By Badrul Duja
Filmmaker Sarmad Sultan Khoosat’s movie Zindagi Tamasha (premiered 2019, available on Youtube 2023) which was pakistan’s official entry for the International feature film at the academy awards, couldn’t see the light of the day in theatres for years across pakistan owing to outrage by religious organisations. After years of release hiccups, Sarmad Sultan Khosat has finally released the movie on youtube.
Rahat Khaja, a devout Naat reciter (a minstrel singing hymns for the praise of Prophet PBUH) played by protagonist Arif Hassan as in the movie is respected and revered among his relations and in his neighbourhood due to his pious work. He is an adherent of Islamic values and customs and is a simple man who besides being a reciter is also fond of music and dance.
One night at a marriage ceremony, he dances to the tunes of a classical song ‘Zindagi Tamasha Bani’ and the blow of life hits him and his family forever. The society that would cherish and look up to him as a pious man, suddenly dismisses him for an act that they deem is prohibited especially for a religious person like him.
Before he can register it, Rahat Khaja becomes an outcast. He is reproved by one-and-all; the young, the middle-aged as well as the older generation. His food offerings are not accepted by the neighbourhood and his relatives also join-in on the ostracisation and stop inviting him to family events like weddings.
The story makes a subtle but poignant statement to illustrate the cultural orthodoxy and religious conservatism which is hand-in-glove in the alienation of a family from the society.
Zindagi Tamasha does not stop here and goes on to make statements about blasphemy laws and its misuse in Pakistan. For instance, for a respectable reintegration intp the society, Rahat Khaja seeks validation from the clergy who hold a considerable authority across his locality. However, Khaja finds no luck with clergy either. This leads to his further estrangement with the mosque and its puritans.
The movie, by making an array into such sensitive areas attempts to make bold comments about the clergy’s authoritative and unaccountable control over one’s choices and personal freedoms, due to which an innocent man is left to suffer at the hands of their biases to the point of self-destruction.
In a spine-chilling scene, the protagonist is bullied into leaving a function hall and threatened with allegations of blasphemy lest he doesn’t. Through such scenes, the film attempts to make bold and telling statements about the misuse of blasphemy laws across Pakistan.
The movie also tries to touch on the menace of viral videos where an innocent gullible person’s life is destroyed within seconds by virtual verdicts issued over social media. Khaja had danced his heart out not knowing that a camera is capturing or recording him, only to find out his life and reputation had been torn down completely and a certificate had been issued which had exiled him out of the favours of the society forever.
Through his movie, filmmaker Sarmad Khoosat has also highlighted the challenges faced by transgender communities and how persons sympathetic to them are besmirched.
The feeling of proximity that a viewer feels and its telling impact on the audience owes itself to the film’s realism. The movie depicts real life challenges faced by a middle class family. The food, cooking, rooms, walking, buying and selling of groceries, long walks, despair sittings on roads make the entire movie watching experience authentic and makes it easy to be empathetic towards the family.
The movie lends itself to no sensationalism. The silence, the gaps-and-silences, as well as the pauses in the conversations, especially between daughters and fathers make the audience think.
Some may be averse to the pace of the movie which should be excused as the film deals with a serious issue.
Zindagi Tamasha pushes the audience to unlearn and introspect over established cultural and religious norms. Perhaps, this is the story of modern day South Asia where puritans decide what’s right and what’s wrong. After the movie Bol, this is Pakistan’s fresh attempt to open the envelope in the form of cinema against religious fundamentalism and extremism. Sadly, they did obstruct its theatre release. However, the film is on YouTube worldwide for billions to watch and celebrate.
You can find the movie on the link below:
Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer
- The author is an advocate and RTI activist
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