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I have to begin this review with a disclaimer: Mostly movies -- be that bollywood, Hollywood or Pakistani, tend to find it hard to engage me and sustain my interest. However, Janaan is an exception -- it does this job well and how. Initially, the beautiful cast and the spectacularly scenic locations case their spell on you. When you are past that, the well scripted jovial camaraderie between the male leads (and the bride and the groom) and the beautiful family setup take over. Once we are through with that, the movie transitions to a very intelligent depiction of a very relevant social issue that rarely gets any cinematic attention.The villainy and drama also make their entry at this point. And by the end, all three strands -- the comedy, the social drama and love-triangle are neatly tied together to leave you moist eyed and smiling widely.

Bilal Ashraf and Armeena Khan do reasonably well to lend credibility to their characters, and Ali Rehman Khan comes out as the movie's darling. Supporting performances by Ajab Gul and a few others (the evil aunt, very relatable, gets a special mention) are spot on. Sets are adequately eye catching without being Devdas-type fantasies. Music, especially the title track is too good. The best part is that while social issues are given serious attention, the portrayal and is intelligent enough to make you detest the person involved without you squirm in your seat with ugly details.

In general, loved everything in the movie, heck even my mom, who NEVER likes movies, loved this one. Kudos to the entire team for making this film and I hope and pray it pays them handsome dividends so that they continue to amaze and enthrall Pakistani audiences with such films.

Oh, and Shalwar Kameez will be a RAGE after this movie (even for the jetset trendy crowd).

Dekh Magar Pyaar Say offers a very interesting cinematic experience for those who are uninitiated to Pakistani cinema. This is not an over the top, lavishly mounted bollywood masala flick -- it has some sensibilities of an independent film, such as a novelist taking over the avatar of a screenplay/dialogue writer, and borrows in its narrative style and visuals from contemporary western cinema. Some sequences, such as the 50s themed song and dance sequence ("Tauba Tauba") are surreal enough to let it drag into the more experimental territory.

Yet it remains a pretty accessible, commercial movie. Centered around the encounters and affairs of a Lahori rickshaw driver and a scam artist/bride on the run, the movie runs at a length of close to two and a half hours, and offers everything from a desi wedding sequence, the leading lady getting high on pot and a grand finale shot in London. What lets it down are some rather sophomoric performances (from the male lead, Sikander Rizvi, specifically) and a screenplay which runs at a pace that would put a sloth to shame.

Props to the team for depicting Lahore in a very unusual manner,the excellent production values, and the underlying message of woman power -- but better casting choices and a couple of revisions of the screenplay would have done this movie much good. Hopefully, Asad Haq, the gentleman directing the movie, will keep up with the visual and quirk factor in his future productions and build on the shortfalls highlighted by this movie. The chief among these, as mentioned previously, is Sikander Rizvi, who in real life runs a french fine dining eatery in Karachi. Rizvi comes across as the antithesis of a rickshaw driver, and his body language, accented Urdu and mannerisms were hugely ill-suited for the role. So much so that his is performance made it tremendously difficult to suspend disbelief and served as an unpleasant distraction; hopefully better sense will prevail in the future.

The film gets a high score for Humaima Malick's performance, the excellent visuals, an interesting plot and generally tasteful production values.

They'll tell you its a story of sacrifice, with some stupendous performances. But really its just dreary and dull trash, this guy Amitabh turns in a 'restrained' performance that borders on the contrived - a problem with most actors from Bollywood; their acting is plain contrived. Lifted across-the-border music [Yeh larka from the original 'Falak pay kaisa', the hit from the mid 80s] does not add much zing to the proceedings. And who was this actress with this Cleopatra like 60s hairdo?? Gawd, guys, get a better person to do that next time!!

Only watch if you relish boredom. Really, its just another one in the long list of cinematic trash churned out by the Indie movie industry.