Tag: trending

  • Athletics Federation of Pakistan invites boy who jumped over 11 motorcycles for further training

    Athletics Federation of Pakistan invites boy who jumped over 11 motorcycles for further training

    The Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) has invited the aspiring long jumper, whose video went viral on social media, for further training, journalist Faizan Lakhani has shared. The boy, Asif Magsi who hails from Thatta can be seen jumping over 11 motorcycles in the video.

    Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Dr Fehmida Mirza also shared that the Athletics Federation is in touch with him.

    According to details, AFP President Major General Akram Sahi (retired), who himself was the long jump champion of Pakistan, contacted the 21-year-old and invited him for further training to Lahore.

    Sharing his thoughts on the young talent, General Sahi said: “This is a great moment for me as I was also the champions of Pakistan in the long jump. I am impressed with his talent and he could be a great asset for Pakistan.

    “He has great potential,” he added.

    General Sahi also said that the first question he asked him was if he ever got injured.

    “Thankfully, his answer was no, and I have advised him to stay safe till we meet in Lahore, as I have already invited him.”

    Meanwhile, Asif while speaking to various media outlets said he developed the skill while making Tik Tok videos. He said he wanted to make different videos which have the potential to go viral.

    “I wanted to join the Pakistan Army since childhood. So I started making videos based on national songs, and with each passing day my passion for jumping increased as have my jumps.”

    He said that he aims to set a new world record and make his country proud. The world record for the long jump is currently 8.95 meters while the Asian record is 8.33 meters.

    The video of the boy was originally shared by journalist Mohi Shah and soon went viral on social media. It even caught the attention of multiple Olympic award-winning athlete Carl Lewis, who remarked that “with his lack of fear, he has the perfect mindset”.

    The video also caught the attention of several public personalities including Minister of Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi, former Governor Sindh Mohammad Zubair and Fahad Mustafa who urged the Sports Board to take notice of the boy and train him.

    Other Twitter users also urged the Sports Board of Pakistan to hone this raw talent.

    Later, a video of the young man jumping over a canal also went viral on social media.

  • ‘Parey Hut Love’ is all about aesthetics

    ‘Parey Hut Love’ is all about aesthetics

    Of all the films releasing this Eid, Parey Hut Love was probably the most hyped. Everything about the film – cast, set, costumes, locations – was larger than life and the cast of the film promoted it to death. So much so that even if you weren’t interested in the film, you’d still want to see what it is all about.

    Naturally, that raises expectations and that’s when things begin to go down. I entered the cinema excited and left the cinema deflated because the film did not match up to my expectations and what I had been promised.

    To begin with, there was no story and half an hour into the film, I had figured out the plot. Parey Hut Love is the story of Sheheryar (Munawar), a commitment-phobic struggling actor who meets Saniya (Maya Ali) at a family wedding. The two spend time together and fall in love. Saniya, who lives in Turkey heads back with the promise that the two will keep in touch. However, Sheheryar’s phone is stolen and Saniya thinks that he has ditched her and is heartbroken. The rest of the film follows the duo as they find their way back to each other despite almost getting hitched to other people.

    The entire film was just lots of beautiful wedding scenes put together with many of the scenes inspired by Bollywood movies. You will find references from Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Hum Tum and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and even from the Hollywood film Dear Rosie. I personally felt the plot was heavily borrowed from Dear Rosie and Hum Tum.

    There was no flow of scenes and some of them, like Mahira’s entry, were so abrupt that it took you a while to put things together and figure out what was going on. It’s like the makers forgot that they had a story to tell.

    Parey Hut Love belonged to Sheheryar and Sheheryar only. His character was the only one which was given attention and developed properly while the rest of the movie was rushed. Sheheryar and Saniya’s love story was poorly written. Maya barely had any dialogues and she was a little more than a showpiece.

