After almost two years of waiting, Sarmad Khoosat’s Zindagi Tamasha is finally slated for release in Pakistani theaters. Previously the film’s release was stalled by protests by radical religious group Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP).
The Zindagi Tamasha release date is set for March 2022. After being approved by the sensor board repeatedly and then the release being stalled by TLP protests, the globally acclaimed film is slated for release again.
This time the movie will hopefully be screened in cinemas across the country. Even the third trailer for the movie has been released.
Zindagi Tamasha cast Arif Hasan as the protagonist, a famous naat khwaan named, Rahat. We follow his story from a celebrated man amongst his community in the old city of Lahore to being outcast. The community believes the devout Muslim is almost super-humanly incapable of any sacrilege. Hence, why when he does make a ‘mistake’ they’re unwilling to forgive him.
Since January 2020, the release of the film was in limbo as TLP cried blasphemy over the movie’s content. Meanwhile, the censor boards cleared the movie, several times.
At the time, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader, Firdous Ashiq Awan said the government would approach the Council of Islamic Ideology with the matter. However, then TLP leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi announced that they will never allow the movie to be released.
That’s when filmmaker Sarmad Khoosat penned an open letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan asking for his rights as a law-abiding citizen to be upheld.
“As a law-abiding citizen and with full conviction that there is nothing offensive or malicious in Zindagi Tamasha, I submitted the film for another review to the censor board. It was cleared once again with a few cuts to appease the complainants. Just a week before the release, another attempt is being made by the same group to stop it and this time, they are hell-bent on using pressurizing tactics.”
Sadly, the release was stalled till now despite the film being globally acclaimed on several fronts. As well as being Pakistan’s entry for the Oscars 2021.
