Mahira Khan and Zahid Ahmed starrer Prince Charming premiered yesterday on SeePrime’s YouTube channel. The 12-minute short film takes us on an emotional roller coaster ride, touching on various themes and issues.
The Shehryar Munawar directorial project deals with post-marital issues, particularly the loss of love and depression and how it affects individuals.
Prince Charming – A Review
Mahira Khan plays the role of Sheherzade, a housewife who longs for her husband, Akbar’s (played by Zahid Ahmed) love. She also has a daughter, Wafa, whose name momentarily tricks you into believing that Sheherzade is unfaithful to her husband. Akbar, on the other hand, is rather monotonous or say, uninterested. He is too busy with work to spend quality time with his wife and only speaks to her when he needs something. Or to remind her not to miss her appointment, hinting at Sheherzade’s depression and seeing a therapist, though, not willingly.
There are various scenes in which her mental state is visibly deteriorating. Her daughter, Wafa asks her if she is okay. When Sheherzade asks her why she thinks she is not okay, Wafa says that her friend’s mother said, “She is sick in the head”.
Her daughter’s words continue to ring in her head and the chaos is well represented when she sits at the breakfast table. Clocks are important symbols in the play as they represent a lot of things. Restlessness, running out of time, and the time she has to meet her lover – the mysterious man who takes over her thoughts and with whom, she exchanges poetic dialogues.
It is only until the last 5 minutes, that the mystery man or the prince charming is revealed to be the same name she married a few years ago, i.e. Akbar. Sheherzade is not having an affair, but instead, she fantasizes and gets delusional because the prince charming that was promised to her no longer exists in reality. The Akbar she wants has become a figment of her imagination and she holds onto him to survive in a loveless marriage. In the last scene, she asks him to hold her tight, signifying that she doesn’t want to let go of him, even if he only exists in her fantasy.
From direction to acting, the short film is a masterpiece
Shehryar Munawar has done an excellent job at directing this masterpiece. His attention to detail is phenomenal. From the opening scene to the foreshadowing through radio and commercials and even Sheherzade’s delusion, the 12-minute plot kept us hooked.
Mahira Khan and Zahid Ahmed once again proved their mettle. The actors took us away from the glamorous depiction of daily life, which is quite dominant in Pakistani cinema and television, and showed us a rather realistic side of Pakistani households.
Zahid Ahmed portrayed two versions of Akbar brilliantly and maintained the distance between them. With her simple shalwar kameez, minimal makeup, accurate expressions, and swift changes in body language, Mahira Khan left us stunned yet again. The sexual tension between Sheherzade and Akbar transitioned into every scene and kept the mystery alive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUT5t_EnkR0&ab_channel=SeePrime
Sheharyar paid a humble tribute to Ahmed Faraz for his poetry and Japanese composer Shigeru Umebayashi as mentioned in the closing credits. While fans loved the film and praised the Parey Hut Love actor’s intellect, journalist Shahjehan Saleem pointed out ‘the curious case of inspiration’.
In a social media post, he revealed that the composition of Prince Charming is not inspired by Shigeru Umebayashi, but actually is an original film score from a Hong Kong movie In The Mood for Love.
“While I am glad that Sheheryar Munawar has credited Shigeru Umebayashi for his composition, one could have literally found inspiration in some contemporary Pakistani composers too by ‘actually getting a new symphony made’,” he wrote.
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