    Zara Noor Abbas and Ahmed Ali Butt were wasted in the film and their roles terribly written. Zara is a talented actor and her comic timing is brilliant which is why I honestly felt upset with the way she was presented. I wish she had more screentime and her character had been more developed because she lit up the screen every time she came on. Also, why wasn’t her styling given the same amount of importance as Maya? While Maya breezed through the film in one gorgeous outfit after another, Zara’s outfits and looks were lazily done. The makeup was also a letdown – the lip colours too light and the eyes heavily done. Maya is a stunning actor and she stole the screen in Teefa in Trouble. In Parey Hut Love not so much.

    Zara looks out of place in this coral pink outfit

    On the flip, the cinematography, especially the ariel shots, locations, costumes, sets were amazing because of which the film was aesthetically very pleasing. The songs were also beautiful. Kudos to Azaan Sami Khan for delivering one stellar track after another and to Nigah Jee for the brilliant choreography. Morey Saiyaan, Ik Pal and Haye Dil Bechara were a treat to watch and frankly the biggest takeaway from the film.

    Read more – ‘Parey Hut Love’s Haye Dil Bechara inspired or copied?

    Munawar has grown as an actor and honed his talent. He has also worked on his physique and all his hard work showed in the film. Maya could have done much better. Ahmed, Zara and Hina Dilapazeer gave some of the best moments from the film with their impeccable comedy.

    The surface of Parey Hut Love was polished till it sparkled while little to no attention was paid to the core – the inside of the film was hollow.

    Read more – Sushant Singh Rajput’s ‘Dil Bechara’ leaves you wanting more

    Watch our video review:

    Note – This article was updated on August 1, 2020. With no new movies hitting cinemas this year due to the COVID-19 lockdown, TV channels are airing their previous releases. Parey Hut Love was 2019’s highest-grossing film.

  • Cheating husbands, badass women & girl power: ‘Churails’ promises to be ‘witchy’ delight

    Cheating husbands, badass women & girl power: ‘Churails’ promises to be ‘witchy’ delight

    The trailer of Cake director Asim Abbasi’s original web series Churails, featuring Sarwat Gilani, Nimra Bucha, Mehar Bano and Yasra Rizvi, has finally dropped and it is more than what we could have ever wished for. The trailer promises lots of action, drama and badass women taking on misogyny head-on. It is unlike anything Pakistan has ever seen before.

    Churails “is the story of a lawyer(Gilani), wedding planner(Rizvi), convict (Bucha) and boxer (Meharbano), who come together to form a secret detective agency with the purpose to find and expose unfaithful husbands amongst Karachi’s elite, operating under the guise of a fashion store named ‘Halal Designs’. As their operations expand, they come to be saviours of abused, harassed and mistreated women.”

    According to a press release, the show “aims to challenge the hypocrisy of patriarchal societies that vanquish women and their rights.”

    “The gripping and fast-paced storyline covers myriad of issues such as child abuse, sexism, the domination of class and race and aims to challenge the hypocrisy of patriarchal societies that vanquish women and their rights,” it adds.

    The makers of the show define churails as “she who takes ownership of her life and is unapologetic of her being. She who breaks the glass ceiling and every prejudice that society has created against women.”

    “She who is strong, she who is fierce, she stands for what she believes in… she is a ‘churail’.”

    Director Asim Abbasi, while speaking about the project said that the story is about “strong women, embarking on a journey of self-discovery, empowerment and sisterhood.”

    The 10-episode series is expected to stream from August 11 on ZEE5 Global’s Zindagi channel. Omair Rana, Adnan Malik, Sania Saeed and Hina Bayat are also part of the ensemble cast.

    The trailer has already made noise and has received praise from both sides of the border.

    Watch the trailer below:

  • Pakistani woman creates board game to help girls ‘escape’ an arranged marriage

    Pakistani woman creates board game to help girls ‘escape’ an arranged marriage

    When Nashra Balagamwala’s Pakistani family started pressuring her into an arranged marriage, she decided to get creative to avoid the myriad of suitors being foisted upon her.

