Haute Review: The Kamli teaser-trailer draws you into a world of magical realism

A white rabbit, a kitten, a red umbrella and a fish spluttering for breath in a man’s hard hands.

Motifs from Kamli, Sarmad Khoosat’s upcoming and much-awaited film, reveal themselves in the teaser trailer that released yesterday. Described as ‘a tale of love, loss and cloaked secrets’, it confesses to toying with the word kamli, which is coyly referring to either the chaddar (kamli in Urdu) or crazy (kamli in Punjabi). It could very well be either as the teaser sees itself through mystery as well as madness; the protagonist does take a bite out of sanity at the end.

Image and imagination plays a very strong role in this 2-minute trailer that throws out a theatrical world that is magical, artistic but seemingly real. The frames arrest you as the actors, playing still unnamed characters, fill them with eclectic colour: Saba Qamar, Sania Saeed, Nimra Bucha, Omair Rana, Adeel Afzal and Hamza Khawaja, in his big screen debut. Hamza, in a rustic and rural yet passionate avatar, does give off a pre-civilization Kamasutra vibe. There’s obviously more to the narrative than meets the eye in this first glance.

Saba Qamar stands out amidst an altogether stellar ensemble. Fun fact: she learnt how to swim for those underwater shots. That’s the mark of a great artiste!

Music seems to play a big part in Kamli. The six song soundtrack feature several artists including Atif Aslam, Zeb Bangash and the legendary Reshma. One has it from good sources that it features an unheard and reproduced song of Reshma jee, which will undoubtedly be an emotional delight.  Saad Sultan (Jackson Height’s magnificent ‘Laiyyan Laiyyan’) comes in as music producer, while Saad himself, Zulfiqar Ali, Sohail Shahzad and Izzat Majeed have composed the scores. Just the teaser track, which starts on a melancholic note and goes through playful and mysterious to end on a menacing quiver, says a lot about what’s to come. It’s almost like playing hide and seek.

It would be naïve to even attempt to decipher the story from this teaser but we do know that it’s the love story between a boy and a girl. And it’s intense. This Sarmad Khoosat film has a lot of talent onboard but one must especially mention the photography, directed by Owais Gohar, which speaks a language of its own. Sarmad has written Kamli with Fatimah Sattar, another newcomer who’ll hopefully make a breakthrough with the film. There’s a timelessness to the visual language that will hopefully start with the story and weave through the script and soundtrack. One must make a special mention of Saim Sadiq (Darling) who has edited the film and cut the very enigmatic teaser.

Kamli is expected to release in theatres across Pakistan on June 3, 2022.