Pakistani writer Fatima Bhutto is all praise for the Sarmad Khoosat film Zindagi Tamasha for representing Pakistan at the internationally acclaimed Oscar awards. With the country-wide ban of Sarmad Khoosat’s film Zindagi Tamasha, we all may have missed the official nomination of the film to the Oscar Awards 2021, but Fatima Bhutto isn’t one to ignore this achievement and Khoosat’s contribution to the Pakistani film industry.
Taking to Twitter, she wrote “Pakistan’s greatest cultural strength isn’t our diversity (we are diverse), range (lots of it), or style (brimming with it). But that our artists are daring and fearless,” adding that she is proud that Zindagi Tamasha is representing the country at the Oscars.
Pakistan’s greatest cultural strength isn’t our diversity (we are diverse), range (lots of it), or style (brimming with it). But that our artists are daring & fearless. I’m proud #ZindagiTamasha is representing us at the 2021 Oscars. The @TheAcademy are lucky to have this film pic.twitter.com/MUS5XJYi4l
— fatima bhutto (@fbhutto) January 14, 2021
Meanwhile, Zindagi Tamasha has not yet even managed to secure a release in the local film industry. It was initially scheduled to hit screens in January 2020, but backlash from religious circles resulted in the federal and provincial government stopping its release.
Discussing what the film meant to him, Khoosat shared, “All the heartache that Zindagi Tamasha gave me has somehow restored my faith in the power of art too: the sheer, almost physical power of art to make life imitate it. This announcement, for me, is a very bright light shining at the end of this dark tunnel of a year. I made this film in Pakistan and foremost, for Pakistan, for my people and the misfortune that my people have remained deprived of it weighs quite heavy on my artistic conscience.”
From what it seems, art does somehow pave it’s own pathways and find it’s own course. We are all excited to see what this course is going to be at the 2021 Oscars!
