Author Saba Imtiaz's 2014 novel Karachi, You're Killing Me! was a colourful account of the daily drama, comedy and horrors faced by a young female reporter named Ayesha in Pakistan's bustling metropolis. In the Bollywood version, Karachi has naturally been replaced by Mumbai and Ayesha has become Noor, played by Sonakshi Sinha.
While the book's melding of the city's dark underbelly and its farcical side was reasonably effortless, the trailer's sudden switch in tone is jarring. At first, it plays like a light-hearted millennial single woman story. The big moments in her life, which can be summed up in cutesy hashtags, revolve around partying, work and her dismal dating options. Kanan Gill stars as her drinking buddy while Purab Kohli is cast as one of her love interests.
After an interlude of Sinha shaking her leg to a "Gulabi Ankhein" remix, the clip clumsily steers focus to the journalistic side of the thriller. Presumably, this is to impress upon viewers that Noor is at last made to see the fallacy of her free-spirited ways.
At the trailer's end, there's a dialogue that nods to the book but I can't help the feeling that Imtiaz's clever snark and wit hasn't truly translated from the page to screen.
Watch the trailer below: