A message hidden behind tropes. Very hidden.

This review is my opinion and contains spoilers.

“Mehrunisa V Lub U” is a 2017 film directed by Yasir Nawaz starring Sana Javed, Danish Taimoor, and Javed Sheikh. A core aspect of the film involves a husband, Ali (Danish Taimoor), attempting to help his wife, Mehrunisa (Sana Javed), who grew up in the mountains, adjust to her new life with him, staring in the busy streets of Karachi. When he declares that he wants to move to make her feel more comfortable, his neighbor tells him that he can’t escape life’s problems. Today, it’s the neighborhood. It’ll be something else tomorrow, and moving won’t be the answer. Ali decides to organize the town and give it a new coat. The town and his family are initially opposed to it, especially considering their lack of time and resources to survive. Ali also faces criticism for being an outsider since he returned home after finishing a degree in China. When he comes home, he brings gifts for everyone in the community. An undercurrent of the argument is that Ali has had a privileged upbringing and doesn’t understand the average person’s experiences in the neighborhood. The backlash is also part of the discomfort with Ali’s preparedness to consider his hometown chaotic and unfit for his child.

After something of a town hall, Ali stands on a stage, able to convince the town that reshaping the neighborhood would improve everyone’s daily life and provide a better foundation for the next generation. The film aligns with a common sentiment in Pakistani cinema and songs where artists ask the audience and listeners to clean their streets. When Ali and Mehrunisa enter the town with their child, the director enters the scene, breaking the fourth wall to plead the message to the audience. While it is a message the ensemble behind him promotes, it’s unclear if this was the message the film meant to convey. While it may come across as a side story, a thread of the plot concerns a politician who seeks to acquire the property of this neighborhood to build over it. The renovation project is one way the town demonstrates its feeling of ownership, which motivates them to fight against politicians. The first fight is when the city attempts to displace the politician’s lackeys who move in to undo the peace that the city worked to create. The town goes as far as to bribe the police to work on their side. Although it works to solve one problem, the only bounty to release the kidnapped pregnant Mehrunisa is to sign away the rights of the neighborhood. The town does so, but Ali manages to infiltrate the politician’s press conference at his property, where Ali saves Mehrunisa and exposes the harm the politician has done to get this far. Perhaps the message was that acting more responsible for one’s property will lead to the courage to fight for it against the politicians. 

The film shows almost no answer for government involvement in creating better living conditions for the town, indicating that only a community can look after itself. It’s a unique angle for a film that otherwise can exhaust comedic tropes, which had a range of potential in its ability to be amusing. A lot needs to be added about the film, with a few time fillers that could have been shortened substantially. There is a recurring bit about an uncle who resembles a mullah who speaks about Bollywood movies and shows some pride in how Mahira Khan was featured in one. The film doesn’t mention her name, even though almost every Bollywood superstar was described and reviewed. Though the film tries to make it seem that the character is open-minded, there isn’t a connection made between his movie culture fascination and his son’s (Ali’s friend) queer identity. The film’s beginning includes a scene where Ali tells his friend about his childhood love, to which the friend believes the conversation is about him. The friend shows his interest in Ali and is brusquely rejected. The friend supports Ali’s efforts and marriage, but the matter is hardly discussed again. Whenever it is, Ali tells his friend it’s disgusting. Despite the amount of screen time the friend has, his identity is still subjected to a trope, with his father embodying a different one. The father is presented as eccentric, and the film almost makes the connection that the friend’s identity makes him different in a laughable way as well. Sure, the misunderstandings could be seen as funny, but the reactions and the ignorance of it aren’t really.