    Nashra Balagamwala

    Like many young women in South Asia, she was targeted by older women, nicknamed ‘Rishta aunties’, who wanted to pair her up with eligible men. Arranged marriages — where a couple are matched by family members — are common in South Asia. Netflix’s recent series Indian Matchmaking shed light on the topic and became an instant hit trending in both Pakistan and India.

    Read more – ‘Indian Matchmaking’: Who is Sima Taparia from Mumbai?

    Speaking of her own experience, Nashra said, “It truly started when I was 18, right as my sister got married … literally, the day of the wedding, all the aunties started coming up to me and saying, ‘You’re next, you’re next.”

    “I’d wear the fake engagement rings, or whenever an auntie was looking I’d pour an extra helping of food on my plate,” she said, as the matchmakers considered women who didn’t watch their figure to be less desirable brides.

    Those real-life strategies inspired her to create the board game “Arranged!” where players take the role of teenage girls trying to escape an ‘auntie’, which features in Gamemaster, a documentary about aspiring game designers released this month.

    Wanting a different life, Balagamwala convinced her family to allow her to wait until she was 21 — and as she reached the deadline as a student at Rhode Island School of Design in the United States, she came up with the idea for the game.

    “When I was going back for the winter break, my parents had a boy lined up for me to meet,” she said.

    “So to de-stress from that I started creating this list of all the crazy things I used to do, or that my cousins used to do, to try to discourage the Rishta aunties.”

    In “Arranged!,” the girls attempt to deter auntie by drawing cards with commands like getting a tattoo, wearing a sleeveless shirt, talking about pursuing a career, or being seen hugging a male friend.

    But cards like being able to make a perfectly round roti flat bread, or having a sister who is known to be very obedient to her in-laws, move auntie closer to a player.

    When the board game was released in 2017, it drew anger from some acquaintances in Pakistan — but the media attention also made Balagamwala an undesirable wife in the eyes of the aunties and convinced her family to stop pressing her to marry.

    On the contrary, she was contacted by dozens of young women, mostly from India, who said the game helped them to start conversations with their families and opened their eyes to the stress they felt.

    “Now they’re like, ‘You do you, find your own guy,” laughed Balagamwala, who is currently studying for a master’s degree exploring the links between design and social justice at Harvard University.

    “There is still a little bit of that stress in their hearts and minds where they are like, ‘Oh my God, she’s 27 and there’s no boy on the horizon’ so I think that stresses them out,” she added.

  • ‘Dil Bechara’ leaves you wanting more

    ‘Dil Bechara’ leaves you wanting more

    There are often times in life when you’re at loss for words. And writing this review is one of those moments because there is so much to say but no words to express my emotions. Sushant Singh Rajput passed away on June 14 due to suicide but the mystery surrounding his sudden death remains, leaving one restless and searching for answers. His unexpected death impacted Bollywood fans across the world in a way no one could have imagined. In midst of all this, Disney Hotstar announced that they would release the actor’s last film digitally on their streaming platform and make it available to everyone with the aim to celebrate his life and legacy. The move was welcomed by his fans as they felt that the film would give them the closure they have been searching for. But unfortunately, the film ends up widening the void instead of closing it because, by the time the credits roll in, you’re emotional, teary-eyed and wishing that the film would never end because you just want to continue watching Sushant weave his magic on screen.

    Read more – Trailer of Sushant Singh Rajput’s last film ‘Dil Bechara’ trends at number one on YouTube Pakistan

    Dil Bechara is the official Hindi adaption of The Fault in Our Stars. It is the story of two cancer patients Kizie and Manny, whose paths cross at a cancer support group. Though Kizie initially finds Manny ‘irritating and annoying’, Manny with his goofy antics soon becomes the centre of Kizie’s universe. He makes her laugh and forget her worries and gives her ‘boring’ life a whole new meaning. The two bond over music and movies and become inseparable. But life throws them another curveball and Manny, whose cancer was believed to have gone, returns leaving him terminally ill.

