Kabul Express

When I watched the trailer of Kabul Express for the very first time, I thought it was a propaganda movie. Therefore, I didn’t prioritised to watch it before now. I prioritised to watch the most popular movies firstly, and then came the turn to less popular movies.

The director of Kabul Express, Kabir Khan, has made documentary movies previously, and has tried his hands on a commercial project this time. The previous documentary experience is shining in this movie and in the choice of the topic of the movie. The movie is about Afghanistan post Taliban regime and the story takes place during Bush’s so called “war against terror”.

OK, enough information about the movie and now to the comments about the experience of watching this movie. The movie was actually hopeless boring during the first 60% part. I was thinking; How could Yash Raj Movies grant money for this project? In addition, I didn’t enjoy the jokes during this part as well and they were simply unfunny.

However, the movie had a very good last part and the end was touching. So for those of you who like movies with a nice and emotional ending, this movie can be something for you. But be aware of the first half part which is somehow boring. In the end, the jokes got some better as well and were enjoyable.

One interesting reflection: for those of you who have read the book “The Kite Runner”, in this book the author describes Hazaras as some people who are “hunted” and are regarded as low in the social hierarchy in Afghanistan without any particular reason. I felt that the author gave sympathy to this caste of Afghani people. But in Kabul Express, Hazaras are described as thieves and bad people. Isn’t it interesting how two people with experience from living in Afghanistan are describing the same class of people so differently?

Rating: 4 of 6