[Review] Ishq Postive – It’s not that negative

The latest addition to the outcome of the latest wave of Pakistani cinema’s revival, which started back in 2013, is Ishq Positive. The directorial debut of Noor Bukhari has managed to create a bit of stir on social media and especially among the bloggers and KOLs. Interestingly the stirr looked more of fabricated than the natural one. However, just to have my own say and an objective analysis & review watched the film and found it not as bad as certain fellow bloggers from a ‘certain’ city and ‘certain’ section are trying to paint it.

Yes… Ishq Positive is not as negative as some of us might have thought.

The film starts in Bahawalpur where Rajjo (Noor Bukhari) is getting married to Chaudhry of the village (Saud Qasmi). However, following the storyline of many movies of this region bride runs away and accidently Wali (Wali Hamid Ali Khan) is the one who got himself tagged along with her. Wali is the fiancé of Chaudhry’s sister Zara (Faria Bukhari) and he wants to return to the village as soon as possible so that his image can be cleared. Without any major plot twists, they return to the village after staying in a hill station with the breathtaking natural view. Upon their return, they realize that cupid has played its part and then in a very predictable way film moves to an end and eventually final credits start rolling before the film could reach two hours’ time length.

Well, that was the brief summary of what the film is all about, on a negative front there are some mistakes and shortcomings but they are not as gigantic to make whole effort look like crap. The story was weak, the chemistry between the lead could have been shown better, Saud has issues with having expressions on his face, and Faria struggled with acting. Moreover, of course, Wali is a brilliant singer but he cannot act his presence on the screen was not cringe worthy but his lack of acting skill remained evident throughout the game.

Wali should keep himself to TVCs and music videos acting in a full feature film is a cup of tea too big for him to carry. Talking about music, that is the biggest plus point of the film as it has staggering music that too shot very well. Every song is finally crafted and embedded in the story just at the right time.

As a first time director, Noor has done a great job especially with outdoor shots and the ones in the northern areas of Pakistan. As the lead actor, Noor looked great on screen, a few might (some already have), point out that she looked overweight but to me, she looked just as her role wanted her to look. The best thing is that she still can dance as he used to in her early days in the industry. It is indeed a delight to see one of the finest dancers in our cinema circuit can still evince the dancing shoes with great grace.

Dialogs of the film were crispy and somehow it helped the weak story to remain interesting. Supporting characters such as Kamran Mujahid and the lady who played the role of his wife and the character of Bali (chief of staff Chaudhry) really stole the show with their performance and comic timing, and Durdana Butt was as effortless as always.

The guest appearance of Sonu Sood was one of the USP of the film. However, I must say that he looked good in what he was doing perhaps he looked better than any of his Bollywood appearance.

Final word is that Ishq Positive is an effort to make a movie that looks like a movie, not an extended drama. The film is not a negative one or outright crap, in fact, for a ‘one time watch,’ it is not a bad deal at all. On my scale, I would give it 2.5 out of 5. In addition, having said that I would like to see Noor doing more films as actress and more films as a director so that she can overcome the shortcomings and silent the critics.