JOHN is the story of a Christian boy from Karachi, who belongs to a poor family. John (Aashir Wajahat) works as a school sweeper and he falls in love with a girl Maria (Romaisa Khan). One day, John decides to quit the job after being ordered to clean the gutters by the school principal. Meanwhile, in an accident, John’s mother passes away and he misses his mother alone at home, so he tells his sympathetic neighbor Dawood Bhai (Saleem Meraj) that he wants to stay with her. Within days, after the death of Dawood Bhai’s partner Fazal (Reza Samo), John becomes Dawood’s right-hand and assists him in his crimes. Dawood is not in favor of his and Maria’s marriage because he knows that after this John will be of no use to him. Dawood’s apprehensions are proved correct and soon after the marriage, when Maria leaves John’s house after seeing the pistol kept in John’s luggage, John’s life changes. He expresses his desire to Dawood to leave the world of crime and lead a normal life, but Dawood does not allow him.
In the climax of the film, the gang leader decided to kill John and sends Dawood to kill him, but Dawood instead of John, shoots the gang leader to save John’s life, but unaware of the whole situation, John, Sees the gun in his hand, he shoots at him.
The film is written and directed by Babar Ali, who has previously written Pinky Meem Sahib, while John is his directorial debut.
While watching this movie, one strongly remembers the Bollywood crime drama ‘Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro‘ (Director: Saeed Akhtar Mirza). This 1989 release gave a new twist to crime thrillers in Bollywood. The same director Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai, and Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho, are also in the minds of movie buffs. Cinema of the same mood was also created by Ram Gopal Varma, but he is credited with being a successful director of commercial cinema despite adopting this genre, while our filmmakers generally ignore the demands of commercial cinema in the name of dark cinema.
John is a first-of-its-kind crime-drama movie in Pakistan that is so complete that we are comparing it with classics like Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro, but a few long-standing tragedies associated with Pakistani films make it an ordinary film. Despite combining all the formulas of commercial cinema, John cannot be considered a commercial film.
First of all, the positive aspects of John should be mentioned.
The screenplay of the film is quite strong and will keep the audience glued to their seats. The plot of the story is also very good. There is not much spread of characters. Apart from a few supporting characters, the entire film revolves around just three actors Aashir, Saleem Meraj, and Romaisa. The writer of the film has to be credited for the strong story along with the perfect characterization. Every character’s attitude, business, dialogues, and situations, are all up to the mark.
If we talk about acting, this movie is done by Saleem Meraj. An attempt has been made to keep his role as supporting while Dawood is the main character of the film. Despite Aashir’s character, it seems that he is nothing without Dawood Bhai. In this context, the name of the film should have been ‘Dawood’ because in the climax people remember only Dawood Bhai. John, somewhere left behind.
After Saleem Meraj, Romaisa Khan has given a surprising performance. Romaisa’s dialogue delivery in particular played an important role in fleshing out the character. Delivering the dialogue in a certain tone and then maintaining it for a long time was quite a difficult task as the film took two years to complete. In John, she looked perfect in the role of Maria from Suburbs of Karachi.
Everyone knows about Aashir Wajahat and that he is the son of director Wajahat Rauf. He has tried her talent in all fields from modeling to singing. Acting was left, so even here Aashir has tried to do well on his part, but he was not completely successful in it. Just with dark make-up and get-up, you can’t get into a character unless you have a flair for acting. In a few scenes, Aashir must have impressed, but overall his face looked expressionless and spotty. Even in those scenes where he gets a chance to show rich expressions, Aashir’s face does not show any movement. For example, when his wife is leaving him, or he takes a pistol for the first time. Even in the climax of the film, when he shoots Dawood Bhai, his face is cold. Now the justification for this can also be with the director that the character of John is naturally like that. Expressions less. So why did he appear emotional and cold in other scenes?
However, the final decision has to be made by the audience.
The film’s sound design, background music, songs, cinematography, editing, and art design is outstanding and the director is visible in all these areas.
And now coming to the flaws of the film.
First of all, why and on what merit Aashir was chosen for the title role of the film is beyond comprehension. A film that could be remembered for a long time and which had the same spark as Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro, why didn’t Ahmed Ali Akbar or any other actor of his class be cast in the lead role? could also increase the commercial value of On the other hand, the film’s two main supporting characters (Saleem Meraj’s crime partner Fazal and the Gangster boss) were not highlighted in the film’s promotion.
Most importantly, it has absolutely nothing to do with the film’s review. The promotion and marketing of John are so poor that we have seen the result of the first-day shows of the film. When you invest millions of rupees in film production, why does the producer forget at the time of release that when Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible, and Shah Rukh’s Jawaan, may need marketing and promotion, you don’t have a budget for that department? why not?
The media partner of the film is Hum TV but even regular movie buffs don’t know that there is a film coming with this name. Proof of this is the trailer of the movie on the YouTube channel of Hum TV, which has been watched by only 34 thousand people till the day of the release of the movie, while ten days have passed since the trailer was uploaded on YouTube. It is possible that after this news Hum TV officials will boost it to millions.
However, I feel that John, despite being a good and quality film, will miss out on a big success at the box office due to its minor flaws.
 works as a school sweeper and he falls in love with a girl Maria (Romaisa Khan). One day, John decides to quit the job after being ordered to clean the gutters by the school principal. Meanwhile, in an accident, John's mother passes away and he misses his mother alone at home, so he tells his sympathetic neighbor Dawood Bhai (Saleem Meraj) that he wants to stay with her. Within days, after the death of Dawood Bhai's partner Fazal (Reza Samo), John becomes Dawood's right-hand and assists him in his crimes. Dawood is not in favor of his and Maria's marriage because he knows that after this John will be of no use to him. Dawood's apprehensions are proved correct and soon after the marriage, when Maria leaves John's house after seeing the pistol kept in John's luggage, John's life changes. He expresses his desire to Dawood to leave the world of crime and lead a normal life, but Dawood does not allow him.){kind=link}