    While Dil Bechara Sushant’s last film, it is debutante Sanjana Sanghani’s first film and also marks the directorial debut of renowned casting director Mukesh Chhabra. Sanjana makes a sound debut and is confident in her role but for me, the film is only Sushant, who steals the shows with his infectious smile and on-screen presence. From the minute he comes on the screen to the minute he says Seri in the last shot, my eyes were glued to him throughout and I wished the film didn’t end. A master performer, Sushant did not let his fans down with his swan song. His expressions and body language were brilliant and he slipped into Manny’s character with finesse.

    Given the circumstances surrounding the film’s release, emotions are naturally running high and it is impossible to not relate Sushant’s untimely death with Manny’s. In particular, the last scene, when everyone gathers to watch Manny’s film. At that point, the lines between real and reel were so blurred you forgot you were watching a movie because everything just felt so real.

    The last scene

    A.R Rahman’s music beautifully blended in with the mood of the film and the setting of the frames, giving the film a magical touch. My personal favourite from the album has to be Main Tumhara.

    Some of the film’s dialogues were also amazing and I see them becoming a thing. One of them – “Jeena kab hai aur marna kab hai yeh hum decide nahi kartay, laikin jeena kaisay hain, yeh hum decide kar saktay hain” – has already become iconic and synonymous with Sushant.

    As much as I want to only heap praises on the film for having its heart in the right place and being a touching watch, it would be unfair to ignore its shortcomings which mainly lied in the direction and editing. The story and characters are underdeveloped, especially Manny’s. All through the film, I kept waiting for a backstory on Manny – just some basic details would have sufficed. However, apart from the fact that he’s rich and doesn’t need to work, we don’t get much on Manny or his family. Sushant’s portrayal of Manny was the only saving grace of an otherwise poorly written character.

    More so, the editing is choppy and appears to have been lazily done. Given that the film was a tribute to Sushant, I wish the makers had put in more effort in post-production. The film currently runs for one hour forty minutes and could have easily been stretched to two hours to tie up loose ends.

    Since its release, I’ve watched Dil Bechara twice and will perhaps watch it a couple of times more but only for Sushant. He effortlessly carried the weight of the entire film and pulled it through despite its shortcomings. Sushant lit up the screen every time he made an appearance and I wish the film was longer so he could have stayed with us more.

  • IN PICTURES: Humayun Saeed celebrates his 49th birthday

    IN PICTURES: Humayun Saeed celebrates his 49th birthday

    Pakistan’s favourite superstar Humayun Saeed turned 49 yesterday and celebrated his birthday in a true superstar fashion by cutting multiple cakes.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CDJ8Km2pFgT/

    Humayun’s day started with cake cutting at the ARY Studios in Karachi with his colleagues Fahad Mustafa and Jerjees Seja.

    Following that, Humayun celebrated with his family including wife Samina.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CDKJ-mepktZ/

    Love the cake and basket of flowers!

    Read more – Humayun Saeed to play an Islamic hero in Khalil Ur Rehman Qamar’s historical epic

    Later, Humayun celebrated his day with his boys gang which included Adnan Siddiqui, Nadeem Baig, Asim Jofa, Farhan Saeed and Imran Ashraf.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CDKeeNqnvoH/

    Wishing our favourite actor a very happy birthday! If it was not for COVID-19, we would have been seeing Humayun on the big screen this Eid ul Azha in London Nahi Jaunga.

  • Bureaucracy in Naya Pakistan: Deputy commissioner ‘tortures’ subordinates over ‘poor performance’

    Bureaucracy in Naya Pakistan: Deputy commissioner ‘tortures’ subordinates over ‘poor performance’

    Despite Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan telling bureaucrats that they need to change their mindsets because “there is no room for ancient practices in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Naya Pakistan”, The Current has learnt details of the harrowing experience of a group of junior bureaucrats who were “subjected to torture” by their boss in Toba Tek Singh district of Punjab.

    According to sources, at least four of the said junior bureaucrats — currently serving as assistant commissioners (ACs) in different parts of the district — were subjected to torture by the deputy commissioner (DC) who “robbed” them of their official vehicles on late Saturday night and forced them to walk back to their posts over “poor performance”.

