Khuda Haafiz movie director: Faruk Kabir
Khuda Haafiz movie rating: One and a half stars
How do you get an action star to play a common man forced into situations where he has to use his fists-and-fangs but not like an action star, and still be credible?
That’s the dilemma that Khuda Haafiz grapples with right through, as Jammwal slaloms between being a Lucknow-based software engineer working honestly for a living, and a desperate husband in search of his missing wife in a fictional Middle East country called Noman.
There was potential here to make it a racy rescue mission, between a vicious gang of flesh-traders and the good guy, but the film feels dated, and at two hours plus, it’s much too long.
Newly-weds Sameer (Jammwal) and Nargis (Oberoi) find jobs in Noman via an agent (Sharma, effective) who looks so shifty that you know instantly that he’s a bad ‘un. Of course, it doesn’t occur to the couple that there’s something fishy about the whole thing, because it’s that kind of film.
This is what we get: a kindly Pathan cabbie (Kapoor) as Sameer’s saviour, a figure we’ve seen a zillion times before. An officious but helpless official at the Indian mission. A couple of zealous local lawmakers (Panditt and Kumra) who track Sameer’s journey, as he encounters vicious brothel-runners and their henchmen, while looking for the king-pin. And the stunning locations in Uzbekistan, where most of the film is set: some of the desert-and-ocean scenes are really scenic.
