When slapstick humor meets a case of mistaken identity, puns, and quirky wordplay, a comedy of errors is born. Faisal Qureshi’s Money Back Guarantee creates a broth using the same ingredients and peppers it with social messaging and political satire to savor the taste.
Qureshi’s directorial debut, Money Back Guarantee (MBG), which premiered in Karachi on Thursday, was the most-awaited film to release this Eidul-Fitr. With a star-studded ensemble cast featuring the likes of Fawad Khan, Hina Dilpazeer, Gohar Rasheed, Javed Sheikh, Mikaal Zulfiqar, Kiran Malik, Adnan Jafar, Ayesha Omar, among others, alongside debut actors Wasim Akram, Shaniera Akram, Muniba Mazari, and George Fulton – it was touted to be a full-blown entertainer.
Set in a strange land that feels part Pakistan and part New Jersey actually shot in Karachi and Thailand the film explores the dichotomy of capitalism and socialism as it dabbles in numerous societal problems, such as corruption, VIP culture, stereotyping, theft, political point-scoring, injustice, and discrimination.
It sets the tone for a certain brand of dramedy that is both satirical and ridiculous. The great thing about Money Back Guarantee is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously as it gathers a motley crew of degenerates to carry its plot forward while mocking the very values it tries to instill.
These degenerates represent the various ethnicities of Pakistan as they attempt to shun while ironically perpetuating stereotypes the society propagates about them such as Pushtoons being “dumb”, Christians being “Karanta, Choora” (slurs), Punjabis being “hungry,” and more. Symbolism has been used at a stretch in the film, with the setting taking jabs at the core values of the subjects it inhabits.
The majority of the film has been shot in Pak Bank a fictional bank that hosts the wealth of all the corrupt politicians in Pakistan with our crew of degenerates planning to rob it. Everyone’s blood has turned white quite literally, the Pakistani flag is represented by a WiFi signal, and the Pak bank’s design mimics the map of Pakistan with minor alterations to suit the rich, as it ingeniously represents how each province and part of the bank operates or not.
The “most secure” bank in the country has been designed by a lawyer, not an architect. The only way to access the millions of rupees inside its cells? You guessed it; biometric! A painting of The Last Super hanging inside the bank has been beautifully morphed to feature the greedy politicians of the country, feasting on the poor. And the politicians have been played by the same actors playing the robbers-cum-rebels to signify “Jesi qoum, wese hukumran.”
The plot of the film revolves around the heist that our gang of amateurs set out for with the purpose of reclaiming the people’s money. The plan, however, is not foolproof and keeps on changing as the robbers fail successively. While that is meant to be hilarious, it leaves the film appearing chaotic, almost struggling to find a center.
It also leaves much to the imagination, and not necessarily the things that should have been left unattended. The plot isn’t seamlessly woven together. There are, in fact, cause-and-effect issues and one can never decipher how or why some things are happening.
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