    “The ACs included those of Toba Tek Singh, Kamalia, Pir Mahal and Gojra tehsils,” they said and added the junior bureaucrats were ridiculed in front of lower staff of the DC Office as well as that of their own. “Reprimanding your juniors over unsatisfactory performance is one thing but mistreating them, the way it was in this case, is outrageous.”

    Speaking to The Current, one of the ACs, on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that they had been subjected to torture as the DC, besides taking away their official vehicles, had also mistreated them by forcing them to stand outside the office as a punishment until around 1 am when they were told to walk back home. “We managed to make arrangements for our commute but three of us were women, and family members of my colleagues believe the mistreatment has scarred their daughters for life.”

    “This is not at all acceptable and we want the government to take action but it can cost us our careers,” said the AC, to which sources said that the victims feared calling their boss out or approaching high-ups because their immediate superior, which in this case is the DC, is responsible to evaluate them in the annual confidential report (ACR) that is a performance evaluation of a public servant.

    Toba Tek Singh tehsil AC, on the other hand, rejected his own colleagues’ claims. “It was just a routine meeting and nothing happened,” he said. When informed that his colleagues had already confirmed the claims regarding their mistreatment, the AC said “the DC can say anything to her officers”.

    “It was a meeting between the DC and her officers and we, under ethics of the service, are bound to obey the orders of our seniors.”

    Contrary to Toba Tek Singh AC’s beliefs, several other public servants and locals privy to the development are of the view that the DC “must be transferred for the sake of the people of the district as Eidul Azha and Muharram amid the coronavirus pandemic are around the corner and local authorities under such a supervisor cannot give their best at a sensitive time”.

    “There is a difference between running a tight ship and stooping as low as the DC did,” they say, urging Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar to take action.

    Repeated attempts were made to contact Toba Tek Singh DC as she was informed of the claims made by her subordinates but she did not comment.

    Attempts were also made to contact Punjab Information Minister Fayazul Hasan Chohan to ask him about the government’s reaction to the incident and progress on its promise of revamping bureaucracy for better governance, but he too was unavailable.

    Meanwhile, PTI Toba Tek Singh President Dr Waheed Akbar Chaudhry and local leader as well as Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar’s brother, Chaudhry Muhammad Ramzan, have “appreciated” the DC over her treatment of the ACs.

    “People are always complaining about these officers for doing nothing. Whatever the DC has done was the right thing to do and we hope she will continue discharging her duties diligently and without any leniency,” they said in a statement.

  • Did you know Diamond Supreme Foam has an ‘Islamic mattress’?

    Did you know Diamond Supreme Foam has an ‘Islamic mattress’?

    One of Pakistan’s leading mattress manufacturers, Diamond Supreme Foam, has an ‘Islamic mattress’, which the bedding industry giant boasts is the first in Pakistan.

    According to details available on the company’s website, the mattress called ‘Saha’ has “scientifically been developed and balanced for every body type based on Islamic principles”.

    “The Saha is Pakistan’s first Islamic mattress engineered for people who sleep on their back or their right side which is the Islamic way for sleeping,” says the description of the mattress that costs around Rs17,000.

    Medical science tells us that that the best healthy sleeping position is to sleep on your back or on your right side which is also the Islamic way of sleeping, practiced and taught 1400 years ago, it adds.

    “Sleeping on the right side does not let the weight of stomach and intestine to suppress the heart, hence blood circulation is not affected.  By sleeping on the right side, the heart remains in the topside, and aids the process of rising early before sunrise to perform Fajr: the prayer that starts off the day with the remembrance of God.”

    What do you think of the mattress and the manufacturer’s pitch? Let The Current know in the comments below.

