Most Pakistani films, despite best intentions, tend to be one of two things: underwhelming or over-the-top. Add dubious morality to proceedings and you have, in most cases, cringe-worthy products on your hands.
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Starring Adnan Malik, Aamina Sheikh and Sanam Saeed, it hints at a dysfunctional family dealing with past demons.
Most Pakistani films, despite best intentions, tend to be one of two things: underwhelming or over-the-top. Add dubious morality to proceedings and you have, in most cases, cringe-worthy products on your hands.
But every now and then a film comes along that dares greatly and offers content that we can get behind. Asim Abbasi’s upcoming film, Cake looks very much like one such affair.
Starring Aamina Sheikh, Sanam Saeed and Adnan Malik, the film announced itself with a press conference earlier this year but really fell on our radar when it appeared in the digital sphere with a series of illustrative posters, each revealing a little something about the characters that make up the movie.
Having piqued curiosity with ingenuity, they have backed it up with solid content. The film’s first official teaser trailer, clocking almost a minute is here and like the posters that announced its appearance, it is filled with beautiful moments with mysterious abound.
Aamina Sheikh serves as the narrator and the story opens with the words: “If we could rewrite the past, we wouldn’t live in a constant fear of the future. We wouldn’t spend every single day waiting for something, anything, to change.”
Juxtaposed with these lines are shots that introduce the characters; Sheikh looking through a grilled window; Malik holding a leaf and Saeed on a subway. It changes again as Saeed comes home, and we are introduced to other cast members; a happy family indulging in selfies and lighter moments.
But nothing is as it seems and at the 30 seconds mark, the mood changes again and a darker tone takes over. The characters unravel and we know that Saeed’s departure from town had a particular reason behind it, one that has remained in the shadows until now.
A fire burns and the hunt for the truth is on. Within the film, Aamina Sheikh and Sanam Saeed play sisters Zareen and Zara respectively and both have their own set of demons that are making them come apart at the seams. The estranged, complicated sibling relationship seems to be at the heart of the story. There is fair bit of mystery and there’s a lot that we don’t know but it has to be said that the cinematography handled by Mo Azmi adds to the narrative and the aesthetics are not inspired from Bollywood. Think Wes Anderson and not Rohit Shetty. Sheikh and Saeed remain the driving force in this teaser trailer and they have the chops to pull it off.
With Saif Samejo spearheading the original soundtrack for Cake, we can’t wait to see what the music will be like but given the intricate moments that make up the teaser, this film has us curious.
