Khuda Hafiz is said to be based on or inspired by true events, also has shades of Liam Neeson’s Taken. What were the true events – we were not able to verify.
The story of a newly married Indian techie who loses his job in the aftermath of 2008 great Wall Street crash. As both husband wife are without job, though living with their family, Sameer (Vidhut Jamwwal- stone man expressions but great action) doesn’t want to loiter around and after a three month of search lands at a seedy agent Nadeem’s (Vipin Sharma) doorstep who promises the couple a first class job but the wife Nargis (Shivaleeka Oberoi- looks quite like a middle eastern beauty–period) needs to go first to some nondescript middle eastern country named Noman (rather a no man’s land), with Sameer to join later.
It so happens that the sex starved country recruits unassuming people for flesh trade, Nargis is caught in the racket. OMG our Sameer rushes off to the ‘No Man’s Land’ like a knight in shining armour out to save his princess.
Guess what? The first person he comes in touch with turns out to be his man friday in the nondescript country south of Saudi Arabia maybe they misspelled Oman. Okay whatever now the man friday has a name Usman (Annu Kapoor- bankable as ever, only person whose accent is not forced) who takes our hero around like a good samaritan and the hero even zeros in on his wife and her captors but Dilli abhi door hai.
Unable to rescue her he falls into police trouble where all the officers are tight collared suspicious looking gang, as a silver lining an earnest and well intentioned Indian High commissioner is shown who promises to help and the case is transferred to some ISA of the country sounded like ISI with some more suspicious looking characters including Malik (Shiv Pandit- after a long time and that too with a very heavy forced Middle-East accent) and his associate Tamena (Aahana Kumra) who want to help Sameer or sabotage the mission that is the question and for some funny reason they report to an over all superior called the commander who for some strange reason has men dressed in black cat guerilla outfits and is surrounded by Keffiyeh wearing armed guards. Please come back my hero what are u doing in such a nutsy place.
Well, all’s well and that ends well with a message of humanity by none other than the Messiah of humanity Usman, you tend to root for such guys to give you an emotional kick in your guts. I am still searching for the real life incident on which these happenings are based, please do inform if you’ll find it out. Songs are no great shakes, newcomer Shivaleeka Oberoi is a every fair plastic beauty.
Vidyut only excels in action scenes. Rest apart from Annu Kapoor is non descript like the country it’s played out in, though cinematography is a delight. A spate of low budget movies are being released on the web, this being one of them. Let’s just hope the theatres open soon enough so that we can see some good action or just get me the IPLLLLL.
– Review by PAWAN GUPTA
Cast of Khuda Hafiz:
Vidyut Jammwal
Shivaleeka Oberoi
Vipin Sharma
Aahana Kumra
Annu Kapoor
Shiv Panditt
Credits of Khuda Hafiz:
Directed by Faruk Kabir
Produced by Kumar Mangat Pathak, Abhishek Pathak
Written by Faruk Kabir
Music – Amar Mohile
Cinematography – Jitan Harmeet Singh
Edited by Sandeep Francis
Production company – Panorama Studios
Khuda Hafiz is streaming on: Disney+ Hotstar
