THE critics are not impressed by Egypt's pop singer Tamer Hosni's new film Nour Eini (The Light of my Eye). Hosni's egotism is said to have contributed to this film's being a box office disaster. "It's a cheesy movie," says the film critic for a local magazine. "Nour Eini is a meaningless cut-and-paste film," chimes in another. A third critic says that the singer, described as a ‘phenomenon', is just a silly clown starring in a commercialised pastiche, the producers of which want to mislead fans into believing that Nour Eini is a film. "Hosni's new film is no more impressive than his two previous efforts: the two-part Omar and Salma and Sayyed el-Atefi," adds the critic indignantly, warning Nour Eini is probably even worse. The dismay of the critics increased when they learnt that the singer did the script himself. "This egotistical pop singer portrays himself as the idol of besotted girls in his latest movie," a fourth critic observes. Hosni, who claims to have composed the words and music for the songs in his best albums, shockingly ordered his bodyguards to use violence to disperse his fans who'd gathered at the cinema where his Nour Eini premiered. You can't really blame the critics for being so unimpressed, when many of Hosni's young idols, hoping this movie would at least be a little better than his two previous films, have been walking out of the local cinemas part way through the screenings of Nour Eini. His fans were disgusted to see him spit at one of his female admirers in the film. They were equally disappointed by his cheesy jokes and indecent and offensive comments throughout. "The language the singer uses in his new film is debased," said Esmat Hamdi, a film critic in Radio & Television magazine. Nour Eini tells the story of a singing talent who comes across a pianist, blinded in a car accident and suffering flashbacks from that terrible incident. The plot is predictable: a romantic relationship between the singer and the blind pianist. Before the end of the film, a mutual friend suddenly turns up on the scene. We are told that the mutual friend has been overseas for many years and there's noapparent reason for his sudden return. Anyway, he helps the two lovers resolve a minor problem they have, while the girl's eyesight is miraculously restored when the mutual friend convinces her to have eye surgery. After the successful operation, she falls in love with the mutual friend and abandons the singer forever. The latter feels like a ball being kicked around by two footballers. When he tells the mutual friend how deep his love is for her, the mutual friend abandons his fiancée to the singer and travels abroad again. What a shame that a promising actress like Mena Shalabi, who plays the blind pianist, should have signed the contract to act in this cheesy production.
