First, a teaser of the teaser, and now the official teaser itself. That’s how Ali Zafar is promoting his first Pakistani feature, titled Teefa in Trouble.
The Rockstar singer created a #TeefaKaunHai? (Who is Teefa?) campaign with a larger-than-life entry for a musical performance at the recent opening ceremony of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in Dubai, outfitted in his Teefa avatar.
He was in full masti (fun) mode, perhaps because that’s what his upcoming film’s genre is: action-comedy, with loads of music — and, why not. After all, any project that Zafar has been a part of — in Bollywood or elsewhere — has had him compose and/or sing a track or two.
Here, being one of the producers on the film as well as the lead actor, he couldn’t not have helmed the soundtrack. And, of course, with one of his best buddies from college days — ace ad filmmaker Ahsan Rahim — in the director’s seat, the Channo guy is in an even more comfortable space to attempt all the things he ever wanted to on screen but was either limited by the length of his role (think Kill Dil and Dear Zindagi!) or a lacklustre script (London Paris New York).
Back home, though, his many talents have been utilised more effectively. Check out his old video, Rangeen, for instance, where he showcased his perfect comic timing and mimicry skills (remember the famous Dev Anand-style frown, and the tilt of the head?), not to mention his malleable (read versatile) looks — one minute he’s the bespectacled nerd, the other a cool dude with a swagger. In Aag, he is the angry young man with an unkempt look on his face and fire in his eyes. Or, Sajannia, for that matter, where he totes gun and saunters into a casino, looking dapper in a suit.
Teefa in Trouble’s teaser, which is said to have already got one million views on YouTube within two days of its online release, establishes the fact that this is going to be the kind of launch pad in films that Zafar has deserved for a long time. Tere Bin Laden (2009), despite being a box office success and a solo hero project, was far less of a mainstream product than Hrithik Roshan’s Kaho Na Pyar Hai, Tiger Shroff’s Hero, or Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra’s Student of the Year, to name only a few.
The teaser introduces Zafar in the titular role of a gangster with a heart of gold and a capacity for humour; also a penchant for a designer wardrobe. Zafar is in charge as he zips through a narrow street in a city, scaling walls and jumping off a rooftop before he lands on his feet in a nifty chase sequence. It’s clearly a character that is written with him in mind. In other words, Teefa is expected to be a vehicle for Zafar’s star status.
In a matter of a few, carefully picked, images that the teaser throws your way, leading lady Maya Ali too never fails to impress. Senior actor Jawed Shaikh also comes across as menacing.
The film, which is a Lightingale Production, was earlier scheduled for a May 2018 release. But now it’s been pushed to July 22. That means a couple of weeks after Eid Al Fitr. In any case, Zafar and Rahim shouldn’t worry too much. If the one-minute-19-second long teaser is anything to go by, they have a winner on hand already.
