Knots and Crosses - Telefilm

Black magic may be one of the many ideas that have intrigued the youth but it is surely a difficult idea to portray on the screen at the same time maintaining the suspense and thrill for the viewers on every Scene.  

Knots and Crosses had managed to build the hype before the screening thanks to the trailer which made everyone curious about what is going to be in the whole video. 

The poster design by Sameen Agha is highly impressive, you can see a picture within a picture.. for me its a depiction of a mind game, a bad omen as the birds can be seen falling from the sky. Amazing depiction of what to expect from the video.

Knots and Crosses is a 12 min or less telefilm made by Xklucive studios that revolves around two daughter in laws, Asra and sara. Sara being the favorite of her mother in law ( Maria Hassan) results in jealousy and hatred from Asra ( Mahnam Zahid) and ultimately pushes Asra  to go to a baba jee ( Muhammad Farooq) for a magic spell on the obedient and sweet  Sara ( Tania Jafry).  I was slightly surprised when I rearranged the name Asra and it turned into Sara. Gives you extra touch of thrill right there.

At this level, it is a great achievement if the idea is understood by the audience and they manage to feel the emotions each actor is portraying on screen.  Tania Jafry says, “It was a team work hijab”.  I believe her, because the product I saw was so clean and smooth that from the cast to the crew, dialogues and the editing team who was involved in making the final video were fantastic.

Coming to little technicalities here, Hats of the camera man and how he/she was able to capture Mahnam’s smirk, eye rolling and Tania’s horror moments.  Music was there to build suspense and Am glad they didn’t over use it. They didn’t have to. You could actually feel the thrill and suspense pouring out of the screen.  Good dialogues and Convincing acting by Tania and Mahnam.  Moreover, Mian hamza and Saad butt who played the husbands to these characters were substantial and knew how to support the leading characters. Lightening was great as well, they used red light to depict evil and when they wanted to stand the certain scene out. I loved how they had used voice over and * shashkas*.

I am impressed by how the director managed to show different scenes to depict that the character Sara was under black magic influence such as, Door opening by itself, blood in the tap water, falling utensils and a black cloaked figure in the Bedroom. Great transition between the scenes. The ending is showed where Sara decides that in order to get over from the magic spell she needs to look upto the God only and does not go to some baba jee for the removal of the black spell, whereas Asra who had started the spell ends up in some form of insanity.

However, I wish they had shown more scenes in which Sara was favored more on Asra. The first scene showed Mother in law praising Sara and I loved how Asra got jealous but I wanted more of the jealousy to convince me fully that she will now choose the wrong path.  Secondly, I wanted to see what happens to Asra. Even if she ended up being crazy, I wish they had shown some mad and physco scenes of her, instead of showing her back to the camera. The doctor scene could have been better and so the ending. At the end, Tania’s voice is played to convince the viewers that the God’s power has won over the evil black magic. But It would have been nice if both Tania and Mahnam had come face to face in one of the scenes showing the conflict, before the God’s power won over the black magic.

Nevertheless, the efforts are clearly visible and am impressed by the Directors ( Tania Tahir) work. Although it was just a creative writing project. It did help a lot of people to figure out their talents.

I am posting their Trailer and will be sharing the Video of the Telefilm as soon as its posted. 

Link to the trailer!

3.5/5 Stars!