Senate committee allows screening of Sarmad Khoosat’s Zindagi Tamasha

The Senate Committee for Human Rights has approved the release of Sarmad Khoosat’s film Zindagi Tamasha, PPP Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar announced Tuesday.

Khokhar tweeted that the panel had “found nothing wrong” with the film.

“Senate HR committee has unanimously agreed with the censor board’s decision to allow the screening of film Zindagi Tamasha,” his tweet read. “We’ve found nothing wrong with it. Censor board has our go-ahead to release post-Covid. Detail reasoning to follow later.”

Senate HR committee has unanimously agreed with Censor board’s decision to allow screening of movie “zindagi tamasha”. We’ve found nothing wrong with it. Censor board has our go ahead to release post Covid. Detail reasoning to follow later.

— Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar (@Mustafa_PPP) July 14, 2020

On March 11, it was decided by the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights that the Council of Islamic Ideology will not review Sarmad Khoosat’s film Zindagi Tamasha.

Related: Senate committee to review Zindagi Tamasha on March 16

The Senate committee had asked the Central Board of Film Censors for a copy of the film.

In a tweet earlier, Khokar said the committee took notice of the ban on the film. He said he was surprised to learn that the film had been cleared twice.

“We directed that the screening for the CII should be held in abeyance till the committee views and decides whether there is something objectionable in it or not,” he said.

On January 16, members of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan raised objections to the film’s release. The following day, the TLP announced a countrywide strike if the film was released.

Related: Myths about Zindagi Tamasha

A few days later, the Sindh and Punjab censor boards announced that they would not allow the film’s release.

The senator was informed that the film hadn’t been banned but the release was “on hold” as people had raised objections after watching the film’s trailer.

Khoosat’s father had also filed a petition against the TLP for trying to interfere with the release of their film.

He said that the film was promoting a “soft image of society” and had already been cleared by the censor boards, yet the complainant was creating hurdles for them. The petition was withdrawn later.

Khoosat’s film was scheduled for release on January 24.

Related:‘If you don’t like extremism elsewhere, don’t condone in Pakistan’

The film narrates the story of a naat khwan named Rahat Khawaja (played by Arif Hassan) and his family who find themselves ostracised when a video of Khawaja becomes public.

After the video goes viral, even his own daughter, Sadaf (played by Eman Suleman) is ashamed of him. Along with Hassan and Suleman, the cast includes Ali Qureshi, Samiya Mumtaz, and Imran Khoosat.

Actor Eman Suleman says she can’t wait for everyone to watch the movie.

In October 2019, Zindagi Tamasha created a major buzz when it won big at the prestigious Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. 

Khoosat’s directorial also won The Kim Ji-Seok Award, named after the festival’s co-founder and executive programmer who died in 2017.