The Legend of Maula Jatt (2022) Review: Punjabi Myth Reborn

Is The Legend of Maula Jatt worth watching?

Yes. The Legend of Maula Jatt is a thrilling, grandly ambitious folk epic and a milestone for Pakistani cinema, with production values and swagger to match big-budget action films anywhere. Bilal Lashari turns a cult Punjabi story into an operatic clash of titans, and Hamza Ali Abbasi’s villain is one of the most magnetic screen antagonists in recent South Asian cinema. The reservations are its length and its relentless stylisation, which can flatten the quieter moments.

What is The Legend of Maula Jatt about?

The Legend of Maula Jatt reimagines the 1979 Punjabi cult classic Maula Jatt. It pits Maula (Fawad Khan), a strongman driven by a thirst for vengeance, against Noori Natt (Abbasi), the fearsome leader of a rival clan whose savagery keeps the countryside in terror. Their feud, fought with the heavy, axe-like blades known as gandasas, unfolds across a heightened vision of rural Punjab that owes more to myth than realism.

Mahira Khan co-stars in the main female role, alongside Humaima Malik and Faris Shafi. Lashari directs this Pakistani production in Punjabi, and it runs 153 minutes. It won Best Film at the Lux Style Awards in 2023.

A Punjab built from legend

Lashari’s greatest achievement is world-building. Rather than aiming for a realistic village drama, he creates a stylised, almost mythological landscape: storm-darkened skies, dusty arenas, fortress-like homes and crowds that behave like a chorus. The palette is muted and earthy, and the film’s compositions often resemble a graphic novel or a painting, with heroes and villains framed as figures in a legend.

The action sequences are equally bold. Gandasa duels are staged with slow motion, crunching sound design and a heavy, physical quality that makes each blow feel consequential. The violence is bloody and operatic rather than realistic, and the film’s sense of spectacle, from horseback charges to arena fights, is far beyond what Pakistani cinema had previously attempted on this scale.

Two leads, one collision

The film rests on the confrontation between its central characters, and both actors rise to it. Fawad Khan plays Maula as a brooding, wounded hero whose restraint makes his flashes of violence all the more powerful. He carries the physical demands of the role with conviction and gives Maula a moral weight that the story’s mythic framework needs.

Abbasi, though, is the film’s revelation. His Noori Natt is flamboyant, unpredictable and terrifying, a villain who revels in cruelty and delivers his lines with menacing theatricality. Every scene he enters crackles with danger, and his presence gives the film its operatic charge. Mahira Khan and Humaima Malik add fire in supporting roles, with Malik especially vivid.

The cost of maximalism

The film’s ambition sometimes works against it. At 153 minutes, it lingers on its own grandeur, and the Natt family’s internal politics can sprawl, slowing the drive towards the central confrontation. The heavy stylisation, so effective in the set pieces, leaves little room for subtler emotions, and some supporting characters are defined by a single trait. These are the flaws of an overreaching epic rather than a timid one, but they are noticeable.

Who should watch The Legend of Maula Jatt?

It is essential for anyone interested in Pakistani or Punjabi cinema, and a strong pick for fans of mythic action epics, revenge sagas and bold visual storytelling. Plan for two and a half hours. The violence is frequent, bloody and intense, with brutal fights and killings throughout, so it is suitable only for adults and older teenagers.

If it thrills you, try these next:

• Rurouni Kenshin Part II: Kyoto Inferno, another stylised period action epic built around sword duels and a charismatic villain.
• Joyland, a very different Pakistani film from the same year, intimate where Maula Jatt is monumental.

The verdict

The Legend of Maula Jatt is a roaring, beautifully crafted epic that reinvents a Punjabi legend with rare confidence and scale. Its length and stylisation can overwhelm, but Lashari’s vision and a titanic pair of central performances make it a landmark of Pakistani filmmaking.

Rating: 4.5/5