When was the last time Sindhi culture was promoted in a positive manner in a Pakistani flick? Which was the last film to feature female protagonists with no leading man in sight? Cake breaks many such taboos by addressing real-life issues and comes out as a winner, considering most of the cast is comprised of inexperienced film actors and the one with most films under her belt – Sanam Saeed – is less than 3-year old in films. What this film makes you believe is that to succeed in filmdom, you need to have your heart in the right place because the audience has now grown up and can differentiate between genuine and fake-it stories.

Cake for one is as genuine as can be. The family of 5 – 1 brother, 2 sisters and a set of old parents – reunite when their father (Mohammed Ahmed) falls ill but with the union returns the skeletons in the cupboard that no one spoke about all these years. Zareen (Aamina Sheikh) blames her brother Zain (Faris Khalid) and sister Zara (Sanam Saeed) for deserting their parents while befriends Romeo (Adnan Malik) for standing by her despite not being part of the family. When the mother (Beo Zafar) also falls ill, they decide to take her to their ancestral village and try to lure her back to life but the plan goes awry with disastrous results. Does the family reconciles or do they become estranged and what were the reasons behind the split, Cake has all the answers to your questions.

When director Asim Abbasi cast Adnan Malik as the lead opposite Aamina Sheikh, many raised eyebrows since Adnan isn’t a recognised actor and hadn’t done any film. However, the actor surprised all with his natural acting where he maintained his calm no matter how odd the situation was; Aamina Sheikh carried the whole film on her shoulder, proving that you don’t need a man to do so; Sanam Saeed has been around for quite some time but with every film she is raising the bar high. Mohammad Ahmed is also the surprise package here because he plays the patriarch of a dysfunctional Sindhi family and excels in it, getting the mannerisms, the accent and the values right.

With brilliant cinematography from Mo Azmi and flawless editing from Aarti Bajaj, Cake is set to win hearts if not strike gold at the box office. Yes, it feels like a TV drama but that’s because we are used to telefilms and not films that have 10-minute long uncut scenes. Films like Cake are to be enjoyed, not to become box office hits.