O21 (film)

O21 (or Operation 21 formerly The Extortionist) is a 2014 Pakistani spy thriller film, directed by Jami, co-directed by Summer Nicks and produced by Zeba Bakhtiar and her son Azaan Sami Khan. It is the first spy action thriller movie from Pakistan.

The film, produced by One Motion Pictures, is based on a screenplay by the international award winning writer, Summer Bodhi Nicks. Zeba Bakhtiar is the film’s executive producer and the lead roles are played by Aamina Sheikh, winner of the best actress prize at the New York International Film Festival, the renowned actor Shaan Shahid who has received accolades through countless Pakistani blockbusters, most recently Waar. O21 is the 576th feature film of Shaan's career.

Plot outline

Abdullah (Ayub Khoso), after 30 years of war in Afghanistan, wants to save his country from another 50 years of corporate warfare. He works with his Pakistani ally Kashif Siddiqui (Shaan Shahid) to save the two neighboring countries from further turmoil through a plan that could risk the lives of them and their families. A plan that has 21 hours to be executed.

Cast

• Shaan Shahid as Kashif Siddiqui
• Ayub Khoso as Abdullah
• Aamina Sheikh as Natasha
• Shamoon Abbasi as Danish
• Ayaz Samoo as Mani Abbas
• Mustafa Changazi as Shayan
• Hameed Sheikh
• Tatmain ul Qulb
• Gohar Rasheed
• Bilal Ashraf
• Abdullah Ghaznavi
• Joe Towne as Nathan
• James Hallett as Stan
• Wendy Haines
• Summer Nicks
• Daniyal Raheel

Production

The filming began in Karachi in the first quarter of 2013 and over a course of 61 days of shooting spread over 3 spells was completed in the first quarter of 2014. Filming took place throughout Karachi, Lahore, Balochistan and the Afghan Border. O21 was primarily filmed on Red Epic Cameras with Cooke s4/i lenses however the ARRI Alexa XR was used in certain scenes as well. It is also the first Pakistani film to be mixed in Dolby Atmos.

Music

The music album of film was released on 6 October 2014 while film's OST The Kidnapping was released in September. The film score contains 3 tracks which are composed and conducted by Spain born music producer Alfonso González Aguilar.

Track listing

Reception

Release

The first look teaser was released on May 24, 2014. while the theatrical trailer was unveiled on September 21, 2014 in a press event held in Nueplex Cinemas Karachi.Film is scheduled to release on Eid Al-Adha 2014 clearing out all rumors of releasing on Independance day. Rumors of film's delay in release were also made but Azaan Sami Khan dispelled those rumors on official Facebook page. It is the first Pakistani film to be released in 22 countries simultaneously including the United States, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom.

Critical reception

Hala Syed of DAWN.com rated film 4/5 and wrote "It does not glorify war but depicts it in a gritty realistic, thought provoking way. It's engaging, unflinching and unique in that it dares to tell the dark and intense stories in the shadows."

Aayan Mirza of Galaxy Lollywood rated 4 out of 5 and wrote "O21 is the most intelligent Pakistani cinema has ever been. It won’t spoon feed you everything, you have to make deliberate efforts to remain attentive, conscious and seriously into the film. You can’t miss to watch even an inch of the screen. O21 is absolutely not a propaganda film, but instead presents an intelligent case. It might compel you enough to Google certain things when you get back home. It is a masterpiece that can easily be put right there with any spy-thriller in the world."

Zia Shahid of Sabz Irtiqa rated it 8 out of 10 and wrote "Jami’s direction can be explained in just one word “Stunning”, people who knows Jami for his previous work and have seen his music video’s knew that O21 won’t be a straight forward film, Jami have certainly made the audience to put their thinking cap on while watching the movie or else they won’t understand the film. On the whole O21 is dark and mysterious and it has taken the Pakistani cinema to the new level, thank you Jami for proving that Pakistani cinema is not just about item numbers and Bollywood stereo types."

Faria Syed of HiP wrote "The film is thrilling, visually stunning and well-acted with multiple layers of story. There are no songs to titillate, no simple solutions to facilitate those who would rather not think about what they are watching."

Umer Ali of Skotato rated 4/5 and wrote "It is the best film ever produced in Pakistan in terms of brains and execution and it is a must watch if you are a spy thriller geek."

Zeeshan Ahmed of The Express Tribune rated the film 3.5 out of 5 and given a verdict "It’s a dense film, one you wouldn’t want to watch again. But do watch it once to embrace the fact that even a Pakistani film can opt for a slow and steady approach towards storytelling."

Afra Jamal of Daily Times wrote "Operation O21 is poised to be a game changer that challenges the palate and forges its own identity from a fragmented landscape. It’s a start."

Box office

O21 made ₨5.9 million (US$55,000) on its first day of release. At the end of Eid Week(Monday-Sunday) film collected huge ₨41.5 million (US$390,000) from all over Pakistan. But from next Monday onwards numbers started falling heavily which resulted in mere ₨7 million (US$66,000) over Weekdays taking Extended Week One of 11 Days to ₨48.5 million (US$450,000) which is 6th biggest of 2014 after Kick (2014 film), Na Maloom Afraad, Bang Bang!, Khoobsurat (2014 film) and Jai Ho (film). After low weekdays of week one, movie dipped further in week two and collected mere ₨12.9 million (US$120,000) taking grand total to ₨61 million (US$570,000).

Controversy

On 7 October (second day of film release) a story was reported that O21 got booed off the screens from two of the single screen cinemas in Karachi; Bambino and Capri, and got replaced in all its shows by Bang Bang! and Na Maloom Afraad. For the reason that people protested against the film for it was not up to their expectation, and they thrown bottles on screen. Aayan Mirza of Galaxy Lollywood investigated the case by talking with industry insiders and blamed it on film's distributor Distribution Club and wrote "They don’t care whether the film is Pakistani or not, they are merely concerned with their business, so what they do is that the moment they suspect that their Pakistani release might not be as successful on a particular cinema as they had previously thought it to be, they would reach out to the management of that cinema and will have it replaced there completely with one of their own Indian films. To them, it is no money lost, and to cinemas it is healthy occupancy." Further added "This isn’t the first time it has happened, and Distribution Club has been doing it for long. They did the same with Ishq Khuda, with Sultanat and now O21."

On October 13, 2014 film's production team gathered at the Karachi Press Club to address the “injustice” meted out to them by cinema owners of Bambino, Capri and Dreamland for taking down O21 after 25 minutes of screening. On the situation, Muhammad Rizwan of Distribution Club said "The events at Capri, Bambino and Dreamland have not only damaged the film business but our reputation as a distribution company; and therefore not only will we be taking legal action against these cinema owners but we will also stop providing films to these cinemas."

See also

• List of highest-grossing Pakistani films
• List of Pakistani films of 2014

References

External links

• Official website
• O21 at the Internet Movie Database
• O21 at Rotten Tomatoes
• O21 trailer on Vimeo