers in Pakistan tell their kids and they were prolonged for no particular reason. You have got your railway corruption, backwardness of Balochistan and moral dilemmas being shown at the same time, nothing is wrong with it… but poor editing made it confusing for the audience to concentrate to all of it. The light background music wasn't effective during the dialogues as it should have been. Shots were too much zoomed in. There is hardly a scene where you see a character's full body or the environment he/she is in (apart from the outside shots in Balochistan). It was as if cameraman didn't knew how to zoom out. Maybe the director wanted to show the facial expressions in detail while a character's life is in turmoil but it was all too much. From an artistic directors' point of view, the shots are beautiful. But overall Jami failed to compile the movie to convey a heavy message. You have to assimilate more than 90 minutes to receive this message: Money is not real happiness, family ties are important, Pakistan (motherland) is to be taken care of by every individual and to always act morally.