Renowned playwright-turned-screenwriter Khalilur Rehman Qamar’s next film, after last year’s money-spinner Punjab Nahi Jaungi, is titled Kaaf Kangana. An Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) production, the feature is rumoured to be a love story between an Indian girl and a Pakistani boy. The two meet at a SAARC conference and fall in love. Qamar has already hinted at the filmbeing an intense emotional drama about unattained love, and you can’t help fishing for similarities with Bollywood’s Veer Zara (2004), except that the roles have been reversed here.
Incidentally, just as in the Yash Chopra blockbuster, Kaaf and Kangana are the names of the film’s leading lady and man, played by rising TV star Eshal Fayyaz and Sami Khan respectively. Providing a third angle to the story is the character played by model-singer-actress Ayesha Omar (last seen in 2017’s Yalghar).
The film’s casting has an interesting back story to it. Reportedly, Sohai Ali Abro was signed on for the main part. But before anyone knew it, she had been replaced by Urwa Hocane who, it was said, had impressed Qamar a great deal in his PNJ. And now we know that Fayyaz is in, and Hocane out.
Kaaf… marks Qamar’s debut as a film director. Earlier he has scripted the award-winning film Qarz (1997) and many critically acclaimed TV serials such as Boota From Toba Tek Singh (1999), Landa Bazaar (2013), Love, Life Aur Lahore (2013), Pyare Afzal (2013), Sadqay Tumhare (2014), and Mohabbat Tum Se Nafrat Hai (2017), all of which also proved to be commercially successful.
In 2008, Qamar came around to directing a Punjabi film, titled Channa Sachi Muchi, which starred Saima, Babar Ali, Hina Shaheen, and Mehr Hassan. But creative differences with producer Ijaz Bajwa saw him out of the project midway. Later, we know how the film’s script also underwent several changes, as Bajwa took over the directorial reins. That Channa… proved to be a washout at the box-office and was also panned by the critics might have been some consolation for Qamar who felt he had been wronged.
With Kaaf Kangana, of course, he is in full command. And fans of his writing are looking forward to another winner. The film is expected to release later this year.
