One day, a Pakistani film editor will take a stand against directors and writers. He will ruthlessly cut down on scenes that do nothing to take the story forward, he will tell the director that his beloved project is too long, and he will not let every shot be included into the final reel. 

 

The film he edits will be the project that will save the industry. 

Neelofer, unfortunately, is not that film. 

 

Bogged down by the film makers' love for Lahore, the film spends an excessive run time showing you all of the city's glory but very little time explaining why the two main leads are doing what they are doing. You may not fathom why the reserved Mansoor falls for the out-there Neelofer on the day he meets her but you will know that he likes to follow her into the narrow lanes of centuries-old colourful bazaars. You will not understand exactly why Mansoor was rejected by Neelofer, but you WILL know that he now likes to forlornly walk about in front of the pre-partition buildings of Mall Road. 

 

The story is simple enough. Famous writer Mansoor Ali Khan, mourning the death of his wife, falls for Neelofer, who meets him in an opthalmologist's clinic while preparing for a transplant to cure her blindness. 

 

The film spends upwards of an hour establishing the romance between the introvert hero and spunky heroine as they go through a checklist of Lahore's famous spots. Rooftop in androon complete with pigeons? Check. Dinner at the charming Nairang Gallery? Check. Driving the dodge-em cars amidst Joyland's bright colours? Check. 

 

Much less time is spent on the villain who will eventually drive a rift between them. In fact he gets a total of three scenes. We will have to take the script's word that he is jealous of Mansoor's success without knowing why. 

 

Other characters breeze in and out at the writer's whim, adding nothing to the story. Atiqa Odho gets two scenes and perhaps three lines, none of which were important enough to cast such a big name in. Samiya Mumtaz plays a charming eye-doctor who we see interacting with Mansoor but not with Neelofer, a lost opportunity to explore the medical disability that is a major driving force in the story. 

 

There are bright points that show you what the film could have been like without the bloat. Neelofer is thankfully not a pitiful creature. She's confident, smart and played with plenty of abandon by Mahira Khan. Fawad Khan's protagonist is charming enough to make the walls swoon. One scene at a railway station plays to both Mahira's and Fawad's strengths, taking their chemistry off the charts. Another one at Walton's old air strip keeps you hooked with the raw vulnerability of the unlikely couple who don't know much about each other. 

 

Towards the end of the film, everything gets crammed in quite haphazardly to end the film. There is a hint of a love triangle that then gets gobbled up in haste. An Indian angle gets sprung on the audiences out of the blue. Gohar Rasheed is completely wasted as the voice of reason in a lurid talk show. 

 

What we are left with is a film that could have been much better had director Ammar Rasool recognised that the clunky material he wrote does not need indulgent adoration but a firm hand at the helm.