  • ‘Pyar Ke Sadkay’: The curious case of Mahjabeen’s pregnancy

    ‘Pyar Ke Sadkay’: The curious case of Mahjabeen’s pregnancy

    Pyar Ke Sadkay has been treating viewers to a myriad of emotions, the most recent being grief. However, in the latest episode, the makers of the drama take the viewers from grief into total shock by making Mahjabeen (Yumna Zaidi) pregnant. While this is a usual trope in most dramas to bring together estranged couples, in this particular drama it creates confusion because most viewers believed that Mahjabeen and Abdullah (Bilal Abbas Khan) did not consummate their marriage. All through the drama, every time Abdullah’s stepfather Sarwar (Omair Rana) would ask him about his marriage, Abdullah would say that there are no marital relations between him and his wife which is why audiences are now questioning how Mahjabeen could have gotten pregnant.

    Read more – ‘Pyar Ke Sadkay’ takes a disappointing turn

    According to our research and analysis, Mahjabeen and Abdullah consummated their marriage in Episode 16 when they skipped Shanzay’s valima and stayed home instead even though Mahjabeen was all dressed up to attend the wedding. From that moment onwards, Abdullah stopped sleeping on the sofa and moved to the bed.

    The next morning when they went down and sat with Abdullah’s parents, the two were all shy and smiley, hinting the new developments in their relationship.

    While it has now been established that Mahajabeen getting pregnant is not out of the blue, the next question is: was that really necessary? Was that the only way to bring Mahjabeen and Abdullah together? Couldn’t it have been organic with Abdullah realising his love for Mahjabeen and taking a stand for her? At this point, you half wish that the two don’t end up together because Abdullah doesn’t deserve Mahjabeen anymore. He did not value her enough. And though some may argue that he is being misled by Sarwar, we have to accept that Abdullah is not as stupid as he comes across. He’s sharp and intelligent, the only thing he lacks is confidence.

    Apart from that, at some points, it does feel that the drama is being unnecessarily dragged – for instance, the scene at Munshi Sahab’s grave felt extra and out of place. Unless the makers are preparing us for Mahjabeen suddenly becoming rich and powerful. Other than that, I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again, the Shanzay (Yashma Gill) storyline is completely unnecessary. The plot could have moved forward without it. Nonetheless, hoping it wraps up soon so we can focus on the main couple and the evil father-in-law.

    Washma (Shra Asghar), as always stole the show. Washma is one character which I feel every Pakistani drama needs to have: she’s strong, sassy and a doer. She doesn’t sit around waiting for things to happen – she makes them happen. The way she defends Mahjabeen or stands up to Sarwar and her mother, one can’t help but root for her.

    The next couple of episodes should come with interesting developments. We’ll also find out whether Abdullah has signed the divorce papers or he is just pretending to have signed those. But one thing is for sure, Abdullah and Mahjabeen will have a happy ending, or at least that’s my prediction.

  • VIDEO: Ertuğrul’s doppelganger from Karachi goes viral

    VIDEO: Ertuğrul’s doppelganger from Karachi goes viral

    A doppelganger of Turkish actor Engin Altan Düzyatan, who played the role of Ertuğrul Ghazi in the superhit Turkish drama series Diriliş: Ertuğrul has recently been found in Karachi.

    Engin’s lookalike, identified as Mustafa Hanif, lives in Karachi and runs a YouTube channel through which he promotes tourism in the country.

    In a recent interview with a local media outlet, Hanif said that people in his office had seen Diriliş: Ertuğrul before it was aired in Pakistan.

    “I was often told that I look like the leading character of the series but I never paid much attention to it,” said the YouTuber. “When my own family started following the show and said the same, I watched it too and was stunned.”

    He further shared: “Recently, I went to the market without wearing a facemask and a few people recognised me and started talking to me.

    Mustafa also expressed his wish to visit Turkey to meet the cast of the show, including the lead character.

    Read More – Ertuğrul cast to visit Pakistan in Oct/Nov

    Dirilis: Ertugrul is being aired on Pakistan Television (PTV) with Urdu dubbing on the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan. The show has gained immense popularity in a very short time and has set a new record of viewership in the country.