Khel Khel Mein (2021 film)

Khel Khel Mein is a 2021 Pakistani historical drama film directed and written by Nabeel Qureshi and produced by Fizza Ali Meerza. It stars Sajal Aly and Bilal Abbas Khan. The story of the movie is related to the separation of East Pakistan from West Pakistan in 1971. The film was theatrically released on 19 November 2021. The film revolves around a drama club in a university taking its production (based on the 1971 war that led to the breaking away of East Pakistan) to a drama festival in Dhaka.

Plot
Khel Khel Mein revolves around the ever growing myths, mystery and mistrust after the Surrender of Pakistan. The film is a projection of the existing mindset and curiosity around the subject, which is interestingly knit into a journey of students exploring the history and making history by doing not the so obvious and expected, instead following the path of mutual respect, love and peace for all.

Cast

 * Sajal Aly as Zara
 * Bilal Abbas Khan as Saad
 * Javed Sheikh as Sikandar Salman
 * Marina Khan as Mrs. Haque
 * Nazr Ul Hasan as Babu
 * Manzar Sehbai as Karamullah
 * Samina Ahmed as Zaib
 * Sheheryar Munawar as Wajih
 * Naveed Raza as Vikram
 * Irfan Motiwala as Masdodi (Administrator)
 * Hani Taha as Maria Yazdani
 * Zehra Nawab as Rukhsar
 * Farhan Ally Agha as Waji
 * Laila Wasti as Zara's Mother
 * Reham Rafiq as Noorie
 * Mojiz Hasan as Pervaiz
 * Hina Rizvi as Hostel's Warden
 * Hammad Sheikh as Umang Brohi
 * Hira Umer as Brohi's sister
 * Hussain Mohsin as Peter
 * Ali Rehman as Ali
 * Qudsia Ali as Aisha
 * Aneesha Altaf as Sara
 * Hassan Bin Javed as Saif
 * Fayed Ali as Zafar
 * Faham Usman as Happy (Team India)

Additionally, Ali Zafar makes a cameo appearance in the film.

Release
The teaser of the film was released on 30 October 2021. The teaser received mixed reviews due to the resemblance of the story line with Bollywood's 2006 coming-of-age drama Rang De Basanti. The official trailer was released on 8 November 2021. The film was theatrically released nationwide on 19 November 2021 and was the first film to be released in the country after the COVID-19 lockdown.

Production
On 26 February 2021, Sajal Aly and Bilal Abbas Khan shared on their social media handles that they were leading actors in the film. Besides Aly and Khan, Sheheryar Munawar joined the cast for an extended cameo appearance. The cast also includes veterans such as Samina Ahmed, Manzar Sehbai (who played the older version of Munawar), Marina Khan, Javed Sheikh and Farhan Ally Agha. Qureshi revealed about the genre of the film that it will be a historical/ drama, much different to his previous films. On 11 July 2021, Qureshi shared on his social media handle that shooting of film has been completed and it took 50 days to complete.

Box office
The film collected a total of PKR 25 million worldwide in its first week of release and a total of PKR 60 million in its entire theatrical run. It was the first film to push open the local cinema market after COVID-19 lockdown.

Critical reception
The News International praised the performances of Aly, Sehbai and Munawar but criticised its unauthentic narrative.