Bin Roye is a story about three star-crossed lovers who are all caught up in their unsaid emotions and feelings; classic symptoms when entangled in a love triangle. The plot is not particularly unique — it subtly reminds us of 1998’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai — and the movie could have used tighter, sharper editing, but the star of the movie is undoubtedly Mahira Khan, who plays the protagonist Saba.
Khan is powerful in the movie, transitioning smoothly from a shy girl in love to a raging, heart-broken, jealous woman and on to a subdued, guilt-stricken person.
The movie begins by introducing Saba and Irtaza’s (Humayun Saeed) relationship. Saba is hopelessly in love with Irtaza, but he treats her like his best friend, not a love interest. (A sign to all that women can be friend-zoned too.)
Irtaza leaves for the US for two years, for reasons not particularly explained, one of the many plot holes that exist in the movie. There he meets Sanam (Armeena Rana Khan) and falls in love. Here we are introduced to a subplot: Sanam is Saba’s elder sister, and she was given to her uncle and aunt as a child (again, not explained) and was raised in the US. Sanam theoretically should not know about this, but she does. It is her real parents who are not aware that she knows the truth and when they find out, they are surprised that she chose to keep mum.
This subplot probably makes much more sense in the book Bin Roye Ansoo, on which this movie is based, but is not properly fleshed out in the film. In fact, it could have been scratched out completely as it did not contribute significantly to the larger storyline.
Sanam’s foster parents die in a plane crash and Irtaza brings her back to Pakistan. Upon learning she has an elder sister, Saba is at first overjoyed, but she turns tables, literally, when she finds out Irtaza and Sanam are in love and to be married.
The need for better editing was dire as the setting and the plot would jump abruptly from one point to the next before you could catch up with what was happening. Time also seems fluid in this film — it passes quickly, even though the actors don’t seem to age.
While Khan enacts her role effortlessly, the same cannot be said for her co-stars. Saeed seems stiff (even a smile seems to take painstaking effort) and Armeena Rana Khan is just a pretty face whose delivery of dialogues sounds like she’s still reading from a script. The roles of Javed Shaikh and Zeba Bakhtiar are limited and are used more as props.
The music, however, was notable and catchy, and could make a dent in the mainstream sector.
While the movie may have some flaws, it should definitely be watched for the exceptional acting of Mahirah Khan.
— Nadia Lewis is an intern at Gulf News
