Dawn Images

The teaser for Pakistani film Carma has been released, giving viewers a taste of the neo-noir crime thriller that stars actors Adnan Siddiqui, Zhalay Sarhadi, Navin Waqar and Osama Tahir.

These days, many filmmakers are venturing away from the romance genre, which often dominates Pakistan’s silver screen. This includes director Kashan Admani whose upcoming film Carma is an action-packed sequence of events shot entirely in and around cars. The movie’s plot is the basis for the title, which is a play on the words "karma" and "car".

The trailer — released on YouTube on July 30 — shows a fast pace, some dark and gruelling events and impressive acting by the cast.

The story revolves around a young man who is abducted by gangsters and taken for a ride around the city. The plot steps away from bright and cheerful themes and veers towards topics such as child labour, paedophilia, adultery and revenge.

The cast has taken to social media to announce the release of the teaser for the upcoming film.

Siddiqui posted the teaser on his Instagram and called it "a rollercoaster of suspense, thrill and action that will keep you on the edge of your seat".

Sarhadi also took to Instagram to post the teaser and said the movie is a Quentin Tarantino inspired film with "great actors" and "strong women".

In a comment to Images, the director said both he and the writer of Carma — Fawad Hai — are fans of Tarantino's work, which inspired them to create the movie.

"We're huge Tarantino fans and we wanted to make a film that was in a genre that was not being done in Pakistan, " Admani said. "So we went for the neo-crime thriller genre and we decided to make something very much like a Tarantino film. That's how we started developing the whole story line and concept."

He said that the movie is "primarily inspired by car kidnappings that used to happen in Karachi a lot".

"In our film as the situation unfolds, there is a lot happening, there are a lot of connections between the characters and there is a past to everything," Admani explained. "This is a non-linear film with a lot of back and forth, so the car kidnapping is [happening in the present] while we go back in the past to unfold certain things. That is the style that we have pursued."

The movie aims to have a theatrical release by this December or January 2022.